Some interesting things happen when one talks to a manufacturer about doing BLIND listening tests on loudspeakers. The most fascinating is as soon as the explanation is made regarding the testing under true blind conditions with a pre-amp level switcher, all interest is lost.
Over the last two years, I have reached out to 22 manufacturers of speakers ranging from $39 per pair to $15,000 per pair.
In the over $1000 per pair arena, it has been 14 manufacturers.
TWO have been willing and friendly about the process. Those companies are Legacy Audio and Axiom Audio.
And the LFR-1100's, M-100's and Signature SE (Legacy) are my personal favorite speakers.
The Legacy speakers are B&W killers for 1/3rd the price. Yes, they will compete with the Diamond 800's. Both are astonishingly "clear" speakers with a somewhat forward midrange.
The M-100's are very close to the PSB Imagine T-3, which sell for $7500 per pair and have gotten RAVE reviews from almost every magazine. In contrast to the Legacy/B&W speakers, the PSB/Axiom are more neutral, and to me, more musical. I could not pick a true "preference" between the M-100's and the T-3's.
That being said, it's understandable why others (Dave Upton from Home Theater Forum for example) prefer the somewhat more forward sound.
Legacy does a bit more advertising than does Axiom, but neither company has built its reputation on word of mouth from other audiophiles.
It's also understandable why most manufacturers refuse to do blind tests. One manufacturer, whose name will be left out, was actually insulting when we talked. This manufacturer has several full page ads in every magazine and AMAZINGLY gets rave reviews on its products.
When visiting an audio store that carried this company along with Magico, B&W and Magnepan, it was funny. Off to the side, and after I was making some "disappointed faces" over the sound of the in-named world beaters, the salesman was quite honest in letting me know that this company's speakers were great for sales, but not for music.
The Maggie 0.7's were a surprise. If one researches Magnepan, one will find that, as with Legacy and Axiom, all speaker development at Magnepan is done blind.
The Maggies STOMPED the $5000 per pair "superspeaker" from the in-named company in terms of music. A pair is only $1400, and they make good music.
The reason it's understandable is: The main magazines and manufacturers have a small business model they are trying to protect. Blind tests do not help that business model. The business is not built around the hobbyist, it's built around sales.
The salesman at the store also loves the Maggies. He said nothing, just put them on after the let down of the uber speaker from "un-named".
After the audition, he was telling me that the Maggies plus a JL Audio 10 inch sub would, for $2500, destroy $5000 per pair super speaker and deliver subsonic bass. This salesman, who is in his 50's and has spent his adult life in the business, was a refreshing change from what we usually see.
He has a following that knows he will steer them right. He also has people coming in with the "Stereophile said this was Class B ... I want a pair" ideal, and he just rings up the sale, knowing that he would lose a sale if he tried to educate the consumer.
Ok ... rant over.
