best 7.1 speakers money can buy

 http://www.lansingheritage.org/image...ott/page05.jpg


Better than the JBLs IMO, better than anything actually. IMO.


A5 has the world's finest reproduction 100-10,000 hz and is unexcelled at human voice.


A7-500 has a bit better bass and more extended highs and retains excellent midrange.


Take your pick but I favor the A5s though I'm using A7-500s.


Use VERY powerful subs.


A8s for surrounds.


I'm not kidding either, people use these things in hi-fis and HTs. Must be found used now.

Polk----There's really no such thing as an accurate speaker, every loudspeaker has flaws and compromises.


Note too that engineers don't even agree on what an accurate loudspeaker should do much less actually make such a device.


One could argue that the most accurate sound would be to use the same speakers used to monitor a given recording but then we must account for studio room acoustics and the post-production work---like what did the mastering engineer monitor with and such.


Now I favor speakers that have massive dynamic range, "big tone" and very low distortion but such speakers give away the very highest highs and deepest bass and some people think horns introduce colorations. So I pick those things I think are most important and live with the flaws. We all do, it's just that different people have different priorities in sound.


So just go with what you like and to the Devil with those who don't agree.

"Tom Brennan curious which speakers do you prefer?"


I prefer vintage Altecs. In my HT I use Altec 605 Duplex coaxials made around 1960. In my main hi-fi I use 1961 Altec 9844 studio monitors driven by tubes.


I'm currently restoring some Altec A7-500s; I'll refinish the cabinets (in battleship gray) and have ordered new diaphrams for the horn drivers. They'll replace the 605s in the HT.


In my old house I used Altec A5s in my HT.


These old Altecs are built like battleships and have very low distortion, hair-trigger dynamics, top-shelf clarity and will get as loud as a freight train with a 25 watt tube amp. They have flaws though; the bass is solid and robust but not terribly deep and the highs are a little soft and rolled off.


Now these speakers are only available used, the "real" Altec company having been the victim of corporate cannibalism. An advantage though is that IF you prefer these speakers you're getting the very best speakers available at much cheaper prices than those who consider, oh, Wilsons or Martin Logans the very finest speakers.


I like old JBLs too, the horn ones, not L-100s and such.


If curious look on ebay under vintage speakers and pro-sound speakers.