SPEND-E!!

EDIT: hit the send button to soon. Wanted to add this as well.

http://www.goodwinshighend.com/speaker.htm#martinlogan

May the lottery be with you....

EDIT2:

What scares me is the last listing on the additional page. $Call. I guess if you need to ask...

These loudspeakers cost much more than a very good car... (Mercedes S-Class)
I'd like to have this kind of money to spend just on loudspeakers.

I can't remember the name of the site anymore, but it was a consumer review type thing and it featured main speakers from $20 - $600,000 US. So if you want to you can spend a lot more than $70,000.

I have to sell my house to get these $600k+ loudspeakers. Just a must-have.
They probably sound 'more transparent' than 'usual' $10k ones.

They probably look like the ones which Marty overloaded in 'Back to the Future' part I.

Here are some Accuphase components. The page is in German but you can see the prices...

Check it out: http://www.soundlab-speakers.com/a1.htm

After seeing the $600,000 thing I started a little searching for speakers that are, well, interesting. If nothing else they are good time wasters....

I came across this one that is more than speakers and quite interesting:

Lots of audio stuff

Then this page: Plasma Tweeter

The last one was a secondary link from one that originated in the first. This is really cool. Though I don't know how practical. There is a link on this page towards the bottom that show others works.

I had the opportunity to listen to some Martin-Logan Monolith IIIs a few years ago, and while I think they look awesome, I wasn't blown away by their sound. I suppose the room/setup was less than optimal. They sounded OK but I couldn't justify the price (which if I remember correctly was about CAN$10,000 or so). One thing that is kind of unusual about these is that they plug into an electrical outlet even though you still need external power amplifiers. Strange.

I feel that above $5000 or so you're really getting into the land of diminishing returns when it comes to speakers.

Tri, I really like that Accuphase gear. Must be nice to have enough disposable income to own equipment like this. lol It's kind of surprising to me that there are so many really expensive brands and that the market supports these companies. Also check out products by Krell, Mark Levinson, Goldmund, Spectral... (Lots more but I'm forgetting.)

You know, I was hoping someone would chime in and say something like that. At some point in the game it has to be just the game itself, if you know what I mean?

On the two links I mentioned there are references to the Jericho Horn. A design for a speaker enclosure using basically one driver. Though the second link is paired with the Plasma Tweeter. These people are building their speakers, amps and probably a bunch more things and I wouldn't be surprised if they are very nice sounding systems. And...I'll also bet that it didn't cost them their first and second born children in advance.

Of some interest to me is the tube amps for DIYer's. Dug around in the alphabetical listing at the top and checked out the Darling amps. These things aren't putting out more then 10~ or so watts. But the way that one person referred to his, it will get your neighbors attention. Hmm. How can this be? 10 watts? Oh, the head is spinning now. Why such a dramatic difference between a solid state amp and a tube amp?

I can't believe I got myself into this...

(sorry all, it's early and still on first cup of coffee having rambling thoughts)

edit:spelling

Actually I think in terms of sound quality the law of diminishing returns probably starts WAY before $5000 (especially if you really shop around). However I don't think that the law of diminishing returns would apply nearly as well to the maxium power capacity of the speakers. ie: A $10,000 pair of speakers might be only %1 (don't put too much critisim on the exact number its obviously not possible to measure quality in such a way) better in terms of quality than a good $500 pair, but they will be able to cleanly reproduce sound at ~4 times the volume (again I just pulled that number from thin air, but I believe it would work something like this) . . . . . . hmmm I was just thinking that maybe more expensive speakers would reach the "land of diminishing returns", as ChrisGranger put it, because, of course, the dB scale is logarithmic for a reason. So the precieved loudness would probably be affected by the law of diminishing returns.

I agree completely. I think it has more to do with prestige of ownership than the actual quality of the music this super-expensive equipment reproduces.


Volume per watt has a lot to do with the efficiency of your speakers. Talking about an amplifier (solid state or tube doesn't really matter) in terms of how loud it is at ten watts doesn't actually make any sense. I suspect the guy you're referring to has it paired with some very efficient speakers, almost certainly horn-driven. Hook that same 10w tube amp up to a difficult speaker load that requires a lot of power and current (like the Thiel CS7 for example) and it'd probably sputter and die.

I'm partial to solid state amps myself. Maybe my bias is unfounded but I feel like too many things can easily go wrong with tubes, both in the design of the amp, and its use.


Yeah, you're right. I was thinking along the lines of people with money to burn who have the ability to buy any speaker they'd want. For 'normal' people I think you can get a very good pair of speakers for around $2500 from brands like Paradigm, PSB, Tannoy, etc. In fact I suspect most people would be content to own some of the better $1000 speakers on the market today, myself included.


I would really have to disagree with you here. The price of a speaker often has very little to do with its power handling or maximum volume. Some rather inexpensive speakers are designed to play quite loudly (Cerwin-Vega comes to mind) while some high end ones are rather delicate and sound incredible, but only at moderate to lower volumes.

I think the price of a speaker has a lot more to do with exotic construction materials like real hardwoods, rarity/low production numbers, and the brand name.

I did a re-read and he also mentions a preamp. Sorry about that.

Here is the page: http://www.diyparadise.com/waily/waily.html

Note his speakers.

Well, I'm rather surprised - he's driving Paradigm* Reference 20s with tubes? Hmm. They're not particularly sensitive at all at 89db (though maybe they're an easy load, impedence-wise, I don't know) so I'd think he'd experience clipping and distortion on peaks... Perhaps his listening room is quite small. (I notice that he mentions using this system in his bedroom.) That might help the system appear very loud. Another factor is the amp's dynamic headroom. Maybe it's 3db and the amp has 20w/ch capability on peaks?

Eh. In the end I think I'd want to be running more than 10w/ch at any rate. I'd also be afraid of my cats breaking the exposed tubes, hehe.

* I have a pair of Paradigm Phantoms myself. I like them.