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Exceptional value in speakers today?

I'm looking for "sleeper" speaker companies - brands that aren't well known and offer exceptional value.

For years I have been a fan of ACI speakers - the company only sold direct, didn't advertise, but their speakers were consistently compared favorably with speakers costing many times more - in both "professional" reviews and end user reviews.

I am fortunate to have some of their speakers, as the company is no more. Which leads me to my question - there must be a similar company (or several) doing something similar today. Since these tend to be small companies that don't advertise, I thought I'd ask here for some pointers. The big guys are easy to find...

Thanks in advance.

(BTW - my current shopping list is for a pair of monitor speakers for a recording studio. I'm looking for un-powered speakers of exceptional quality (and at a price point <$1k). I need speakers that are good at revealing any flaws in the mix. I already have some high end professional near field monitors (Genelec) and am looking to augment those).
mark_scrivener

Showing 2 responses by mark_scrivener

mark_scrivener OP
15 posts
 
Thanks - keep the responses coming.

BTW - lots of studios have at least one pair of typical consumer speakers (car speakers in a box were popular for years). This is to check the mix on an average system. While I plan to set up some inexpensive speakers for such purposes (the Mackie's might do well for this, even though they are "pro-audio"), the goal is to find a really great pair of speakers (the Shelby+Kroll's look very interesting).
mark_scrivener OP
15 posts
 
I hadn't even considered benchmarks like Magnepan, Vandersteen , or Martin Logan - thinking everything they made was too big (and too expensive) for this project.

Some surprising finds:

Magnepan Mini Maggie - a bookshelf ribbon speaker! About $1500 (includes sub)...I need to check these out.

Vandersteen VLR1 (about $1k pr)- bookshelf with coaxial driver.

Martin Logan LX16 ($800 pr) - bookshelf with folded ribbon.

Thanks Robsker! Now to find somewhere around San Jose where I can audition these.
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