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speakers that blow your mind

hrd2imgnhrd2imgn Southwest Burbs of Chicago Posts: 4,865
in Musicians and Gearheads
SO I love audio gear, audiophile magazines etc.   

I am amazed at some of the loudspeakers out there.

  I am curious what you all may think are the most amazing speakers out there?  Please don't hijack this thread with Jensen desktops

My top 3 based solely on impression, never seen nor heard any of these:

Wilson Audio WAMM Master Chronosonic  with Sub (a mere 855 K)
https://www.wilsonaudio.com/products/wamm/wamm-master-chronosonic


MBL 101 Extreme (a mere 265 K)




http://www.mbl-northamerica.com/mbl-101-x-treme/

of the Magico M9 (only 750k)



https://www.magicoaudio.com/news/m9


so any you can think of?  Anything less than 250k need not apply

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    pjpjpaulpjpjpaul Posts: 1,654



    Transmission Audio Ultimate – $2m




    Virginia Beach 2000
    DC 2003
    DC 2004 (VFC)
    DC 2006
    Pittsburgh 2006
    Bonnaroo 2008
    Virginia Beach 2008
    DC 2008
    Philly (Spectrum) 10/31/2009
    DC 2010 (Jiffy Lube Live)
    PJ 20 night 1
    PJ 20 night 2
    Phoenix 2013
    LA 1 2013
    Memphis 2014
    Jacksonville 2016
    Greenville 2016
    Hampton 2016
    Columbia 2016
    Fenway 1 2016
    Fenway 2 2016
    Wrigley 1 2018
    Wrigley 2 2018
    Fenway 1 2018
    Fenway 2 2018
    Sea Hear Now 2021
    Nashville 2022
    Louisville 2022
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    2-feign-reluctance2-feign-reluctance TigerTown, USA Posts: 23,141
    Haven’t ever heard anything that high level. An old college friend bought some B&W’s with Kevlar cones that sounded pretty amazing! That was 20 years ago now. 
    www.cluthelee.com
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    tempo_n_groovetempo_n_groove Posts: 38,985
    I would love to sit in front of $850,000 speakers and see if I can absolutely hear a difference from my Martin Logans, lol.
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    mrussel1mrussel1 Posts: 28,628
    I think boutique speakers are a real crap shoot in general.  Those Wilson audio's are supposed to be good, but I'm a bit cynical about the whole genre.  You really are paying heavily for the design, whereas I'm not sure you get the return on performance lift.  Now I am willing to pay for exceptional cabinetry though, something that uses real hard wood and is finished by hand.  

    FTR, right now my main 2 channel critical listening speakers are Dynaudio.  I've really enjoyed their neutral sound. 
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    dudemandudeman Posts: 2,970
    One of my friends has Wilson Audio Watt Puppies. They were crazy expensive but a little under $100k, not $250k.

    They really sound great but I can't say that his super high dollar speakers make me enjoy the music more. 

    Quite the contrary really. He warned me that having a super detailed, resolving stereo highlights production and mastering mistakes. For him, those speakers ruined a lot of music for him because now he feels like the recording quality isn't up to his standards. 

    I think he owns maybe 12 records. But, he is also a guy that values status above music. Some people listen to music and some people listen to the gear. Either is OK by me but I'm more interested in speakers that make everything sound good, not just audiophile quality recordings. 
    If hope can grow from dirt like me, it can be done. - EV
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    mrussel1mrussel1 Posts: 28,628
    dudeman said:
    One of my friends has Wilson Audio Watt Puppies. They were crazy expensive but a little under $100k, not $250k.

    They really sound great but I can't say that his super high dollar speakers make me enjoy the music more. 

    Quite the contrary really. He warned me that having a super detailed, resolving stereo highlights production and mastering mistakes. For him, those speakers ruined a lot of music for him because now he feels like the recording quality isn't up to his standards. 

    I think he owns maybe 12 records. But, he is also a guy that values status above music. Some people listen to music and some people listen to the gear. Either is OK by me but I'm more interested in speakers that make everything sound good, not just audiophile quality recordings. 
    Yeah it's a really fine line to walk there.  As an example, when I first got the Mad Season Live at the Moore record, I thought it was fabulous.  But I was listening to it on a Marantz 2245, debut carbon with a blue and some B&W 683 towers.  Since then, I've upgraded all of my gear and now I think it just sounds okay as I hear the compression more clearly.  By contrast, my really high end records sound more amazing than ever.  But you're right, the higher the gear, the more flaws you find for sure.  Double edged sword.  
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    Jason PJason P Posts: 19,122
    I think I've seen too many PJ concerts without earplugs to make use of any of these speakers ... =)  Sitting front row at a Metallica concert in '96 didn't do my any favors either ....

    My brother is an audio engineer and runs a company that does setups ... I'll ask him if he has run across anything like these.  MBL 101 looks like the power plant for an alien spacecraft.
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