The Best Speakers We've Ever Heard Cost $99

My Speaker/Amp Recommendations:

Other Gear Reviewed:

0:00 Intro
0:18 Our cheap gear
2:22 Why I'm doing this test
3:27 The new/expensive gear I'm testing
5:05 Testing the amplifiers
6:57 Speaker's first impressions
10:10 My top 3 speakers
12:26 My favorite speaker
13:43 Room correction
15:40 Conclusion

[FStoppers]

For all you audiophiles out there, I think the reason the cheap speakers sound so good is because the AA batteries my son put inside them are ionizing the air molecules and are allowing each driver to produce a more accurate tone. I highly suggest stuffing your speakers with batteries.

[ErinsAudioCorner]

If you’re going to pursue A/B testing I encourage you to at least test them blind. Studies have shown that people’s subjective impression of what they hear from a speaker changes with color alone. Literally, the same speakers in different colors yielded a different impression to the listeners. Audio is a weird world.

I also should note that listening in the nearfield as you’ve shown can sound extremely different than listening in the farfield (2-3m) due to the dispersion characteristics and linearity of the speakers response as the sound is reflected from the sidewalls.

Just my two cents.

[itsROMPERS...]

I feel into the audiophile things decades back with my dad.
I got out of it when i realized that whatever you listen to, whether you pay $500 or $5000, there is always something better somewhere, and listening to find defects in equipment actually degrades the overall listening experience, the enjoyment of music.
Get something you enjoy for money you can afford, and then just enjoy it.

[davedocimo]

My dude, none of those speakers are near-field monitors. You should be testing studio monitors if you are going to sit that close.

[GamingRevenant]

Put literally ANY amount of distance between both sets of speakers and the proper amplification and the results will be massively different. The coaxial design of the KEF's, or in other words coaxial midrange and tweeters are designed to create large imaging. You need to be in between midfield to farfield for amazing results.

Nearfield even the cheapest speakers with just enough amplification, heck even desktop speakers, will sound nice. You basically have the speakers in your ears with the exception that you can slightly have better left-right experience than headphones. If you set a few meters between both of these sets the Polk will age like milk.

[stovall]

Testing speakers while sitting 30 inches in front of them is insane. This is not how these speakers were designed to be heard. Ridiculous comparison.

[The_Fat_Bald_Trucker]

I have a $200 Onkyo receiver, Polk Audio TSi300 tower speakers, and a Polk Audio powered sub base($200 or so). I've had this system for 15 years or so and absolutely love it. At the time the entire system cost around $600. I recall the tower speakers were on sale. My point of posting is --> if you don't have a lot of money this system will absolutely shock you and your friends for the amount of money you'll spend. It loves loud rock-n-roll, classical, and pretty much anything in between. I love it. FYI my amp never gets turned off either.

[rawux]

As a DIY guy I made a few 2 way bookshelf speakers.
1. A pair for 30$. 15$ unknown speakers (woofers) both had unwanted resonance at 400hz you could clearly hear, 3$ tweeters was quite ok, but not that precise and crisp, speakers had not much bass, but was quite loud, used ported box design. Sill much better than 80% of speakers in the market for 100 - 200$.
2. A pair for 80$. It was much better improvement in bass and highs. but could not handle much power (30-50W rms max). Used them for 5 years and was quite happy.
3. A pair for 250$. Used SL-657R (70$ each) ceramic woofers from china and some chinese 30W silk dome tweeters for 60$ a pair. Combined with 5x8 chinese passive radiators in about 4 litter boxes. It plays amazing. Bass is clear and deep due to passive radiators, silk dome tweeters are nice and warm sounding. Even without a subwoofer they can pack serious punch. Never heard such good sounding speakers even on 10$ class D amp. Not sure how much I could improve them, maybe there is a just little drop between 2-3khz but this is common with 2 way setups. Both can handle about 200Wrms

Wasting few 1000$ on speakers and amps is not worth. What important is to get things right. Anything above 1000$ for a pair of simple 2 way speakers IMO is scam. There is still a lot of scam happening in audio equipment. So the best thing to DIY your speakers. Audiophiles are the targets of those scams. My research shown they have a lot of money and don't know shit about physics

