HiFi Subjectivist ¦ Audio Forum ¦ NVA User Group

I hate British designed and made speakers they are crap, bad value, and largely music killers. But I would say that wouldn't I !!! Most EU are just as bad though some almost make it, with the Italians leading this group.

There is only USA making proper speakers now, and most of those have now gone to the speaker company heaven (or hell), AR, Allison etc etc and of course the big pro companies are not what they were like JBL and Altec. But there is still one musically satisfying company that we get very little of in the UK -

Klipsch

The genesis of something very, very special occurred in a tiny tin shed in Hope, Arkansas in 1946 when Paul W. Klipsch - genius, madman and maverick - designed and hand-built the legendary Klipschorn® speaker with the goal of bringing live music into his living room.

He was an American audio pioneer, a true eccentric and a proud member of the engineering and science hall of fame. He gave rise to speaker technologies that would forever impact generations of music lovers. His passion enabled theirs.

Over time, Klipsch speakers have become the stuff of legends. People swear by the company's breakthroughs in modern acoustics, citing something akin to a religious experience with every listen. PWK's revolutionary sound lives on today in every hyper-efficient horn loaded product that rolls out of production and into the global market.

Headquartered in Indianapolis, Indiana, Klipsch's world-class speakers and headphones allow people to connect with their favorite music like no other brand by delivering the power, detail and emotion of the live music experience. From immersive cinema speakers to mind-blowing home theater systems, incredibly clear soundbars, powerful portable wireless speakers and the most comfortable studio-quality in-ear monitors on the planet, Klipsch have been impacting lives with vibrant, true audio for the better part of a century.

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OK this is marketing blurb, but they are American and in their terms this is self effacing. They are different to NVA maybe even not so accurate to the music, what ever that means. BUT they have character. Their own character, BUT that character doesn't interfere with the music.

So there you go I do like at least one other make of speaker, even though I love mine.

I am able to hear more modern UK designed speakers from time to time (no, not bloody Harbeths ffs - they come with their own mindset and patronising attitude!) and I have to argue the case for some of them. No point really as nobody here will want to know I suspect and I'm wasting my breath as it is.

Just PLEASE don't judge 'UK' speakers by the stuff KEF, Monitor Audio and B&W make - often in China it has to be said! Hell, even Spendor are putting some life back into their current non-classic range, but the newish owners have traditional dealer and distributor margins which push up the prices hugely sadly. - probably almost double what they should be?

If you care to look, there are plenty of smaller UK concerns making fine products in the few I've heard in recent times and not all of them are expensive either - Kralk Audio is one, with a cheeky looking baby two way for under £200 bought direct...

Audio Note make some excellent speakers that are not thin multi driver types (wide baffle with 8” plus tweeter based on Snell designs. A good thing). The prices do get into the stratospheric, of course, but the base models are more reasonable, relatively.

A real budget brand that pleasantly shocked me when I heard a pair was Q Acoustics. No doubt designed here and built in some outpost in the far east, nice sounds for £100 though.

The thing with Klipsch, Altec, JBL, EV, Urei speakers is that it all depends what you can buy them for and what model you're actually getting.

Quad Electrostatics are fine - as modern Brit Chinese speakers.

I agree that the vast majority of British speakers are wank, with the more expensive ones tending to be gobsmackingly poor for the money.
Slimline ported speakers are the work of the devil.

setting son wrote: ↑Sat Jan 19, 2019 2:00 pm Audio Note make some excellent speakers that are not thin multi driver types (wide baffle with 8” plus tweeter based on Snell designs. A good thing). The prices do get into the stratospheric, of course, but the base models are more reasonable, relatively.

That is because they are American designs he stole (Snell) - he never designed anything it was all stolen from Japan or USA.

Andy-831 wrote: ↑Sat Jan 19, 2019 2:08 pm A real budget brand that pleasantly shocked me when I heard a pair was Q Acoustics. No doubt designed here and built in some outpost in the far east, nice sounds for £100 though.

Nice sound for the money, not good music.

Lindsayt wrote: ↑Sat Jan 19, 2019 2:24 pm The thing with Klipsch, Altec, JBL, EV, Urei speakers is that it all depends what you can buy them for and what model you're actually getting.

Quad Electrostatics are fine - as modern Brit Chinese speakers.

I agree that the vast majority of British speakers are wank, with the more expensive ones tending to be gobsmackingly poor for the money.
Slimline ported speakers are the work of the devil.

The difference is Klipsch are still alive and building and being successful, but we are one of their smallest market. In Italy they are #1 foreign speaker. Those other companies are dead or a ghost of their former selves in hi-fi / music terms, all personal crap now.

I also disagree about modern Quad speakers, someone has lost the plot.

I appreciate that I'm ploughing a lone furrow here, but I've got a pair of Monitor Audio Silver RX2 speakers and I like very much how they sound in my main (NVA) system. I can only report what I hear, and I haven't owned hundreds of differing and different speakers like a lot of people here seem to have, and what I hear is good.

Right, form an orderly queue to tell me why I can't possibly be right. All those who have never heard my speakers to the front, obviously.

You are right for you, the same as everyone else including me. I haven't heard all UK made speakers or even some of small new companies referred apart from at shows - not a good place to judge.

We only know what we know, and if you want to find out if I am right then borrow (from us) or buy on approval some Cubes, of any model, and then publish what you think.

Sadly not sure if you can do this with Klipsch or other companies, but some retailers do, if you convince them you know nothing, are deaf, and have loadsermoney.

The ONLY good musical speakers I have heard this year other than what I have said have been DIY.