- What characteristics make a speaker Hi-Fi?
- Learn about the best high-end speakers on the market
- Also, check out our post on the best speakers in the world!
For an audiophile, an excellent Hi-Fi speaker system is likely high on your list of importance for your home.
This article covers a range of some of the most prestigious, high-end speaker brands available today.
But first, here is a rundown of what we’re looking for when we mean “quality”. Here’s our chosen selection criteria:
Frequency Response: The range of frequencies that a speaker can accurately reproduce, typically measured in Hertz (Hz). A speaker with a wide frequency response can reproduce a greater range of audio frequencies, resulting in a more accurate and detailed sound.
Construction & Design: A well-designed cabinet will minimize resonances and vibrations, producing a cleaner and more natural sound.
Speaker Sensitivity: This measures how efficiently it converts power into sound. A speaker with high sensitivity will produce more sound with less power, making it more efficient and potentially louder.
Driver Design: High-quality drivers with advanced materials and designs can produce more accurate and detailed sound.
Crossover Design: A well-designed crossover will ensure that each driver efficiently outputs the frequencies it’s most capable of producing, resulting in a more accurate and balanced sound.
Awards & Patents: These aren’t the be-all-and-end-all, but they are worth considering when assessing the best high-end speaker brands.
Heading into our list — this is in no way meant to be an exhaustive one, and we’ve likely missed a fair few that deserve to be on here. It’s also not an exact science, no matter how objective you try to be about speaker choice.
And for that reason, we’d love to hear from you in the comments. What do you believe to be the best speaker brands on the market today?
Rounding Up The Best High-End Speaker Brands
Here are our candidates for the top 7 best high-end speaker brands:
- KEF
- Bowers and Wilkins
- MartinLogan
- Magnepan
- Fyne audio
- Elac
- Devore Fidelity
1. KEF
KEF is a UK-based, award-winning Hi-Fi speaker company. Founded in 1961, KEF has been one of the frontrunners in Hi-Fi audio, producing audio excellence for 60 years.
One of the best products KEF has to offer is their new LS50 Meta, which won the What If and Eisa Best Product Awards for best stand-mount speakers. You can get a pair of these speakers for $1,300 USD.
The successor to the already famous LS50, the LS50 Meta has pushed innovation further. Their biggest technological advancement is the development of their Metamaterial absorption technology.
One of the notable achievements of KEF is its use of advanced driver designs, such as its patented Uni-Q drivers. This places the tweeter in the center of the midrange driver to create a more coherent sound. They also use unique materials, such as their magnesium/aluminum alloy drivers, designed to provide exceptional detail and accuracy.
2. Bowers and Wilkins
Bowers and Wilkins aim to deliver audio in its truest form as it was intended when recorded by the artist.
This is the reason that they are respected by both audio professionals and hobbyists alike.
The founder, John Bowers quotes, “The best loudspeaker isn’t the one that gives the most. It’s the one that loses the least.”
They have spent over 50 years on innovation and attaining the perfect balance of design and engineering.
One of Bowers and Wilkins’ showpieces is the Nautilus. At first glance, you may think these speakers are a sculpture in a museum.
However, the speaker’s design isn’t merely for aesthetic purposes but a product of engineering innovation. Like the KEF metamaterial, Bowers and Wilkins found a way to circumvent audio sacrifices normally made in general-use speakers.
Via their Nautilus tube system, they can also prevent resonance and audio bouncing, which are prevalent in parallel box-shaped speakers.
One stark contrast between these sets of speakers and the LS50 Meta is the price. A pair of Nautilus speakers will set you back a whopping $60,000 USD.
One of the reasons that the price is so high is that these speakers are all made by hand to order. These speakers are the pinnacle of craftsmanship within the Hi-Fi speaker market.
In terms of performance, they are superb in the low-end, with a frequency response of 10kHz – 25kHz.
Bowers and Wilkins have a finely tuned crossover lending itself for very few frequency peaks and a very balanced listening experience.
However, compared to the LS50 Meta, which has a far wider frequency response, it has a truer treble output.
3. Bang & Olufsen
Founded in 1925, Bang & Olufsen has been iconic in the audio industry since its inception.
With a strong focus on innovative design language, Bang & Olufsen are known for creating speakers that often feel as much an aesthetically pleasing part of the home as they are a pristine Hi-Fi listening system.
They often utilize wooden elements to conceal the speakers, giving them the appearance of furniture or, in some cases, a piece of art.
The BEOPLAY A9 is one of Bang & Olufsen’s standout products in design and performance.
Inside this cabinet are 7 separate speaker drivers. 1x woofer, 2x midrange, 2x fullrange and 2x tweeters.
While this cabinet has a fairly regular frequency response, it does have a very high speaker sensitivity, allowing for incredibly high output and performance with low wattage.
A unique feature of this unit, however, is its Bluetooth capabilities, allowing you to stream music through your phone as well as remotely change your EQ settings so these speakers can easily be attuned to your preference.
