Top 10 Speaker Manufacturers...

[emack27]

Hard question to answer,everyones ears are different and beauty is in the eye of the beholder and cost is relevent.The best speakers i have heard with my own ears were a set of Focal/Jm Labs Alto Utopia BE.They are very large,expensive($25,000 cdn)and not that great looking to my eyes but they sound wonderful.The music was James Taylor and they were driven by about $40,000 worth of gear,but it was incredible.

bill

I second that.
IMO the JM lab and SEAS drivers are "worth their weight in gold." So JM lab makes their own speakers (drivers in cabinets) and SEAS does not. You'll find SEAS drivers in high end speakers such as Snell and Tyler to name a few. I prefer the SEAS drivers over the JM lab drivers typically.

[Bernd]

I will only mention the ones I have owned or have spent extensive time with.

ART - Just superb in every way. From entry level to dizzy height. Real musical Emotion.

Zingali - Beautiful Range and very musical sound from this Horn, great with tubes.

Kharma - Outstanding but expensive and Coffin look not for everyone.

Avalon - Great build and spooky holographic imaging

Sonus Faber - Fantastic cabinets but sound not for everyone.

Pen Audio - Small Company from Finland. Very musical speaker and great looks.

Proac - Their standmounts are outstanding. The Floorstanders are so so.

Castle - Again great cabinets but sound is on the warm side.

and

Bose - For outstanding contribution to this Forum.

Peace

Bernd

[emack27]

I second that.
IMO the JM lab and SEAS drivers are "worth their weight in gold." So JM lab makes their own speakers (drivers in cabinets) and SEAS does not. You'll find SEAS drivers in high end speakers such as Snell and Tyler to name a few. I prefer the SEAS drivers over the JM lab drivers typically.

Oh. One more speaker that utilizes the SEAS drivers is of course Krell.
Well folks there ya have it. Hands down the best drivers for the money is JM lab and SEAS. So my vote goes for any well designed speaker that properly utilizes any one of these two excellent manufacturers.