Top 5 BEST Speaker Companies

[Sonnie Parker]

I think I would put SVS at the top because of their brutally awesome subs, their superb customer service, and quality vs price (great bang for the buck). They have the entire package. That's not to say there are not other great subs out there, perhaps even some that may be just as good, but I'm not aware of any that can match the three characteristics of their business model.

As for full range speakers, certainly not the best price, but for the best sounding, I haven't found anything better than MartinLogan. That includes some 50-60 various models that have been thru my room, plus hundreds I have heard at shows. However, I have to admit even the ML models I heard at shows never sounded as good as they do in my room due to poor setup by the vendor (which was usually a dealer, not ML themselves). I've heard very good speakers, Sanders Sound System comes to mind, but I never could get them to sound right in my room, although I might could do better now than I did years ago.

Chane Music would have to be second for full range speakers... and no doubt the best bang for the buck. Fabulous speakers.

 

[Todd Anderson]

I've never heard Chanes in action :-/. But you're not the first to heap praise on them.

Sonnie, I gotta say, it's quite an accomplishment to have such a vast number of speakers roll through your space. Not many enthusiasts can say what they have is their absolute preferred speaker!

 

[Sonnie Parker]

I have a lot of evaluations to thank for it, although I've also owned a few dozen over the years. That previous number might be conservative. There are a lot of speakers I could own and be happy with, but the ML speakers seem to bring a little more every time I come back to them.

 

[Grayson Dere]

Wow! I need to listen to more ML models. The last ones I demoed were from over a decade ago at a Magnolia HiFi.

 

[Sonnie Parker]

Wow! I need to listen to more ML models. The last ones I demoed were from over a decade ago at a Magnolia HiFi.

I can't imagine Magnolia having them setup properly... and from what I've seen of the Best Buy stores... none were setup for serious music listening.

 

[Grayson Dere]

I can't imagine Magnolia having them setup properly... and from what I've seen of the Best Buy stores... none were setup for serious music listening.

You're probably right, Sonnie. From memory I didn't remember the MLs sounding too impressive at the Magnolia. I'll look around my area for real dealers : )

 

[Sonnie Parker]

You are only about a 40-hour drive away if you really wanna hear them.

I have the Electromotion ESL, the Classic ESL 9 and the 15A you can hear in a two-channel setup.

 

[Eric SVL]

Impossible to pick only 5. For innovation and impact on the speaker industry:

JBL
Klipsch
Martin Logan
PSB for their NRC work
Miller & Kreisel for their work with subwoofers

There are many ways to make a top 5 list. My first list was retrospective. To make another list, this time looking at the present and future:

ELAC – for offering a new level of sound quality from passive speakers at value price points (Andrew Jones Debut Reference series)
Revel – for democratizing the best research on speaker performance and listener preferences that changed our expectations of where "high-end" sound starts
Buchardt – for designing speakers using measurements (Klippel NFS) and other technologies that lead to disruptive products, and their innovations with active speakers
Dutch & Dutch – for their work taking active speaker performance to the next level
Rythmik – for giving us such subwoofer output per dollar compared to other companies, and control over the quality of our bass at prices you don't have to be rich to afford

Honorable mention – JTR for the pro space, but this list was limited to 5!

 

[Sonnie Parker]

It seems weird that I have never heard Revel speakers. I just recently started investigating them and discovered they have a fairly serious cult following, and are reviewed very very well. Users love them. I had to order a pair, so I now have a pair of F228Be on the way. Gotta see what all the fuss is about.

 

[FargateOne]

It seems weird that I have never heard Revel speakers. I just recently started investigating them and discovered they have a fairly serious cult following, and are reviewed very very well. Users love them. I had to order a pair, so I now have a pair of F228Be on the way. Gotta see what all the fuss is about.

OH It will be very interesting to hear from you!

 

[FrankV]

1: Linkwitz Lab
2...5: all the rest sound like they are: "boxes"

 

[Eric SVL]

1: Linkwitz Lab
2...5: all the rest sound like they are: "boxes"

Curious, has anyone been able to conclude that in a blind test without knowing what kind of speakers are involved beforehand?

