ABA AWARDS | The Best Speakers of 2023!

There’s a speaker you need to hear Tarun. Dynaudio Heritage Special, most outstanding and there’s the 1723 THX Monitors from Arendal. Dynaudio has been missing from the evals. I hope it will not stay so. Your opinions and eval on the Arendal 1723 THX Monitors is also one I am looking forward to. The CSS Criton 2TDs are also on the radar. The Critons are the closest speaker to my ProAc EBTs. Your opinions matter. Hoping they are receptive to sending these to you. These speakers matter.

Awesome

My speaker find has been the Kef r3 meta. Like yourself ive been a ProAc owner. As in the ProAc d2r. Which retail at over a grand more than the kef r3 metas.
Loved my ProAc's but have to say that to my ears the kef r3s sound way better with my hegel h390. Very happy with my kef purchase.
Happy xmas to all.

Good job Tarun.

Dear Tarun, pitching for a friend Thomas has a speaker you might be interested in for a review at some point they being the Galion TS Voyager... his nod to Star Trek ...at $850 a pr. and are a Homage to the British Speaker the LS35a. And of course I thought of you. Though they are a nearfield desktop speaker.

Monitor Audio is a underrated brand. The purists tend to turn their noses up at them. But I've owned the old RS6s since 2005, still have them in the attic. Agree they can sound on the analytical side but if you marry them with a natural/organic sounding amp, they are as good as any price compatible speaker. Fantastic VFM

Hey Taryn, love the channel. Curious if you have looked at software like Audirvana, Roon and HQPlayer. I have just decided to move to Audirvana from roon. Better clarity and texture than tidal and qobuz apps or roon +Hqplayer- imo - I was actually surprised how it improved the sound in my setup. Would love your thoughts or a video on the subject as I haven’t seen too many out there.

Superb!

Hi Tarun... Midly concerned about the photo and video (at the 15 minute mark) regarding the Castles. The image of the main driver clearly shows a ripped / torn surround on the driver and the video looks like total abuse, the cone exceeding it's Xmax by quite a margin, which would explain the ripped surround!
Possibly not the best way of treating such a fine (and expensive) piece of craftsmanship.

Happy holidays Tarun ! Great video as always. 🙂

Hi Tarun. A great selection of speakers. I have Q Acoustics 3030i in my second system. Q Acoustics make some very good speakers. My new and much loved speakers for 2023 are my Graham Audio LS8/1s. Based on the early BBC designs, and they perform superbly with my Leben 600x, despite the amp only delivering 28 watts per channel. Luckily my listening room is relatively small, so this combination does work. Merry Christmas. Peter.

Price appropriate is the biggest hindrance in audio…

Thank you for your review of this year's products and for including a $1000 tier, which is squarely in my retired wheelhouse. I look forward to seeing and hearing you in the new year with new and exciting perspectives and products. Go well, Sir, and all the very best to you and your, family.

Hi Tarun, are you going to do a review on Larsen 4.3 speakers soon?

My personal speaker choice of 2023 is the Musician Audio Knight 1. When placed in my system, they simply produce enjoyable and highly realistic music reproduction without drawing attention to any particular technical attribute.

My favourite speakers of 2023, which I bought, were an unconventional choice: Genelec 8331s. Deep bass (down to 35hz in room), sparkling imaging and true high end refinement. Obviously highly transparent which can be too much of a good thing on some recordings. Great in a small room. I’ve listened to a lot of conventional hifi speakers this year and they sounded better than almost anything else. However I did hear some ATC SCM40s driven by a valve amp with a lot of current - that was great, though at a very different price point!

Hi Tarun, I would like to see you review speakers by Legacy Audio based out of Springfield IL, USA. They keep winning all these awards yet a good unbiased review in recent times is hard to find.

Tarun you should offer consulting as I don’t have the experience to know what speakers would suit a high end turntable to hear the imagery and soundstage.

I tried a load of speakers below £900, very pleased with my choice of Q Acoustics 3050i

Would be interested in your opinion on the Zu Audio DW6 as a cheaper full-range alternative to the Sibelius, with the super tweeter to fix the issue you point out in the Sibelius.

Tarun, Tried the MA Silver 50's upon your recommendation. (Along with 13 other pairs,lol) I kept the Silver 50's. Beautiful and beautiful sounding. Thank you for the suggestion and your content.

I just had a chance to listen to the Linn 360 amplified speakers with 2 Linn mono blocks and their top of the line DSM head unit. Wow is all I can say. You hear every instrument’s note and the clarity is second to none. I just need about $170k in Canadian dollars!

Hey Tarun, new mic rig/strategy as I can see. 😊

Am I mistaken, it seems to me, you didn’t go into any specific sound characteristics of the Dali Epicon?You did describe the drivers and talk about how anti-resident the cabinet was, but you didn’t go any into any specific sound quality that you observed from the speaker and I think the thing that’s really important with the Epicon despite the fact that it’s a small speaker, it puts out very well defined bass.

