The Best Loudspeaker Brands for Both Luxury and Performance: The Definitive List

The catch is “luxury”. If you study the appearance of the four certain nominees, you will notice the design and materials aspects of those speakers that differentiates them. Certain others mentioned may equal them in performance but fall short on the luxury side of the equation.
 
kiwi_1282001 said:
To be fair, I see this more as Jeff’s “personal” view on the best loudspeaker brands based on determinants that he adjudges to be most important – and indeed he says as much with his comment “This month, it’s personal.” Jeff's chosen determinants may hold little or no relevance to readers.
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Exactly. it's really just Jeff's preferred speakers that he's reviewed over the years. Yawn.
 
Jeff Fritz said:
Hi guys,

Thought the crew around here would enjoy this one:

The Best Loudspeaker Brands for Both Luxury and Performance: The Definitive List

Thanks, and enjoy your Sunday!

Jeff
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This is an interesting list, Jeff. But it’s a bit problematic.

Looking for the best speakers, dome and cone only, is like picking the highest performance car, but arguing it needs to be naturally aspirated. It’s possible to set such rules, but that basically would mean forgoing the major developments in performance car evolution in the past 20-30 years. Therefore, the question is whether it’s meaningful.

In terms of speakers, it’s the tweeter that poses the biggest challenge. While there are good dome/ cone tweeters, e.g. of the diamond-coated or other Beryllium variety, they just are not on par with the best in the industry. E.g. most ribbon, amt, electrostat, radial or plasma tweeters outplay them with ease (horns are mostly just domes behind a megaphone).


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This is one fellows list. Deeply flawed in my opinion or very shallow experiance. I know how I will treat this writer's opinion in the future.
 
Poor Jeff. Need to rewrite the article that includes 50 brands.

Note: Tidal wins on looks in my book, every time. Also, this is also the reason I don’t think I’m audiophile enough. Looks matter a lot to me.
 
Perfectly reasonable and valid list. Of course it is only the author's opinion, and others will have different opinions, which is fine.
 
kiwi_1282001 said:
Jeff's chosen determinants may hold little or no relevance to readers.
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This is an excellent point, and why I laid out those determinants at the outset, before the list.

Even still, you guys are correct: These are my views, so those determinants are judged through my eyes, ears, and overall experiences and therefore are aligned completely with my biases.

One last point on "definitive." It sounded better to me than "one guy's opinion that you may not care about." :D
 
Seemed very clear to me what Jeff’s criteria was. I thought it was a well thought out and reasoned, and written, article. Even if my speakers (Magico) were not on the list I would still have enjoyed it. Chill, lads.
 
Kuoppis said:
This is an interesting list, Jeff. But it’s a bit problematic.

Looking for the best speakers, dome and cone only, is like picking the highest performance car, but arguing it needs to be naturally aspirated. It’s possible to set such rules, but that basically would mean forgoing the major developments in performance car evolution in the past 20-30 years. Therefore, the question is whether it’s meaningful.

In terms of speakers, it’s the tweeter that poses the biggest challenge. While there are good dome/ cone tweeters, e.g. of the diamond-coated or other Beryllium variety, they just are not on par with the best in the industry. E.g. most ribbon, amt, electrostat, radial or plasma tweeters outplay them with ease (horns are mostly just domes behind a megaphone).


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Kuoppis,

You are not wrong. But I don’t think Jeff was advocating the perfect speaker. I know a few guys with lots of money who are not audio guys but want a toy and can afford it - they all want cone and dome, because that seems... ‘normal’

Andrew
 
Jeff Fritz said:
This is an excellent point, and why I laid out those determinants at the outset, before the list.

Even still, you guys are correct: These are my views, so those determinants are judged through my eyes, ears, and overall experiences and therefore are aligned completely with my biases.

One last point on "definitive." It sounded better to me than "one guy's opinion that you may not care about." :D
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The title really was problematic to me. Definitive, etc. I expected a review or comparison, or differences between several high end brands. It was obvious when you followed the link and read the first couple of sections. It was also highly disappointing to me.

The title could have been more indicative as to what the article was about... maybe my definitive list, or my favorites, etc., even indicating that it was literally five brands that you determined to qualify. My short list of definitive... etc.
 
First off, I've read many reviews that Jeff has written. I found them to be comprehensive / well informed and gave one a reasonable idea of a component's sound. However and with all due respect, the words "luxury" and "performance" are so subjective that it renders this thread meaningless. Furthermore, to exclude alternative transducers except for the traditional cone speakers in a "box" also renders the thread irrelevant to any serious hobbyist. There is nothing "definitive" about this list. Good try Jeff but two big thumbs down. Best.

Gordon
 
kiwi_1282001 said:
An interesting interview. I was surprised to learn that about thirty percent of your customers fit into the luxury segment in which the customers primary focus may be aesthetics, ease of use or size profile (as some examples) rather than outright performance.
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A close family friend of ours used to own the Porsche, BMW, Lexus, Mercedes dealership in Jacksonville and told us many many years ago that the overall majority of people buying a Porsche or a M series or AMG series Mercedes were after the luxury of those cars, not the performance factor., but it was nice to have if needed. Interesting how that ties in on Mikes comment.
 
CPP said:
....
the overall majority of people buying a Porsche or a M series or AMG series Mercedes were after the luxury of those cars, not the performance factor., but it was nice to have if needed...
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Quite true particularly of Porsches. Many of those are hardly ever driven; they end up as garage queens and never set tires on a track.
 
Kuoppis said:
This is an interesting list, Jeff. But it’s a bit problematic.

Looking for the best speakers, dome and cone only, is like picking the highest performance car, but arguing it needs to be naturally aspirated. It’s possible to set such rules, but that basically would mean forgoing the major developments in performance car evolution in the past 20-30 years. Therefore, the question is whether it’s meaningful.

In terms of speakers, it’s the tweeter that poses the biggest challenge. While there are good dome/ cone tweeters, e.g. of the diamond-coated or other Beryllium variety, they just are not on par with the best in the industry. E.g. most ribbon, amt, electrostat, radial or plasma tweeters outplay them with ease (horns are mostly just domes behind a megaphone).


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Sorry...there are no "best tweeters" for obvious reasons. One must always look at individual drivers in the context of a whole system.
 
Gene said:
Sorry...there are no "best tweeters" for obvious reasons. One must always look at individual drivers in the context of a whole system.
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Nonsense, of course there are. It just based on personal preference. Some prefer dome, some ribbon, some radial, some emt etc.

What is in turn a challenge, is to insinuate that there would be an absolute in best in something defined by taste, personal preference, or just some other individualistic factor.

Within categories it might be easier to discriminate though. Luxury and performance however still include all tweeter types. Hence the comment to Jeff: difficult.

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Gene said:
Sorry...there are no "best tweeters" for obvious reasons. One must always look at individual drivers in the context of a whole system.
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+1

Kuoppis forgot he is trying to sell a speaker he just bought based on the “best tweeter” approach. Turns out it takes a whole speaker to make good sound :rolleyes:
 
You don't need to go to a track to really enjoy performance. Yes - for that last 5% you do but, not for the majority of the performance.

nicoff said:
Quite true particularly of Porsches. Many of those are hardly ever driven; they end up as garage queens and never set tires on a track.
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