Recent Floorstanding Speaker Reviews

The Polk Audio Legend L800’s with SDA Pro technology reflect the next evolution in Polk's long obsessions with cross-talk cancellation technology. Is this their best effort yet? Check out the review to find out why I fell in love with these speakers, found myself rediscovering my music collection all over again, yet also calling them idiosyncratic at the same time.

Polk Audio's brand new Reserve speaker series takes many of the innovations from their flagship Legend series and packs them into a much more affordable set. Many of the Reserve speakers have MSRPs less than half of that of their Legend counterparts yet still boast much of the same technology and even deploying a few new technologies of their own. This is great news for those who want the acclaimed high-performance Polk sound but can’t swing the Legend series price tags. Read our preview of the Reserve speakers to see how much hi-fi you can get for a low cost from Polk Audio.

THX has raised the bar to a height that few thought anyone could clear in their 'Dominus' certification. That has now changed with Perlisten Audio's introduction of a slew of high-performance loudspeakers and subwoofers which use advanced technology and brute force to utterly melt the limits of what was previously thought possible in sound reproduction. Read on to learn what THX Certified Dominus is and why it is such a big deal to have finally been attained by a loudspeaker manufacturer.

Paradigm has recently replaced their acclaimed Prestige loudspeaker line with the Founder series. The Founder speakers are packed to the gills with new advances in loudspeaker design, yet they keep many signature Paradigm design elements. The result is a speaker that pushes the technology envelope while benefiting from traditional engineering practices that have served Paradigm so well over the years. Read our preview of Paradigm's Founder speakers to see how much further forward they have pushed the high-end of sound reproduction.

Wilson Audio’s new SabrinaX Loudspeaker raises the price of its least expensive floorstander by almost 20%. But if you have a spare $18,900 lying around, it promises to deliver Wilson’s legendary performance and build quality in a smaller and less expensive package (relative to other Wilson speakers, that is). The SabrinaX boasts all new drivers and a cabinet built from the company’s proprietary composite X-Material. Read on to learn more.

Elac’s Andrew Jones has completely redesigned the company’s Uni-Fi range of 3-way loudspeakers. The Uni-Fi 2.0 series is now the brand’s least expensive to offer Jones’s signature concentric drivers, where the tweeter sits inside the midrange driver. The Uni-Fi 2.0 lineup includes the UB52 bookshelf speaker ($600/pair), the UF52 floor-standers ($1,200/pair), and the UC52 center-channel speaker ($400/each). Read on to learn more.

JBL’s newest high-end loudspeaker is the 4349 Studio Monitor ($7,500/pair). The 4349 combines the company’s lauded, horn-loaded D2415K compression driver with a 12-inch woofer to deliver “a triumph for accurate sound reproduction.” Despite the “Studio Monitor” moniker, the 4349 is intended for both audio professionals and home listeners. Read on to learn more.

Our review last year of the Revel PerformaBE M126Be bookshelf speakers impressed us so much that we wanted to check out a pair of towers and center channel in the same lineup. The PerformaBe F226Be is a three-way floor-standing speaker, and the C426Be, a monsterous three-way center speaker uses four 6.5" bass drivers and the same mid/tweet array. Our exhaustive review explores if these products live up to the Revel reputation and our comprehensive measurements and listening tests will help determine that.

As a follow-up to our extremely popular recent article, An Audiophile’s Realization: My Last New Speakers, the least we can do is take a close look at the object of that article, the Legacy Audio Signature SE floorstanding speaker. Will this story have a happy ending? Will the audiophile ride off into the sunset with a smile on his face? Read our review of the 4-way Legacy Signature SE Towers to find out.

Dynaudio has totally overhauled its popular Contour series loudspeakers with new internals. All four speakers in the new Contour i series employ a new tweeter design and updated woofers and crossovers. The flagship Contour 60i floor-standers ($10,750/pair) are almost entirely new from the ground up. And it doesn’t hurt that they sport gorgeous new finishes. Read on to learn more.

Developed alongside the less expensive EVO4 range, Wharfedale’s new flagship Elysian range is now the brand’s top offering. The Elysian 2 stand-mount speaker ($7,000/pair) and the Elysian 4 floor-standers ($10,000/pair) combine an Air Motion Transformer tweeter with custom-designed midrange and bass drivers. Wharfedale claims that these beauties “push the boundaries of capability and performance from a speaker at this price-point.” Read on to learn more about these speakers that were 3 years in the making.

More than two years after Definitive Technology launched their Demand series bookshelf speakers, they have expanded the line to include some tower speakers. However, the Demand tower speakers look to be a lot more than simply larger versions of the bookshelf speakers. They show a significant design departure from past Definitive Technology floor-standing speakers, and that has us interested in this new direction. In our review of Definitive Technology's new Demand D15 floor-standing speaker, we will look at why Definitive Technology has changed their direction in loudspeaker design and see what advantages this new direction holds.

Focal’s Kanta N°2 floor-standing loudspeakers ($10,000/pair) are now available in two new finish options, Carrara White and Black Lacquer/Walnut. The new finishes will come to the rest of the Kanta range next year. One of the most popular speakers in Focal’s extensive lineup, the Kanta N°2 combines the company’s unique flax sandwich cones with its famous pure beryllium tweeter. Read on to learn more.

One of the most anticipated loudspeakers shown at the 2019 CEDIA show has finally come in for us to review, the JBL HDI-3800 which is the big dog of JBL's new HDI series. This 84 lbs beast uses three 8" bass drivers and an advanced compression driver and waveguide derived from the cutting-edge audio R&D from the whizzes at JBL. At $5k/pair, they ain't cheap, but a loudspeaker this powerful and advanced may well be a bargain at that price if all the technology translates into real performance. Read our full review to see what we found.