Tekton Moab

looks great. happy New Year :)

Please try pronouncing the second ‘t’ in ‘twenty’ - at least to stop the screaming in my head

What amplifier would say is best for Q Acoustics 5020 or Monitor Audio Silver 50 7G for that matter.

Now everyone is talking about the Arendal 1723 monitor and tower.

Bought a [air of Dali Menuet SE on this nerd's recommendation. Boxy, congested and distant upper midrange.

Hi Tarun,
I bought CXA6 in part thanks to your recomendation. Great amp.
It would be great to hear your review on Proac D2/R/D .

Interesting comments, Tarun. I had to agree with your comments about the Acoustic Energy and PMC Prodigy speakers. But to be fair, they are the only ones in your test I’ve actually heard. I’ve seen DALI Epicons but never heard them. They are certainly an impressive sight.

I'm not sure I understand the popularity of the 5 inch woofer with home stereo speakers. The 6 1/2 inch is standard even amongst inexpensive studio monitors. Is this purely a cost constraint or has the performance of them reached the level of a larger driver?

Surprised the Lintons didn’t make the list…Being a British speaker, and at your back door! I’m across the ‘pond’, being an import speaker, the Lintons are popular in the U.S. …knowing the Linton Heritage are on the warmer side of clarity, they have a fantastic sound stage…
Great review, and your diagnostics of your speaker reviews are on cue…looking forward to 2024!

Totem Forest amazing speaker

This video tells at the beginning 'best speakers of 2023'. But the ATC scm40 isn't a part of it? Tarun quoted this speakers is next level in so many regards that has passed my doorstep in the last 3 years?

Thanks for your great channel and reviews
What's the speakers behind you?

Kind regard

Hi Tarun.... Watched a few reviews of yours now and well impressed..... Do you have any review (I'm assuming historically) of the Focal Aria 926 by any chance ?? Be interesting to hear YOUR thoughts on them.... After extensive Auditioning and several reviews, I have purchased these for a whopping £815 !! Be interested how you think these stack up against it's "Price point" competition (under £850).......?? Many thanks and jeep up the superb reviews 👏🏼👏🏼

Tripling the cost to "guarantee a worthwhile improvement" says a lot about the law of diminishing values.

Fairly thankful for your MA Silver 50 g7 review. Moving up from Mission 761i's has been nothing but pleasant on the desktop paired with Kimber tc4 bi wired cables to a Topping MX3s. Not the highest end of setups but it does the job reliably and pleasantly on a daily basis.

Hi man, great list.

Since you say that the Monitor Audio Silver 50 7G is the most resolving speaker under 1000 pounds, can you please campare it to the Bowers & Wilkins 606 S3? Because a lot of people say that's the best under 1000 pounds/dollars.

Thanks! :)

Have you ever tested these monitors, if not would you like to test them and make a judgment and a comparison
Heco Aurora 300
Neumann MA 1 Monitor Alignment Microphone and Calibration System + 2 x Neumann KH 80 DSP Monitors

Any plans to review the Prodigy 1’s or think they’ll be too similar and need to look at something different?

Thanks Tarun.
Sounds like you like the PCM's more that the $6k Sibelius.

Herr Tarun has the goods. ..The Dali selection is impressive! .. My speakers? .. Been stuck on ATC actives for awhile; SCM100 ASL Actives, and an older (25yo) pair of ATC SCM20Pro's actives. .. Cheers, Vail, Colorado

It's an expensive bit of a con modern hi-fi...you don't need mega thousands...you won't get better quality or price with Emotiva amps...even their PT1pre & BasX 2 stereo power amp/s are fantastic, puts UK makers to shame...i like the Q Acoustic speakers but the Concept 30's on Dynaudio stands used with an SVS SB1000 Pro,fantastic subwoofer sounds better than the 5020 imo....some good gear, i use the Audio Monitor silver line centre speaker, it is good or the B&W HTM S2 Anniversary centre speaker with Continuum drive units,very nice clarity & that double dome tweeter is perfect for centre channel use.......luv the PCM's...i built a copied pair of their 3-way transmussion lines years ago, wish i had kept them as parts are not worth building your own speakers nowaday unless cheap drive units or really expensive overpriced...for fun music i like my Kef 350's with Emotiva PT1 & BassX 2 power amp used with an SVS subwoofer & streamer or pc...some nice stuff, good to see Castle still going, i thought they had finished for some reason..1 day the PMC 3-way transmission line speakers
...only £3000+ but amazing speakers...a good review, a few good choices for people that need help...90%...lol...Luke, come over to the Dark Side...they are a bit Darth Vader looking

Ryan R610 are the best I have heard in my system and room, including the ATC SCM 19 and Quad Revelas, both of which I purchased to some extent due to this channel reviews of them. Do yourself a favor and track down the Ryan speakers. The retail for much less than the ATC, same price as the Quad's, so approx 2k US $.

Nice compare but wich one is better for small room 10f x 10f, AM silver 100 or 50?

Progidy