Which speakers did you find bright, fatiguing or just disappointing in some way?


OK, controversial subject but it needs asked. I'm curious for your experiences, mainly in your home, not a dealer and esp. not a show demo
greg7
Green Mount Audio Europa. Bright and fatiguing describes the perfectly.

@bdgregory I consider your claim to be dubious, and if accurate, almost certainly related to your associated equipment.

I had the Europas, followed by the Callisto, and while the latter was certainly a step forward, I would never have characterized the former as "bright and fatiguing". I was using a Jeff Rowland Concentra integrated amp, and Electrocompaniet EMC-1up CD player.

There is a very detailed review of the Europas here on Audiogon, entitled "Review: Green Mountain Audio Europa Monitor". That user's experience is far more in line with most, I would say.

There are many more opinions on a thread entitled "A few questions for Green Mountain Europa owners", and the words "harsh" and "bright" are never used to describe the sound.


“And of course the worst speaker of all time, the Tekton Moabs. Could there be a worse, more cheaply built, crap speaker? Oy. (Just kidding. Just having some fun with their fanboy.)”

Derailed in 3...2...1...
So many 'hi end' speakers need careful setup that A speaker I sold, the revel salon 1 and 2 for not coupling with my room are much loved by their new owners, but they weren't bright, just boring. The speakers that gave me fits for 15 of the 25 years I owned them were the Kef R105/3. I bought them when my new bride was 8 months pregnant and a week before we were to move into our 1st home and I knew the party was over. I eventually did enough side jobs to find a partnering amp that brought out the best in them.
The Cabasse Farella 401 speakers hit on all cylinders when paired with a quality SE or PP tube amp but hook a SS amp up to them and they would drive you from the room. Bright, fatiguing and light in the bass although the bass was always tuneful. Even pairing them with the class A SE SS Pass Labs Aleph 3 was a huge step in mitigating their bright signature but they are a real Jekyll and Hyde speaker if there ever was one
i agree with the statement above... one of my ventures into high efficiency speakers years back... don’t remember which model of cabasse... they were bright and otherwise grim and unruly
Any with poor treble.

Basically all of them have crossover issues, sibilance issues, beaming issues, dispersion issues, distortion issues.

Some of them are quite unbearable. Some are more tolerable.

Wouldn’t it be nice to have a speaker you can turn right up and continue enjoying clean pristine treble?

Is there even such a thing?