However, If you thought the Nautilus Tube was expensive, a set of these speakers will cost $100,000 USD for a pair!
As you should expect from this product, the quality is outstanding. If you ever get to listen to these speakers, you’re in for a treat.
In terms of performance, these speakers are staggering. With an intense 8200 watts of output, the Beolab 90’s are insanely powerful.
Each cabinet includes 18-inch drivers, each with its own independent amplifier.
One of the most notable features of the speaker is its “Beam Width Control.” This allows you to focus the audio depending on your situation.
For instance, if you’re watching a film, you can focus the audio towards you, or if you want the audio to fill the room, you can utilize the omnidirectional output.
4. MartinLogan
MartinLogan is a high-end speaker brand that is known for producing some of the most innovative and unique speakers in the industry. The company was founded in the late 1970s and has since become a leader in hi-fi speakers.
They have won numerous awards, including Product of the Year awards from Sound & Vision and Home Theater Review (to name just a couple).
One of the most notable aspects of MartinLogan speakers is their use of electrostatic panels. These panels use a thin membrane stretched between two conductive grids to produce sound, rather than a traditional cone or dome driver. This design allows for a more accurate and detailed sound, with exceptional clarity and imaging.
In addition to their electrostatic speakers, MartinLogan also offers a range of traditional cone and dome driver speakers that are equally impressive. Their Motion series, for example, features advanced aluminum cone drivers and Folded Motion tweeters, which provide exceptional detail and accuracy.
Some of their most notable speakers include the CLX electrostatic speaker, which has been called one of the best speakers in the world, and the Motion 40 floor-standing speaker, which has won numerous awards for its exceptional performance and value.
5. Magnepan
6. Fyne audio
Fyne Audio is another juggernaut in attention to detail for design and sound. Arguably the peak of British audio engineering, Fyne covers all areas an audiophile desires.
Their range spans freestanding bookshelf speakers to floor-standing Hi-Fi speakers, providing excellent quality and design.
Fyne’s flagship product is the F1 series, a vintage look with modern hardware and design. These speakers start with an entry-level price tag of $38,000 USD.
One of this speaker’s most unique features is the bass reflex diffuser system named “BassTrax Tractrix“.
Unlike conventional speakers that have a bass reflex at the rear of the speaker, the F1 defuses the bass downwards through the cabinet. As the speaker is on raised platforms, this allows for the bass to envelop a room 360 degrees rather than diffusing out the back into the wall.
Fyne has put a large amount of care into the crossover for these speakers, finely tuning it over the years to create true balance. Paired with the best components available, this system is a true audiophile speaker.
If you are looking for a more affordable option, the F700 series comes in with a somewhat more attainable price of around $10,000 USD. While still high, it is a considerable mark down from the F1.
With a sleek and modern design, the F700 series comes with all the same engineering knowledge and care used to produce the F1 series and is a close second to the Fynes catalog.
6. Elac
ELAC is one of the oldest high-end speaker companies, founded in 1926 by William Albert. With nearly a century of manufacturing experience within the audio industry, their first consumer product was the PW1 record player in 1948.
ELAC’s Uni-Fi Floorstanding speaker is regarded as one of the audio industry’s best price-to-performance speakers. It borrows KEF’s Uni-Q technology, offering exceptionally faithful audio reproduction at a reasonable price.
Having heard these at my local Hi-Fi retailer, I can safely attest that this one ticks all the boxes if you’re into bass music. If you are, the Elac Uni-Fi Floorstanding speaker could be your dream playback system.
ELAC has won numerous awards for their speakers over the years, including multiple mentions at Stereophile’s ‘Recommended Components’, ‘What Hi-Fi’, EISA Awards and more.
7. Devore Fidelity
Premium Pick
DeVore Fidelity O/Reference
Offering an astonishing eight-octave bandwidth with unprecedented flexibility and customization, the O/Reference can be installed in nearly any size room and built to fit nearly any decor.
Why We Love It:
- Max SPL: 98 dB
- Stylish design
- Full-bodied and rich sound
Check Price On DeVore Fidelity
Devore Fidelity is a high-end speaker manufacturer founded in 2000 by John DeVore. While a relative newcomer, this series of primate-named speakers (Orangutan, Gibbon, Silverback, etc) took the market by storm in recent years.
One of the notable achievements of Devore Fidelity is their use of unique driver designs, such as their paper-cone woofers and silk-dome tweeters, which are designed to provide a natural, detailed sound that is free from harshness or distortion. They also use carefully designed crossovers that ensure each driver receives the correct frequencies, resulting in a more accurate and balanced sound.
Devore Fidelity offers a range of speakers, from bookshelf models to floor-standing speakers, and all of their products are hand-built in the United States. Some of their most notable speakers include the Gibbon X, which has won numerous awards for its exceptional performance and value, and the Orangutan O/96, which features a unique open-baffle design that provides a spacious, natural sound.
Before you go, check out our guide on 2-Way vs 3-Way Speakers!