 

[Sonnie Parker]

There were some blind tests in Toole's book, but I have not read anything about the Linkwitz speakers, although Toole did reference a study by Linkwitz.

The testing crew had no issues identifying the transparent loudspeakers and those that were boxy. My ML's are anything but boxes, don't even look like a box.

 

[FrankV]

Curious, has anyone been able to conclude that in a blind test without knowing what kind of speakers are involved beforehand?

Other than the Harman experiments Sonnie referred to above and which probably did not include a design by SL, I suspect not. The equipment and facilities to do so are way beyond the average guy to do at home, even full time reviewers.
I was of course being a little provocative with my post for a couple of reasons. Firstly, Linkwitz Lab never sold speakers and secondly, I, probably like most others, have never been privileged to live with all the speakers ever made so am unable to give an objective and informed answer to the original post. At best I could give an unintentionally biased opinion from the relatively few brands I have owned such as Kef, Mission, Tannoy, QAcoustic, B&W, etc. and now a design by the late Siegfried Linkwitz. A rather small sample and certainly not a fair representation of all the brands and designs out there!
So why did I even bother to post and to mention Linkwitz Lab? Because what other speaker company publishes so much research, results data, design and build information as SL has done on his website? Not only that, but requests only a few tens of pounds for a licence to build? Who else can claim to have part of his design work in probably every crossover made by all the other box manufacturers? Worth a mention wouldn't you think?

My journey to the LXmini I now running came about through frustration with speaker-room acoustics in my rather difficult multi-purpose room plus Covid lockdown! The later meant I had time and money to spare (as not being spent on foreign holidays or eating out for example) and my research into speaker/room issues led me to SL’s site. For less than the price of a decent flight, I bought a kit for a stereo pair from MagicLX521 and a couple of days after arrival was up and running, but not expecting much. A flight only lasts a few hours, so if the speakers were a dud then so what, the fun trying would at least be something. On first try I was stunned! Probably in part because I was not seriously expecting some relatively cheap drivers and plumbing bits to sound so good and partly because they blew away my resident speakers in a couple of important aspects. Firstly, the sound was missing something and it wasn’t until I switched back to the incumbent’s that I realised it was a boxy sound which was gone. Secondly, I could move from side to side and the sound image did not collapse into the nearest speaker as I was used to. As the room is also used for home cinema with the outer seats set wider than the stereo main speakers, this latter point is quite important to me. The change was so significant that blind A/B testing would be a pointless exercise. Again, putting back the incumbent’s confirmed the more dramatic imaging collapse when moving away from the sweet spot. What were the incumbent’s? Harbeth SL5+, so no slouch of a speaker and quite widely regarded in the reviews I have seen about them and Harbeth in general. When in surround mode, I had a large Klipsch centre speaker and this already sounded more boxy than the Harbeth but intolerable once the LXminis took up duty for the mains. Height being a problem for the centre when the projection screen is down, adding another LXmini was not possible, so I made a bent tube version. The boxy sound from the centre was gone!

In general, room excitation in the bass region seems much less and overall the sound distribution seems smoother and clearer all around the room. In the sweet spot, there is little difference between the LXminis and the Harbeths, both exhibit great clarity and realism, especially with vocals. Go slightly off centre then the box sound really kicks in by comparison as the image collapses towards the nearest speaker.

As a final bonus, being a DIY project meant I was free to paint them to match the room, with the same actual paint as three of the walls in fact, which in turn was a custom match to our seating. I wouldn’t dare to take a paintbrush to a £10,000 pair of Dutch & Dutch for example, so not only do the LXminis sound great, they have full wife approval for appearance – how many speakers can claim that? Your mileage may vary as they say!

 

[Sonnie Parker]

Very interesting story you have. The Linkwitz kits do also look pretty cool, and I can only imagine they are designed extremely well.

 

[Todd Anderson]

I've heard them before - thought they sounded great! I like how you finished them, @FrankV. These are on my list of things to explore!

