Someone should make a speaker tier list

[Sriyashas]

Something like the PSU, VRM and gpu PCB tier list.

[Roswell]

Those lists are seriously flawed as is, let alone using the same flawed logic for something as subjective as audio.

[Sriyashas]

Just now, Vitamanic said:

Those lists are seriously flawed as is, let alone using the same flawed logic for something as subjective as audio.

I get what you mean. Yeah

[LIGISTX]

29 minutes ago, Sriyashas said:

I get what you mean. Yeah

Behind even “differences in people’s preferences”, you have source and amp/dac variances. Lots of speakers and headphones can be totally transformed when properly driven. There are just WAY too many variables. Everyone talks a huge game for 6xx’s headphones (I do as well, I own a pair, and love them), but most people drive them with a very meh amp. Try those bad bois with a multi thousand dollar tube amp and a similarly priced DAC, totally different pair of cans - in a good way.  

[The Flying Sloth]

I mean, there are what, maybe 20 decent PSU brands (entirely guessing) where there are thousands of speaker brands at price points from the single to seven digits, it's not quite as easy to make a speaker tier list,

 

Maybe best bang for buck for different use cases at each price point, maybe that would work, might look into it.

[rice guru]

5 hours ago, Sriyashas said:

Something like the PSU, VRM and gpu PCB tier list.

Audio is stupid subjective. Amd speakers are very expensive. Depends entirely on taste, use cases , rooms, and virtually impossible to include all the good ones.  Dacs , amps , play a big role in how the gear sounds and depending on what group your part of the speaker cables and inter connects.  And room play a big part I how it sounds. Headphones and iems is literally a easier thing to do . Speakers virtually impossible.

[Derkoli]

I've messed around with a similar system to the one @The Flying Slothsuggested. List a certain price point, a few sound signatures then the speakers that fit into it.

 

Such as:

 

$1000 - $2000:

 

Clean sound signature:

 

KEF R3 (reasons why)

 

Warm sound signature:

 

Dynaudio Evoke 10 (reasons why)

 

etc.

 

 

It would take god damn forever to do and I'm not sure if it would be used very often.

[rice guru]

5 hours ago, Derkoli said:

I've messed around with a similar system to the one @The Flying Slothsuggested. List a certain price point, a few sound signatures then the speakers that fit into it.

 

Such as:

 

$1000 - $2000:

 

Clean sound signature:

 

KEF R3 (reasons why)

 

Warm sound signature:

 

Dynaudio Evoke 10 (reasons why)

 

etc.

 

 

It would take god damn forever to do and I'm not sure if it would be used very often.

That's also if oring what people have locally. Being in Canada we have a ton of awesome speaker manufacturers here that are easy to acquire for many. I'm sure other countries are ina similar position. 

[H713]

The bigger problem is that actually rating a speaker is very difficult to do well and consistently. Some people can do good listening tests, but everyone is going to feel differently. Not everyone likes the same things in speakers.

 

You can do measurements, but in order to compare two speakers the measurement setup needs to be the same and interpreting those measurements is not always trivial.

 

Furthermore, how high do you go? For some, "T1" might include things like the ever-popular JBL 5" 2-way monitor (spacing on the name at the moment), but to me that would be in the "T3" or "T4" category. I've built and heard quite a lot of higher end speakers that perform really well, so the JBL falls under the "meh" category to me. Someone who is upgrading from speakers built into a laptop may feel very differently.

 

Lastly, as has been mentioned, there are simply too many companies who make audio equipment to make this viable. Sure, you could create a tier list of "speakers that can be bought on Amazon", but limiting yourself to Amazon as a dealer is a pretty big limitation- a lot of the better companies won't touch Amazon for their better products (which is justifiable). 

 

My recommendation, if you can't actually demo this equipment yourself, is to find a reviewer who likes similar characteristics in loudspeakers as you do. Of course, this is much easier said than done, and the LTT forum is quite limited when it comes to people who's world is audio. There are other discussion boards that may have more information about this subject.