Best Hi-Fi Loudspeaker Brands In The World

[TheHiFiAficionado]

Im a blooming audiophile and hifi aficionado and my job does itself justice with a big salary luckily. Birthdays coming up, all my friends are teckies but im the only real audiophile of the group. So for it were building the ultimate hifi and home cinema in my house because i absolutely adore western films and the music is a big part of what made them what they were. So i have already a firm knowledge of some really decent loudspeaker brands like linn, b&w and bose. But i can afford to splurge so give the best, most elite, veteran but most important, crisp quality speaker brands with the highest caliber. For hifi ive been told to steer far away from creative so ill take their advice. A flood of replies would be appreciated. I know what a/v reciever, power amp, tv and blu ray player im more than likely gonna get. Much appreciated.

[iShad]

Budget? Speakers can get insanely expensive real fast up to the millions.

[spwath]

15 minutes ago, iShad said:

Budget? Speakers can get insanely expensive real fast up to the millions.

Yeah.

Speakers can get pretty Krazy. Look up Edgarhorns.

 

[klh2000]

Bose are terrible speakers for the money. But we need a budget to be of any help.

[SSL]

Well, he wants the best in the world. So I assume there is no limit on budget.

[Automobili3XF]

Be more specific.

Powered? Passive? Bookshelfs? Floorstandings? 

 

Just for kicks, these are some brands that i can recommend: Polk Audio, KEF, Elac, Monitor Audio, Yamaha, Klipsch and Cambridge Audio.

[flyin_dragon]

If you looking into home theater, then speakers from Yamaha, Klipsch, Polk, would work great, assuming you have a good receiver/amp to process the sound and power them. But if you going more towards bigger cinema style sound, then try Yorkville, they make professional loudspeakers usually for large applications (e.g. concert halls, outdoors, stadium venues), but they do also make smaller installation speakers that pack quite a punch, if anything just go bigger, but keep in mind, you will need a powerful amp to power all the units. Good luck on your search. 

[carsonwen]

This is probably the wrong forum to ask this question. I doubt there are many people or anyone at all here who is deep enough into the hifi hobby who can help you with this.

 

The brands you listed are NOT best in the world or even close, there are tiers above those that cost in the hundreds of thousands.

 

And there is no such thing as best, only tiers when it comes to audio. Everyone has their preference on sound and therefore every brand in a given tier has their own sound signature. Then there is the debate on open baffle vs traditional boxed enclosures, silk dome vs ribbon tweeter.... etc etc.

 

You should get into the hobby and work your way up. But for the sake of answering your question, an example of the absolute highest tier would be the Wilson Audio Alexandria Speakers. 

 

And since youre a techie I assume building your own speakers isnt out of the question, in which case take a look at the Linkwitz LX521.4.  It is argued to be among the best open baffle speakers ever.

[Dackzy]

2 hours ago, carsonwen said:

This is probably the wrong forum to ask this question. I doubt there are many people or anyone at all here who is deep enough into the hifi hobby who can help you with this.

really dude? This audio forum has people who know more than people on the snake oil called headfi, I know that some of us are also on other audio forums'. I think that each sub forum here has a hand full or two of people who really knows a lot. It is hard to advice a person when he said nothing about his budget.

[carsonwen]

Just now, Dackzy said:

really dude? This audio forum has people who know more than people on the snake oil called headfi, I know that some of us are also on other audio forums'. I think that each sub forum here has a hand full or two of people who really knows a lot. It is hard to advice a person when he said nothing about his budget.

Really dude what?

 

He didn't say anything about budget correct, he says he wants the best in the world. These forums do not specialize in hifi audio, and head-fi as you mentioned is also not specializing in speakers. 

 

If you are looking for people's personal experiences with the absolute best speakers in the world, you are not in the best place. I think that much is clear. That is not to say no one here can help him.

[iShad]

7 minutes ago, carsonwen said:

Really dude what?

 

He didn't say anything about budget correct, he says he wants the best in the world. These forums do not specialize in hifi audio, and head-fi as you mentioned is also not specializing in speakers. 

 

If you are looking for people's personal experiences with the absolute best speakers in the world, you are not in the best place. I think that much is clear. That is not to say no one here can help him.

Everyone have a budget, unless he's willing to spend hundreds of thousands then yes you're right there are special consultant firms you should hire that would setup the speakers and do a complete room treatment etc.

[carsonwen]

2 minutes ago, iShad said:

Everyone have a budget, unless he's willing to spend hundreds of thousands then yes you're right there are special consultants you should hire that would setup the speakers and do a complete room treatment etc.

 

Well, he did say this..

 

" But i can afford to splurge so give the best, most elite, veteran.. "

 

And the title says best in the world

[iShad]

4 minutes ago, carsonwen said:

 

Well, he did say this..

