😮 SHOCKING Performance Under $10k - Deep Dive Into the Sourcepoint 888 by Andrew Jones at His Studio

Many people ask me what is the best speaker under $10k. There are so many variables in terms of taste, room equation, aesthetics, and design style. Plus, you can get incredible performance melding subs with satellites. However, there are very few speakers under $10k that give you more than just a taste of the cost-no-object speakers as-is.
The Sourcepoint 888 are a no-brainer for many (if not most) audiophiles under $10k although there are tons of good options. It's only $5k and a must audition even if you are considering spending much more.
This video includes a walkthru with the designer Andrew Jones and some behind the scenes information about their design and other tidbits.
0:00 Intro
2:44 One Important Takeaway from Andrew
4:33 The Value of Experience
7:05 Andrew Jones Presents the Sourcepoint 888
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BTW...props to / krutikovmusic for the awesome remix of "Intergalactic" used in both the intro and outro.
For full music trailer - • The Marvels | TRAILER ...
All copyright belongs to their respective owners.
Original Trailer Song - Beastie Boys - Intergalactic
Arranged and Orchestrated - Yuri Krutikov

[@AudiophileJunkie]

If you want to see more of Andrew's studio, my first visit with Steve McCormack last year may interest. kzbin.info/www/bejne/Y2aUdaKJe6Z4o7M

[@adsph]

Thank you for sharing Jason.

[@brianesbaugh6897]

Great conversation!

[@dougg1075]

Andrew lives the audiophile dream. Beautiful design .

[@bencarignan2711]

This is exactly what I've been hoping for ever since this line debuted.

[@bencarignan2711]

Amazing!

[@gnd144]

The 888 combines modern design and old school appearance. The key to any great speaker besides internal bracing, drivers, tweeters etc....is spending money on the crossover....3 to 4 times as much money spent on the 888 crossover than on the Source Point 8. It justifies the 5 grand price point. *Thank-you sir for interviewing the audio legend Mr.Jones, well done.

[@Ivy13276]

Thank you for the video! How do these stack up against your gr research?

[@AudiophileJunkie]

On their own, the 888 will go lower than the Nxtremes in-room and anechoically. For most people who like box speakers and no subs, the 888 on their own will give a more full range and better off-axis behavior. That being said...the Nxtremes are open baffles and array for bass loading (which has advantages for certain tastes including mine) assuming you mate them properly to subs. When I mate them with 2 subs and Bacch/ORC, it provides BETTER than any cost-no-object system I've heard, BUT again that's a lot of variables other than just the speakers. If you look at the recent KZbin short I've released, the measurements I'm getting at the listening position in-ear are something you can't duplicate no matter what speakers you buy...unless you have certain tools. With the right tools and subs, the Nxtremes have my preferred open baffle presentation and ceiling of performance. However, we're talking well over 5 figures costs involved to add the subs and tools necessary to reach that potential. On their own with zero help from subs or other tools, I'd recommend the 888 at $5k already build easily.

[@Ivy13276]

@@AudiophileJunkie thank you for the detailed response, it helps a lot. Question: are you using the original "stock parts" from GR research that come with the kit? I mean resistors, capacitors, inductors, wires.

[@AudiophileJunkie]

I used the upgraded parts option from GR Research at the time

[@shanerorko8076]

Active crossovers are far superior, just like class D amplification, but some people just want to buy a speaker they can put in their house without tinkering. I get that, I have the knowledge to tune a DSP setup with active crossovers, but it gets expensive too. For me these speakers would be my end game at that price tag, and I would pay similar for a nice integrated stereo amp. That would be about 10k for a good system, no tuning no extra stuff around, just set it up in the room and listen.

[@michaelmityok1001]

Just curious what the source and amp stack is... hard to triangulate without that info!

[@AudiophileJunkie]

Alchemy DDP2 DAC/Pre, with Classé 400W monoblocks

[@carminedesanto6746]

I use graphs as a taste of what’s happening..and manufacturing for consistency in build …apart from that ..chill and enjoy the music 🎼

[@AudiophileJunkie]

Most graphs (unless done by certain software like the Bacch) are barely even a taste of what's happening at the listening position ... Especially in the bass because they are taken 1 foot away. There are ways to use that data to extrapolate what may be happening at the listening position, but that depends on the experience looking at the graphs and how those measurements were taken. Those are the two variables people miss and I wanted to point out in the video.

[@carminedesanto6746]

Ohhhh…oh,at the end of the vid . I have an understanding now. Thanks

[@truman4956]

Do any manufacturers make active speakers with the amplifier section in separate enclosure?

[@AudiophileJunkie]

Actually my Wisdom Audio Adrenalines in my family room are active with separate amps. You can watch my channel trailer for more details. They date back to 2000 and can easily beat almost anything today calibrated right.

[@poochymama2878]

JBL M2 does this.

[@bbfoto7248]

@truman4956 The Present Day Production MUM-8/MUM-6 Studio Mastering Monitors use a integrated DSP/Amplifier Module that can either be attached or integral to the back of the speaker, or removed and placed remotely...for instance, when wanting to mount some of the speakers to side or rear walls or ceilings for multi-channel ATMOS mixing setups, etc. These studio monitors use a combination of the Purifi PTT-series midwoofer/midbass drivers and the BlieSMa Silk or Beryllium dome midrange and dome tweeters, all of which are among the best performing drivers available.

