Best all around speakers

I second Fafafion and Bongofury but with a caveat - there really is no "best" - just horses for courses.

I'd add a comment that Harbeths are (to my mind) slanted a little towards easy listening whilst ATC are slanted a little towards rock/jazz/big orchestral.

Both excel at midrange but Harbeths are voiced to play better at modest levels whilst ATC are voiced ruthlessly flat and prefer to be played at realistic levels (or they sound bass light). Nothing I have heard beats ATC's realistic rendition of percussion but they are a harsher/less warm sounding speaker than Harbeth. ATC's are used by Telarc (orchestral classical/jazz), by several Nashville studios (country) and a multitude of rock/pop/dance electronica studios around the world. They are also in several dance clubs and Disney's concert hall in LA (extremely rare that you find studio speakers also used as sound reinforcement at venues/clubs - most will distort badly or simply blow up a these SPL's).

I'd add that top of the line Dunlavy's are also regarded as a speaker that can do everything (used a lot in Mastering). Although, they shine slightly better in classical than rock.

Being good all round unfortunately means a speaker won't flatter a particular genre, instrument or recording...although vocalists tend to always come off well in my experience.

Either speakers are accurate or they're not.

The picture is rather less black and white than you paint. I suspect most audiophiles will agree that speakers vary by degrees with none being "accurate" when compared to most electronics.

I've never understood trying to match speakers to particular types of music

I assure you it works. Quad ESL's at low SPL's with soft acoustic music can be sublime...but they won't play rock very well. Some audiophiles have several systems that are suited to various genres. In theory, this may be the "best" option - multiple systems with each designed around a particular genre...

I understand the limitations of the Quads in particular, but there are other large speaker designs out there that cost a lot more that should be able to handle everything extremely well including the things the Quads excel at, don't you think?

Sure there are many other speakers that handle everything extremely well and are an all-around much better speaker than the dynamically limited Quad ESL. My point was that the Quad's are absolutely exqusite in the midrange and, as long as the music dynamics and frequency range just happens to fall right in the Quad's sweetspot, it is hard to do better with any other speaker period.

So isn't the fact of the matter then that there are many speakers out there that handle a wide variety of music types well, if not perfectly in all cases?

I'd fully agree with "there are many speakers out there that handle a variety of music types well" - especially provided you add the caveat of modest SPL levels.

As for near perfect - I think there really isn't one.

i think the issue here is :

what is the virtue in suffering ?

it is a poor investment to spend money to suffer.

MrT - you are missing the whole point of this hobby. Frustration and suffering is where it is at. If you don't have a whip to self flagellate your back while listening to Nina Hagen then you haven't lived.

That's because source material is recorded and mastered using all kinds of different-sounding equipment, such that there are all kinds of variabilities in the sound of source material--with an end result being that some source material is going to sound better with speakers of a certain "voice" and other source material will sound better with other types of "voicings"

This gets my vote for one of the wisest statements I have seen on Audiogon for months, may be years...

If more people understood this then there would be much less equipment frustration and flipping. With the best all round speakers you are likely to find that most music sounds good. A distorted/colored system may improve some tracks and even shine in a particular genre. One can think of it like good polaroid sunglasses...during the sunniest parts of the day or in a bright environment they actually improve your vision and work great, however, wearing them 24 by 7 and all year would NOT result in an overall improvement in vision.

When one goes to a dealer - chances are he/she has chosen a demo disc with tracks that work well through the system lens that he/she is selling. This is why it is a sensible idea to bring one's own discs and to bring a wide variety of music (not just audiophile selections). It is also why one must be prepared to accept that some particular tracks may sound better on one speaker/room setup compared to another but that does not necessarily guarentee the better sounding speaker is the best - the track may have been mixed in a way that it just works best on a particular setup with a slanted response...so the converse could be true when auditioning a wide variety of music.

This is one excellent reason to trust professionals and their equipment choices...after all, who else listens to all kinds of music, live and recorded, day in and day out! If many pros, each with a wide background and working with different genres, generally agree on certain gear as being "excellent" then you are pretty safe following their lead....the nice thing is that this still leaves you with plenty of choices...but it certainly narrows the selection down enormously to a few brands and often just a few models (particularly if you focus on mains monitoring and mastering)...anyway it takes some of the guess work out of the equation/merry-go-round. Sit back, relax, enjoy the music and if a particular track ain't quite as perfect sounding as you would like then you can always remind yourself, "If it is good enough for _______, then it is good enough for me!

To expand on Learsfool's theme, any one of the recent SACDs of Mahler by SF Syphony with Michael Tilson Thomas will test the limits of a speaker system. Symphony #1 and #6 have over 40dB of dynamic range, with huge sounds juxtiposed with almost silent spots.

These were monitored and mixed using Quad ESL 63's. These speakers will not play much more than 100 db SPL peaks before shutting down. Not suitable for realistic Mahler playback in a large room IMHO but obviously for the recording engineer (Andreas Neubronner) the unsurpassed midrange accuracy of the Quad's must be very important for classical mixing decisions. The recordings have won awards so if you are into classical and want to hear the detail of each instrument (at low SPL's) then this would obviously be a good choice of speaker. If you listen to rock or jazz then I think this speaker would be a mistake (Andreas has PMC AML1, Rogers Ls3/5a and Genelec 1031 too - so I expect the checks his mixes on these speakers too in order to ensure they are suitable for the general market)

why is it necessary to expose one's ears to 100db in a room no larger than 12 feet by 20 feet ?

You hear more detail and it is realistic/exciting/fun/enveloping but you are right in that there is no reason why music cannot be enjoyed at more modest levels too. (better for your ears!)

SPL of 110db is insane. More detail???? Wow.

Yes a drum set is insane! Most brass instruments are insane. Indeed, many musical instruments are insane - even grand pianos! Who would want to play or listen to this insanity. Long live recorded music - compressed and squashed to a pulp for audio playback at artificially low levels!

Lets Kill the dynamics! After all Dave has found a recording with 40 db dynamic range....holy smokes! - that is unheard of these days when most recordings have 3 db of dynamic range. Who are these rebels at San Fransisco Symphony? I mean this is nearly half the available dynamic range of the redbook CD format? Surely 90 db of the 96 db spl range of CD should not be used for such a horrendous purpose as to bring back dynamics to music (so you can listen louder comfortably)!!!

=> The reason 110 db spl sounds absolutely horribly loud is because of modern ultra compressed music which has absolutely NO DYNAMICS anymore - old vinyl is way better than most CD's nowadays (but none of this is at all like the real thing - live music). Of course 110 db SPL peaks are hellishly loud when the AVERAGE continuous sound is at 107 db SPL! This is not the same as the odd 110 db SPL peak/accent/cresendo on music that averages 90 db SPL.

The dynamic range or contrast between soft and very loud sounds is what gives music life...it is sad that dynamic range is all but completely DEAD today. No wonder 90 db SPL sounds so extremely loud with modern music - as it averages 87 db SPL continuously - that is why!