Of the gear you have actually heard...

Shizelbs

what is at the top of your list? I recently took a day going into pretentious audio shops and pretending I could afford their gear just so I could get a serious demo. It was pretty much my first educated encounter with very high quality audio gear. Anyways, it got me thinking.

For me, the highlight of the day was hearing a pair of Wilson Sophia's.

There is no way I can afford them, but damn, they sounded quite nice. They were being driven by all Meridian electronics. They weren't even broken in yet, I was told.

Anyways, they are at the top of my all time fantasy list for now. I heard some B&W 800s, top of the line Sonus Faber Stradivari towers with McIntosh gear, and some Martin Logans. The Wilsons were the best out of that bunch. I very much preferred my system to those of the Sonus Faber and ML setups.

How 'bout you?

VR3

The two best speakers Ive heard...

Is the Wilson X1 and Grande Utopia, by far...

Id have to say if the Utopia was on better gear, it definitely would of wiped the floor with the X1... IMO.

Its a very bad idea to listen to a pair of 90,000 dollar speakers - then a pair of 8,000 dollar speakers... it will sound very badly.

TroyD

Beemer N801's

Sooner or later...

BDT

mulveling

Tie between:
- Legacy Signature III speaker system with Sony SCD-1, Audio Aero Primo DAC and Parasound JC-1's. Great room, good treatment.

- My Audio Technica L3000 headphone system with Meridian G08 and Singlepower SDS amp.

The Sig III system is has better transient response. Incredible speed, midrange liquidity and air on top. Soundstage with SACD is huge. Bass is great. My headphone system actually has better bass, though. Hits deeper & tighter than anything I've heard; impact is unreal for a headphone. Mids and highs are superb but do lag a bit behind the Sig III's. With an excellent sub the Sig III's would win outright.

I've also heard Martin Logan Aeons and JMLab Profile 918's driven by Krell gear in a decent room, but they weren't that great. Of course I do like the Polk LSi's, just not as much as the above systems.

Haven't heard the really high end stuff, which is probably a good thing. Always get a bad case of upgradeitis after hearing something better.

shack

The one rig that always stands out in my memory was:

Pre-Amp - Bryston BP25
Amp - Bryston 3B SST
CD/SACD - Sony SCD-555ES
Speakers - Vienna Acoustics Beethoven

Second...

An all Linn rig consisting of a Linn Classik integrated amp/CDP, Katan bookshelf speakers and a Sizmik subwoofer. I was extremely impressed by the sound coming out of that small rig.

nesticle

Pre-Amp - Some McIntosh preamp
Amp - Some McIntosh amp (My friends dad had these from when he was young)
CD/SACD - Never really seen a high end CD player. My dad had a really nice Yamaha CD player from the late 80's.
Speakers - B&W 801 I think. My friends dad worked for B&W for a time.

Yeah.... I don't have much experience in true high end audio, and I'm only 18, so hopefully in the future I'll get chances to hear some of the truely amazing stuff.

Joey_V

Out of all these speakers:
Onix Reference 1
Polk LSi25/15/9/7
Axiom M22ti
BW805S/803S/803D/804S/703
Paradigm S2/S8
Von Schweikert VR4jr
JMLabs 918Be
Martin Logan Vantage/Summit/Clarity/Aeon/Mosaic
Vienna Acoustics (I forget)
Sonus Faber Concerto/Concertino
BW 802D/800S
Boston Acoustics (I forget which)
EPOS (I forget which)
Klipsch Ref7/5/3/35
Klipsch RB35/25
Klipsch SF1/2/F1/2/3/B2/B3
Athena F2/F1/B1/B2
Others that I forgot to mention..

My favorite so far are the Martin Logan Summits.

Will be going to listen to the Wilsons real soon.

unc2701

Musical fidelity KW500 + KW SACD + B&W 801's + "wish you were here"

That KW500 made me think about integrated's in a whole new way.

LuSh

I heard my best at CES this year.