 

[Sonnie Parker]

The pricing is extremely reasonable... even for the most expensive model.

I would love to try a pair, bu I'm just too lazy to assemble it all.

 

[Grayson Dere]

wow! Thank you for reminding me of the Linkwitz kits! I remember a demo room I was in at a California Bay Area audio show a few, or 4, years ago that had a setup of these speakers. I could not believe how alive and open they sounded.. they do not have any of the boxed in sound that many conventional speakers exhibit. Just like Sonnie I'm also too lazy to build my own kit : P

 

[Sonnie Parker]

Seems like someone would pre-build some of these and sell them.

 

[FrankV]

The pricing is extremely reasonable... even for the most expensive model.

I would love to try a pair, bu I'm just too lazy to assemble it all.

Seems like someone would pre-build some of these and sell them.

Remember that four, or six with the subs option, of power amplification is required plus a DSP which bumps up the project cost, depending on what one already has to hand. For me that was not a problem, as an electronic engineer I just added channels to my amp build and wired in a 4 in/8 out channel DSP/DAC. Mine uses three inputs (L+R+C) and has 8 amps as my centre does not have its own sub.
SL's lInkwitzlab.com website is now maintained by Dr Frank Brenner and in turn he also runs magiclx521.com. The kits can be found there but for those not willing or able to build, ready to go systems are available. The LXmini can be found as the LXsirius, +2 adds the subs. Full systems including 6 channel nCore plus DSP, cables, etc. are available but gets expensive at around 5500 Euros plus any taxes applicable to your region - and plus shipping of course.

Anyway, apologies to Todd for polluting this thread with too much about the LXmini, but I did want to add Linkwitz (and Harbeth) to the list of influential players in the speaker domain.

 

[Grayson Dere]

@FrankV Thanks for the info! I did not realize there was a turn-key option available for the the Linkwitz speakers : )

 

[FrankV]

@FrankV Thanks for the info! I did not realize there was a turn-key option available for the the Linkwitz speakers : )

May be worth a look here for those of you on the western side of the Atlantic "pond": https://lxspeakerfactory.com/about-lx-speaker-factory/

 

[tesseract]

@FrankV, our own @AudiocRaver built a pair of the LXmini and I've heard a pair of those and the LX521.4 set up by Siegfried himself. The LX521.4 images as good or better than any other speaker I've ever heard.

 

[Coy Ramsey]

Yeah... there are a lot of variables there. Todd... your picks seem to be based on industry impact, not necessarily based on what you have heard. I thought this was for speakers we have experienced for ourselves. While Klipsch is a widely very well liked brand... it's not anywhere close to the best speakers I have heard for two-channel... in any setting or at any show. They are good, but not in the top 5.

Clarification please!

I agree with your comments on Klipsch. They offer a w-i-d-e range of speakers for the consumer but I just can't tolerate a company that offers specs that can't be re-produced by outside reviewers. In particular, their sensitivity specs that they market so proudly but most reviewers seem to be unable to duplicate. The other spec is "ohm compatibility" for powering the speakers, Klipsch's dip very low for "8 ohm compatible" speakers. Conversely, only a few companies (Elac for example) follow the 80% rule for speaker ratings (min ohm > 80% of rating)

 

[Head_Unit]

Wow what a tough question, and lots of ways to think about this. As a loudspeaker engineer I tend to think of companies that have long had great engineering, a consistent design philosophy and/or innovation. Some that come to mind, not in any order:
B&W, KEF, Dynaudio, Polk, too many Candian companies to mention, Klipsch. Also Martin Logan and Magneplanar in planar speakers. JBL/Revel...once upon a time anyway-is any new development even going on? I hear not from some ex-insider buddies. Genelec if we let pro monitors sneak in.

SUBWOOFER companies to me are a different animal, different engineering and development skills, and a totally different short list:
SVS, Hsu, Paradigm, JL. Back in the day, Velodyne, though I don't hear much about them now. There are some others I have no experience with, like Rhythmik which has a lot of fans but whose speaker-level connection philosophy I disagree with.