KEFs are not designed to be listened at THAT near field. The engineers designed them to compensate for room gain and in room response. You need a proper set up and adequate distance. Speakers and HIFI are all science based as well. I dont think that $99 polks measurement gona be better than the LS50s

[tjrunner]

I used an A/B switcher before on very expensive amps. I could not hear a difference BUT when I removed the switcher from the system the sound quality dramatically increased. These cost effective switchers diminish amplifier quality significantly and probably shouldn't be relied on for comparisons. I ended up comparing the amps for months without using a switcher and there are defiantly differences.

[michaelmanus]

This is the strangest test for listening to speakers that I have seen. There is a vast difference between listening at super close range and at distance beyond say 5 feet away. The one real takeaway is that what sounds good is 100 percent subjective. I am glad you found what works best for your ears and that it turned out to be without additional cost.

[sagex]

I love this video. I too binge hi-fi YouTube reviews. I too lust after expensive equipment. But everytime I’ve taken a chance on higher end gear I’ve always been disappointed even when spending weeks of not months to try and properly set up my room. So I’ve determined my ears are either not sensitive enough or that the law of diminishing returns sets in WAY sooner than the influencers would have you believe. Cheers brother.

[chadpurser]

I've owned Polks, of all sizes and types, for 25 years, including car speakers. I think they are the best sounding speakers for the price. Smooth and warm sound.

[davidasher]

The difference in sound when you change their positioning is due to room acoustics. To minimize this effect, set them up in an equilateral triangle with your listening position, ensuring the speakers are at ear height and away from the wall like you mentioned. Additionally, level matching the audio is crucial since louder often seems better to our ears.

[jafetnoriega]

I do have a pair of those Polk TSi 100, They were my second main speakers, and i love them. Now, i use them as front atmos speakers, and for fronts i have some old Wharfedale diamond 9.5 from a decade ago, and very pleased.

[Kenji-Tsuyoi]

A photography site giving us audio reviews with no idea what he's talking about . Sounds legit 😅

[ericjohnson]

The Kef's sound very good, but perhaps for a more discerning ear. They definitely wouldn't sound great on top of another speaker as it's best to have the tweeter at ear level, not above it, and they perform best with good power. Additionally should be sitting back from the speakers at least the same distance that the speakers are spread apart. So 4 - 6 feet back ideally for critical listening so you can really hear the imaging, which is a large part of what the Kef's are great at.

[adamhexstar]

Very well done.
Three decades ago, I wanted to buy a cheap but well regarded Polk audio speakers.
They didn't sound good when trying them out at home, but I was telling myself they must be better than my $10 car speakers in an open box, until my mom, who is a professional singer, say they sounded less harsh but didn't sound better.
They only reason I can think of is that the minimal crossover design of the car speakers must be the reason why they sounded better.

[hemmatv]

100% agree with you. I have the same experience. I am 50 years old and listen to a lot of speakers on hifi shops. It's a lot of bull shit in hifi culture - just to motivate "scam" customers with really expensive stuff. I have a small pair of Dali, 500 Euro. Equalizer also important in my opinion to fine tune your type of sound.

[jamesmorse]

Keep in mind that speakers also sound different near field and far field. Near field, such as two feet away on a computer desktop, requires very little power compared to that same pair of speakers in a dedicated listening space where they may be five to eight feet away from the listening position. That additional power handling is where you may start to hear the differences between amplifiers and speakers. I also listen to speakers near on my computer desktop. Speakers that use similar technology do sound very similar at low power levels. But if I go from horn loaded/wave guide tweeters speakers vs surface mounted dome tweeters verse decoupled tweeters then the differences become apparent almost immediately. I even had a pair of speakers whose sound field shifted from wide to narrow as the frequency moved above or below the speaker's crossover point between the tweeter and the woofer. I am not assigning quality of sound here. That is a different topic all together.

Thank you for your video and insight.