Krell EVO mono blocks
Krell EVO pre-amp
Krell ShowCase DVD
Krell LAT 1000 speakers

cabling was done by Transparent

There was more air in that room than I've ever heard. The Vifa ring tweeter in the LAT series was much more musical then the LSi's...the bass could move small islands. DVD Audio was the media used to demo.

hoosier21

Zero wrote:

none.

your saying everything you have heard sucks equally :rolleyes:

venomclan

So far the best I have heard was the Sonus Fabre Cremonas being driven by a Krell showcase pre and a Krell 125 watt amp. Unbelievable sound. So fluid. I demoed the Martin Logan flagships in the next room that were much more expensive. They were way too bright.
Venom

Sami

TroyD wrote:

Beemer N801's

A friend of mine got those. Hooked up to a Krell amp I wasn't honestly impressed. Maybe my ears were affected by sinus badly that day but the highs were a bit muddy. I'm going back soon with my own CD's.

Joey_V

venomclan wrote:

So far the best I have heard was the Sonus Fabre Cremonas being driven by a Krell showcase pre and a Krell 125 watt amp. Unbelievable sound. So fluid. I demoed the Martin Logan flagships in the next room that were much more expensive. They were way too bright.
Venom

Which Logans, if you dont remmeber - when did you do the demo (the newer gens just came out last March)? The Statements?

Schris22

I wonder how much those Martin Logans Statement E2's cost...

pretty


best I've heard is some JMlabs Electra signature series.


Chris

Joey_V

The Statement E2x is coming out... these will replace the Statement E2. These are priced at $130,000.

I think that's a little... out of my price range.

Tour2ma

Vandersteen 5A's...

EDIT: Driven by Bel mono-blocks and sourced from a Theta Digital SACDP...

hoosier21

isn't that the 5?

Tour2ma

Doh!

aaharvel

i'm a simple audio-phile

Mazeroth

My line arrays.

The only thing I've ever witnessed better were a pair of Linkwitz Orions. I'm building a clone of them as we speak and will hopefully have them done in less than two months.

W WALDECKER

Ipod with docking station!

HBombToo

Cal Audio CL-20 used as a transport
Audio Research DAC5
Quicksilver Audio full function pre
Marantz 8
Polk SDA2b

All currently in the Bomb Shelter and bringing me much pleasure;>)

HBomb

venomclan

It was about 2 years ago. I am pretty sure it was not the Statements. Not sure what model they were but they were big. They were too shrill for me. The SF's destroyed them. My favorite Martin Logan speakers I deod were the cheapest ones, the Mosiac I think. The sounded the smoothest to me. I almost bought htme before I got the B&W's.
Venom

I-SIG

I'm gonna preface this by saying that I don't go around to high-end shops looking to demo gear. I'm pretty confident I'm gonna be disappointed at the cost/sound ratio, not that I have by any stretch a "be-all-end-all" system. With that said...

...an SRT demo by Matt himself back in GA. I have never anything so effortless in my life.

Wes

gidrah

Edgarhorn Titans

tryrrthg

Best auditions I've heard would be

Wilson Watt Puppy 7's or Avalon Eidolon
Audio Research's best (most expensive) preamp
Spectral monobloc amps
dCS CD stack (all $39,000 of it).
All in an acoustically treated room by ASC.

A more sanely priced rig:
ProAc D25 speakers
Audio Research tube pre and amps
Rega Jupiter CD player

all of this was heard here

Skynut

I have only been to one (1) truely "High End" store and it has been at least 5 years since I went.
When I was there all I could think of was "second mortgage".
At the time I could not afford anything there so I don't even remember what I heard I just remember walking around with my jaw hanging open.
Everything was so nice and expensive.

Since I can't remember any names or model umbers I would honestly have to say that the best sounding equipment I have heard and can think of is MINE.

Thats right my system sounds better than anything I can name right now that I have heard.

However, now that I have begun to get closer to what I saw that day I plan a new trip to another high end store as soon as I find one. ( I am sure the one I went to is closed now)
I just put off finding one right now because I don't want a second mortgage.

Tour2ma

gidrah wrote:

...

Hey, giddy... Haven't seen you around in a while...