Ever listen to a speaker with a great reputation and hate it?

[Jim85IROC]

Has anybody listened to a speaker that is very highly regarded, and sit there wondering what in the hell everybody else heard that I'm not? I had that experience over the weekend.

After hearing so much about the Sonus Faber Concertos, I decided to take a listen to them. What I heard amazed me. These were the most flat and lifeless speakers I've ever heard exept for cheap Best Buy type stuff. They didn't sound "bad", but the music just sat there and played. It never came to life. I played some Tom Petty, specifically Mary Jane's Last Dance. It sounded nice, but that was all. The guitars were there, the drums where there, and Petty was there, although his vocals were nasal sounding.

Next up to bat was a pair of Martin Logan Electrostats. These speakers really came to life, and at first I was very impressed. Guitars had a nice presence. When petty started singing, it was even more nasal than the Sonus Fabers, and by halfway through the sound I'd had enough and had to turn them down. They became fatiguing very fast.

So, I left the store, having listened to two sets of very expensive speakers, neither of which you could pay me to replace my old Boston T830s with.

Of course, across the street, I heard for the first time, just how absolutely stunning that same Tom Petty song can sound. I listened to some Source Technologies speakers designed & built by John Sollecito, and I was absolutely blown away. The guitars had a grittiness I've never heard. Petty's voice sounded real for the first time. The speakers disappeared and the band showed up.

So anyway... what are some speakers that you had high expectations for, but didn't wind up doing it for you?

[fmak]

Originally posted by Jim85IROC
Has anybody listened to a speaker that is very highly regarded, and sit there wondering what in the hell everybody else heard that I'm not? I had that experience over the weekend.

After hearing so much about the Sonus Faber Concertos, I decided to take a listen to them. What I heard amazed me. These were the most flat and lifeless speakers I've ever heard exept for cheap Best Buy type stuff.

Yes, Linn loudspeakers, and Naim too.

The Sonus Fabers are good, and musical too. Suggest you hear them with different front end.

[Timn8ter]

Not bad really, just nothing special. It's amazing how many designs are out there that sound the same. $40,000 systems that are ok, and $3000 systems that grab your attention. It seems that when you get into the world of 5 figure loudspeaker systems they'd better do something special.

[Jim85IROC]

Originally posted by fmak


The Sonus Fabers are good, and musical too. Suggest you hear them with different front end.

I wondered that at first... if it was just the acoustics and the equipment, but after the overly "there" Martin Logans, and finally some very nice sounding Vienna Acoustics speakers, I more or less felt that it was the speakers that I didn't like, not the rest of the equipment.

[Tube_Dude]

Originally posted by Jim85IROC
Has anybody listened to a speaker that is very highly regarded, and sit there wondering what in the hell everybody else heard that I'm not? I had that experience over the weekend.

After hearing so much about the Sonus Faber Concertos, I decided to take a listen to them. What I heard amazed me. These were the most flat and lifeless speakers I've ever heard exept for cheap Best Buy type stuff. They didn't sound "bad", but the music just sat there and played. It never came to life. I played some Tom Petty, specifically Mary Jane's Last Dance. It sounded nice, but that was all.

It's funny!...I have the some feeling when i hear the Sonus Faber at the Portuguese Audioshow...
My coment for a friend :
-Sound like a MW radio..

[zuki]

thiel speakers

[JCoffey]

Just stick with Dynaudios. cant go wrong with them... LOL (I have a coupe pairs if you couldnt tell, haha)

[jewilson]

You know that the electronics can make a good or great speaker suck.

[phase_accurate]

I have once seen/heard a bad presentation by Dynaudio at the Swiss high-end show. They used 5 pieces of their Evidence model (one special version as center) together with two large subs in a corner for a home-cinema demo.
Compared to the effort, the sound was disappointing, you could even hear the low end clearly emerging from the corner where the subs stood.

The following year they showed the smaller Evidence in a plain old stereo setup, which IMO was the best presentation in the show.

So you see that things can change a lot, depending on how well everything is set up and what source material is used.

But I can generally agree that it is very often not the most expensive speaker that is the best during the same show.


Regards

Charles

[chops]

Originally posted by zuki
thiel speakers

Exactly!!! I used to work for a hifi shop in Tampa that sold Thiel speakers, and they all sucked.

One day I hooked up a Wadia CD transport directly to a pair of Mark Levinson 250 pound monoblocks. After that, I tried a whole Maridian front end, then Proceed, then Rotel, then Sunfire with the Wadia again.

All of these systems sounded great with Maggies, Snell, Egglestonworks, Wilson Audio, B&W, Linn, Maridian, ProAc, and even some Phase Technologies, but the Thiels just sounded like crap.

They seriously lacked bass, the mids where hollow and cupped, and the highs were way too laid back. Not only did I move equipment from room to room, but also the Thiels. No matter what I did, I could not get a good sound out of these things, and they were Thiel's top-of-the-line loudspeakers at the time.

Hell, my current setup right now with a pair of AR s20 bookshelf speakers and twin 15" dipole subs sound like a million dollars compared to the Thiels.

Which reminds me..... has anyone ever heard these little beauties?! With an Aragon 2004 Mk II powering them, they sound excellent!!!

Sorry, not trying to hi-jack the thread or anything.