 

" But i can afford to splurge so give the best, most elite, veteran.. "

 

And the title says best in the world

Then that's pretty simple: http://www.whathifi.com/features/10-worlds-most-expensive-loudspeakers

Op can't go wrong with any of those, and I hope he writes some impression/review when he get one.

[Dackzy]

19 minutes ago, carsonwen said:

Really dude what?

 

He didn't say anything about budget correct, he says he wants the best in the world. These forums do not specialize in hifi audio, and head-fi as you mentioned is also not specializing in speakers. 

 

If you are looking for people's personal experiences with the absolute best speakers in the world, you are not in the best place. I think that much is clear. That is not to say no one here can help him.

everyone has a budget or else we can just say x speakers that cost a million dollars. Well I said headfi, because most people know that site. 

 

I don't think any place is really the best space to look for people with personal experience with so expensive speakers. Atleast this sub forum has some few people you can trust.

 

If he really has no budget then that is just one quick google and then you have the most expensive loudspeakers and they are all good.

[carsonwen]

12 minutes ago, Dackzy said:

everyone has a budget or else we can just say x speakers that cost a million dollars. Well I said headfi, because most people know that site. 

 

I don't think any place is really the best space to look for people with personal experience with so expensive speakers. Atleast this sub forum has some few people you can trust.

 

If he really has no budget then that is just one quick google and then you have the most expensive loudspeakers and they are all good.

With audio as you get into those extreme tiers, the price doesn't equal performance.  $250,000 can sound better than $1,000,000. Which is why you want people's experience and impressions, so you have an idea of what would suit your personal tastes. The best way to get an idea of how something sounds, is to get impressions from a large sample size. 

 

If one person says something sounds bright, that doesn't mean it is actually bright, but if 500 people say it sounds bright, then it most likely does.

 

Point being there are forums with much more super high end hi-fi enthusiasts.   Therefore i highly recommend that the OP ask the question there as well, assuming he is actually looking to spend the ridiculous amounts of money.

[Dackzy]

1 hour ago, carsonwen said:

With audio as you get into those extreme tiers, the price doesn't equal performance.  $250,000 can sound better than $1,000,000. Which is why you want people's experience and impressions, so you have an idea of what would suit your personal tastes. The best way to get an idea of how something sounds, is to get impressions from a large sample size. 

 

If one person says something sounds bright, that doesn't mean it is actually bright, but if 500 people say it sounds bright, then it most likely does.

 

Point being there are forums with much more super high end hi-fi enthusiasts.   Therefore i highly recommend that the OP ask the question there as well, assuming he is actually looking to spend the ridiculous amounts of money.

I have not seen a single forum with people that has 300k speakers, I have seen 50k, but that is so far away from 300k. What is such a forum called?

[Lays]

9 minutes ago, Dackzy said:

I have not seen a single forum with people that has 300k speakers, I have seen 50k, but that is so far away from 300k. What is such a forum called?

 I've seen a few people on head-fi setup threads that have insane setups with specific purpose built rooms and the lot, crazy people lol

[Dackzy]

4 minutes ago, Lays said:

 I've seen a few people on head-fi setup threads that have insane setups with specific purpose built rooms and the lot, crazy people lol

well I have seen a 50k setup on headfi, but that is also the most expensive I have seen there. In real life I have heard 180-200k speakers

[Volbet]

1 hour ago, Dackzy said:

I have not seen a single forum with people that has 300k speakers, I have seen 50k, but that is so far away from 300k. What is such a forum called?

I have seen people on Reddit with $100k+ setups. 

 

However, the most ridiculous setups I've seen were in old HiFi magazines.

My dad used to subscribe to some of them, and a lot of them would do a "setup of the week/month/quarter/year" thing where they would vist a reader and show off their setups.

There were guys in those magazines that spend upwards of a million Dollars on their setups.

I remember one dude who rebuild his entire house just so he could have a dedicated music room in the center. 

He also rebuild his entire basement so it could act as subwoofers. 

 

...and the only music he owned was test music. He didn't own any actual music from a recording artist becuase "that music doesn't do my setup justice".

At that point I promised myself that I would never end up like that. 

 

And if the OP has an unlimited budget, I wouldn't recommend asking on any forum.

He should contact an actual specialist and have them come to his home to do room treatment, and setup and tuner the entire system.

[Lays]

40 minutes ago, Dackzy said:

well I have seen a 50k setup on headfi, but that is also the most expensive I have seen there. In real life I have heard 180-200k speakers

I saw one guy that had some crazy fancy house with some Utopia 3's of some sort (I think the Grande Utopia 3, they're like $180,000 I think?)  the room with the "setup" was overlooking this huge river, it was sweet.  Must of cost a fortune!