What no "Theophany" speakers?
One surely cannot state "the best" without trying all available, otherwise the best (you decide upon) are in fact limited by your inability to source AND TEST all speakers, sourced from "everywhere around the world", not just from within your own country, or even from within your closest city.
One must test ALL, from any country world wide.
So?
What about New Zealand's Theophany Speakers?
I'm sure Garth would love to explain all he knows, about the speakers he designed.
I know his speakers, as I went there one time, to showcase my surround sound system, such that I wasn't at all impressed that he didn't let me try his speakers.
Instead "insisting" that I set up (whatever I had brought with me), in a small OUTSIDE grassed area, underneath some trees, between a couple of corrugated iron sheds - which did absolutely NOTHING to enhance the way my total "surround" sound system, was heard as.
Unlike his own "inside the house" set-up, which was in a dedicated sound "player" room, where he INSISTED that I sit in a "precisely-in-the-center" master listening position.
Thus:
He listened to mine, (in an off-hand walking around method, outside (between a couple of tin sheds, under the trees), whilst he tried to tell me HIS system was way better, in a dedicated sound-proofed room, with several frequency split multiple speaker "channels" , containing a lot more speakers, than the miserable (cheap) small box speakers I had brought with me, (as a backup in case I wasn't allowed to, or couldn't be supplied with enough, of anyone else's speakers).
Hence why, after being TOLD to sit in one place and admire the "best position" to hear a movie he played (on a huge TV), I deliberately got up and (having asked him to keep it playing, as he stopped it as soon as I stood up) I deliberately walked around his (demo) room, as well as into various corner areas, and out the back towards his kitchen/lounge areas, to "hear" the various nodes and dead listening areas, all the while turning towards him and commenting on the different "sweet spots" that were or WERE NOT in that environment, until I found the one position where the sound actually self-cancelled itself out, with almost no sound at all.
THAT was when I said, well - your system doesn't sound as good as the cheap speakers I used OUTSIDE, when standing here, pointing down to my feet (in the archway between the demo room and his kitchen).
I was ushered out into his speaker "parts" room (behind his outside workshop shed) to be shown some new unboxed speakers, that he took one of, and with absolute carelessness, hooked some test wires onto it's exposed back "terminals" to play some TEST tones through, which sounded absolutely horrendous, as if a burnt out coil was "rubbing" on it's magnetic core, whereupon he got one of his elder sons, to swap the test tone frequency (in a different room area, out of my sight) and then changed the polarity of his "test leads", to again play the same (or similar) test tones, far clearer and louder, after which he tried to tell me that the PHASING was all that much better with the system polarised correctly, however being an Industrial Electrician, I told him, that simply reversing the terminals does absolutely nothing, to a speakers actual sound, as the speaker gets an alternating current, (of several different frequencies with differently played TONES - which reverses the "played" frequency polarities way faster than a person can flip a switch, on each and every sinusoidal waveform's highest & lowest peaks, even if a single tone is generated to run a test, not like the "music" which he was using, which already had a LOT of different frequencies within it, all peaking at different rates, thus pushing and pulling that non-mounted speaker in every direction since Sunday.
Thus, I (an outsider with good spacial awareness to the sound made by various electrical pulses), told him, that his so-called reasoning between my outdoor cheap speaker boxes, and this open backed non-mounted speaker, were idiotic to compare, given that the speaker he "held" in his hand couldn't be described as better, given the way he was holding it.
Up and closer to me in the second playing.
I told him, that even if it had been "clamped" in a set position, without any box to hold it's back-pressures within, it's diaphragm would still over extend on each available maximum equated peaks, given the different numbers of cycles each frequency used, during his so-called tests, where I couldn't see what was being played, or whether or not any bass, treble or volume settings had been altered.
As the test equipment was in another room of his workshop, out of sight from where he was holding his single speaker, with me being placed even further away from the other room.
He was actually slightly angry, that I pipped his arrogance, as I am sure he had assumed I wouldn't know the test settings had been changed, to back his claim that a speaker's polarity made any difference, or that his obviously way more expensive speaker/s were of a different class, to the cheap speakers I had used.
Thus, I am not convinced, that your "own" suggestions of better or best speakers are the actual best.
My responce is this.
To your own article of:
"""Your curated list of the very best stereo speakers you can buy for your money"""
As regarding your article on the main What Hi*Fi website, on:
Whatever you budget and requirements, these are the best speakers you can buy.
re:
{quote]
Dec 19, 2019
Best speakers 2024
{unquote]
???
Did you (at any time) use an SPL meter, placed 1M from each tested speaker, to get a genuine comparison of perfection, before making the claim of "best" anything.?
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