# What are the most Under Rated (sleeper) speakers you have heard.



## aceinc (Oct 24, 2006)

Once you get past listening to the salesperson, and start listening to the speakers, what speakers suprised you the most?

A pair of Bose, Fisher, or Pioneer? Some boxes you threw together with inexpensive speaker because you had no money?

Can you admit to the guilty pleasure of really liking a pair of speakers that Audio-snobs poo-poo?

I haven't seen any in quite a while, but I really liked some speakers called RTR when I was younger.

The purpose of this thread is fun. Moderator, if any trash talking gets started, please remove.

Oh by the way, I'm interested in the opposite, the most over rated, Emperor's got no clothes speakers as well.

Paul


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## jackfish (Dec 27, 2006)

Magnepan MMGs are really quite amazing for $600 a pair. Matched with a good sealed, servo-controlled subwoofer and they are hard to touch with thousands more.


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## gsmollin (Apr 25, 2006)

The most underrated speakers I ever owned were Utah, 12" 2-way bookshelf speakers, in 1970. I'll bet nobody here has even heard of them. After a few years I replaced them with Advents, which everybody has heard of.

The most surprising sleeper speakers I currently own are a pair of Polk Monitor 30s. These unassuming speakers are in the surround positions with B&W CM7s in L/R, that cost 20X more. The surprising thing is that the Polks can image conversation and other sounds in a movie soundtrack in the region between the L/R and side surrounds, as if they were phase-matched with the CM-7s. I should be needing CM-1 surrounds at 10X the price of the M30's to do this.


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## looneybomber (Sep 20, 2006)

I've been impressed with my Infinity Beta-20's that I picked up fairly cheap. They're kind'a hard to find now, but they usually sell for ~100/pr and I think it's worth it.


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## GranteedEV (Aug 8, 2010)

Atlantic Technology 1400.

Pure engineering. Vance Dickason just plain knows what he's doing. That's why I wouldn't be afraid to pick up some Emotiva speakers either.


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## lsiberian (Mar 24, 2009)

looneybomber said:


> I've been impressed with my Infinity Beta-20's that I picked up fairly cheap. They're kind'a hard to find now, but they usually sell for ~100/pr and I think it's worth it.


You ever hear their bigger brothers. Those things are amazing. The same speaker is now sold under the Revel brand. I used to have an Infinity Beta setup back in the day. 

KEF Eggs(2001.2, 3000) are way better than I thought they would be.


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## bambino (Feb 21, 2010)

Back when Paradigm had Monitor 3's (like 20 years ago), those things got so stupid loud and sounded exellent at the same time, pair them with a sub properly and you would of had no idea you were listening to such a small speaker without looking at them.:T


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## aceinc (Oct 24, 2006)

My DIY center channel, which I didn't really design sounds really good. I played around quite a bit with the xover, and finally ended up with a couple of capacitors and L-Pads And it fell together.


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## lsiberian (Mar 24, 2009)

aceinc said:


> My DIY center channel, which I didn't really design sounds really good. I played around quite a bit with the xover, and finally ended up with a couple of capacitors and L-Pads And it fell together.


DIY cannot count because then we all know mine are the best. My own flesh and blood are in those speakers after all.


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## aceinc (Oct 24, 2006)

I understand the point, but, this comes under the category of "Some boxes you threw together with inexpensive speakers..." 

In this case it was because I saw some speakers on sale at PE, and needed a better center channel. The fact that it sounds good is quite serendipitous, not because of my genius.

How about when I was 16, my parents had a portable Zenith stereo record player and a Wurlitzer Organ. I rigged a summing of the two output channels, and pulled the back off the Wurlitzer and found the input on the amplifier. I had the loudest record player on the block, and it didn't sound too bad.

It probably made me as happy as all the gear I have now, not audiophile, but it made me happy 'til my mom found out what I had done.

Paul


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## Dale Rasco (Apr 11, 2009)

I had some old KLH speakers that I thought sounded pretty good about 13 years ago. Bought them on clearance at Best Buy when I was first getting into the whole home theater thing and I really did like the way they sounded. Of course, I didn't know enough back then to count that as an expert opinion by any stretch of the imagination.


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## aceinc (Oct 24, 2006)

KLH, now they have made some great sleeper speakers. I am using two pair in various places in my house today, and they are working great. Both pair are mounted (in different rooms) high on a wall in corners. They are both fairly small, and put out suprisingly good sound. They are also both over 15 years old.

One pair is (are?) used as computer speakers attached to a Carver amp the other as part of a surround system in my family room.

Paul


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## JerryLove (Dec 5, 2009)

Psb 400I

I also think many still underrate the infinity primus line.


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## Andre (Feb 15, 2010)

Sony APMs back in the early 80s, then they showed me the price....:coocoo::yikes::blink::rubeyes:

The other was a speaker from France called an Elipson Colonne Design


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## DanTheMan (Oct 12, 2009)

I'd say some of those older Infinity models like the Renaissance 90. The first time I hear this speaker, I fell in love with audio. You never hear much about these, but man they were great. 
Maybe this is why:
http://www.davidsaudio.com/Infinity_Renaissance_Technical_Summary0001.pdf 
The woofer circuit is similar to my Mackie monitors.








If memory serves me well, the tweeters were easy to blow and maybe that's why you don't hear too much about them.

Dan


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## kflory (Feb 6, 2010)

Great document. My Infinity Kappa's share a similar enclosure design so it is great to be able to read about the methodology behind the design.

And in the spirit of this thread, I think that my Infinity Kappa 7.1IIs must be the most underated or everyone would want to own them too. :dontknow:


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## tonyvdb (Sep 5, 2007)

I had my first real stereo system in 1986 it was from Sears and was branded LXI made by Sanyo and believe it or not it is sill in use today at a friends house and the speakers still sound really good.


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## DanTheMan (Oct 12, 2009)

kflory said:


> Great document. My Infinity Kappa's share a similar enclosure design so it is great to be able to read about the methodology behind the design.
> 
> And in the spirit of this thread, I think that my Infinity Kappa 7.1IIs must be the most underated or everyone would want to own them too. :dontknow:


IOW you really like them yes?

Tony, a friend of mine had an LXI and we were really impressed as kids. That was back in the hair metal days.

Dan


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## kflory (Feb 6, 2010)

DanTheMan said:


> IOW you really like them yes?
> 
> Dan


Yes! But they do love to be fed so proper amplification is a must.


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## DanTheMan (Oct 12, 2009)

Sounds like the Infinity of old  They had some great speakers.

Dan


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## mdrake (Jan 31, 2008)

jackfish said:


> Magnepan MMGs are really quite amazing for $600 a pair. Matched with a good sealed, servo-controlled subwoofer and they are hard to touch with thousands more.


I have to agree!!
Anothe sleeper was the old admiral transmission line speakers.

Matt


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## looneybomber (Sep 20, 2006)

lsiberian said:


> You ever hear their bigger brothers. Those things are amazing. The same speaker is now sold under the Revel brand. I used to have an Infinity Beta setup back in the day.


Yep. I was so impressed with the sound that...well, a picture is worth a thousand words


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## dougc (Dec 19, 2009)

I replaced the dual 6" drivers from an old pair of Advent Reference series monitors with 7" Dayton Reference series and can't imagine that they could sound better with a similar sized driver. They have very tight, punchy bass and keep up nicely with my pair of SDX15s.


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