[@Acoustic_Theory]

The problem with that naming convention is that when they do the second tower and the Sourcepoint 6, the tower is going to be the 666.

[@AudiophileJunkie]

That would be funny

[@crazyprayingmantis5596]

That's what I'll buy, especially if they have red devil horns on them 😈

[@samlee2562]

Both the speaker binding posts are red...?!?! 😈 !!​@@crazyprayingmantis5596

[@RobertSpiller]

Question....how do these compare to Perlisten, or Arendal, but I know that Arendals are much cheaper

[@AudiophileJunkie]

Don't have much experience with Arendal. The Perlisten are really nice but more money for comparable performance.

[@RobertSpiller]

@@AudiophileJunkie Wow...thanks for that quick response.

[@poochymama2878]

All other things being equal, an active speaker will always sound better than the equivalent passive speaker. Fortunately we have some really great passive speaker designers that can get us 95% of the way there, and a great passive will beat a good active.

[@georgelien]

Not true >__< By having more Air Space, Passive Speakers almost always can kick Active Speakers in any day.

[@robertj1701]

You have no idea what you’re talking about…

[@jlo8775]

Over 35 years of hifi and I have yet to hear an active speaker worth its price.

[@Nonsense62365]

I didn’t understand 90% of what he was talking about. Danny from GR Research does a great job of relating how drivers work. He also reviewed one of MoFi’s speaker that andrew designed.

[@AudiophileJunkie]

What was confusing? It was pretty basic stuff, but maybe I can help explain.

[@303RUBIX]

May Ask which Dali?

[@AudiophileJunkie]

I forgot the exact model, but it was the one I featured in the Dali video from Munich where they did an entire presentation. You should be able to find and that video will give you more info than I can in a comment.

[@303RUBIX]

Thank you

[@maartenmulder2630]

They showed the new rubikore 8 at high end Munich

[@josefserf1926]

One of these days Jones is going to design a real sweetheart of a loudspeaker. If anyone can, he can.

[@AudiophileJunkie]

TAD is still using much of his design 20 years later in their reference cost-no-object speaker. I would be interested in seeing him do an electrostatic since the Quads initially got him into the hobby.

[@n.lyndley.9889]

Meridian , Linn, Sanders Sound ✅✅✅ Been into audio for forty years. Whenever I see a ‘high-end’ audiophile system costing a small fortune with all the music chugging through a bunch of resistors, capacitors and inductors (a passive crossover) I just laugh. Power dissipation, lack of driver control, phase issues, no time alignment, crossover slope restrictions, one amp driving multiple drivers - it’s a joke.

[@EricRhodeslives]

Which Dali?

[@AudiophileJunkie]

Check my Munich coverage with the full presentation by Dali...I think the model is about $7k but I can't recall the model off hand.

[@EricRhodeslives]

@@AudiophileJunkie thank you so much, Will do.

[@maartenmulder2630]

Rubikore 8

[@glenncurry3041]

So why does he not design a very simple active crossover package to sell with the speakers instead of the passive and let the customer provide what ever amps they want. Just enough of a device to pass the costumer's preamp to multiple amps with predetermined crossover points and slopes.

[@AudiophileJunkie]

It wouldn't sell... Not enough people know the benefits and then you'd need to buy more amps if it's not included.

[@glenncurry3041]

@@AudiophileJunkie A major idea of the interview was getting away from passive xovers. Most people have no clue it even exists. Even high end reviewers it seems! Where would you source an active xover if you wanted to? But one specifically designed to just replace the passive xover with hard wired hinge and slopes would be fairly simple. Remove the cost of the passive xover and supply this dedicated to this model one. Lots of bridged amps used as mono-blocks out there that could be split again and just have another one added to give everything needed. I bet there is enough of a market if properly marketed. Think inexpensive Linkwitz.

[@AudiophileJunkie]

A state-of-the-art crossover is included with the Bacch on top of all the other benefits. It's best nowadays to do it in the digital domain and have access to far more slopes and options than an analog based active crossover can do.

[@johnstone7697]

@@AudiophileJunkie But it's not practical to expect the average audiophile to set this up properly. Way too complicated.

[@johnstone7697]

@glenncurry3041 An active crossover can improve a speaker a lot, but leaving it up to the customer to get it working properly is a very risky proposition. Gain matching, correct phasing, and getting the low and high pass connections correct is critical. Get it wrong, and you stand a good chance of blowing a driver. In a system where that driver is coaxial, such a mistake can be very expensive. If a customer has 2 (or 3) different power amps, how is he sure he's got the correct gain or phase? That would require some means of measuring and trimming the amps. And some amps invert phase too, which would be an additional problem. Too many places for things to go wrong. Most manufacturers can't (and don't want to) provide the very high level of technical support a separate line level xover would require. This is why most active speakers come with the amps built in.

[@pedrocols]

Growing up never thought a speaker, yes a speaker, would cost this much...lol

[@Mishael_Agyei-Boamah]

what if I told you these are actually worth their asking price

[@Stephen_567]

Who in the right mind will buy 10k speaker?

[@AudiophileJunkie]

How much does your speakers cost? I guarantee it's more than what someone in the third world would spend, so it's all relative. If you think your income and wealth is applicable to all and how you spend your money is better than others, I'd get some self awareness.