Best Speaker for classical music


I'm trying to find the best speaker between $25000 and $40000 for symphonic music. I listen to other things too but that's my reference.. Interested in Wilson, B & W, Rockport, Canton
keithjacksontucson

Showing 4 responses by wolf_garcia

The distinction between types of music relative to speaker design is silly. A well recorded jazz piano trio has every bit as complex and demanding a tonal pallette as symphonic music, and is only constrained or affected by level and room acoustics. A big system in a big room simply sounds louder, and the dynamic element of classical music at high level often has little to do with an actual live symphonic musical experience unless you regularly enjoy concerts on the podium sprawled under the conductor, or suspended by wires over the orchestra. Big systems in small rooms are dumb, and a small system in a big room means you might have to sit closer to it, right in the path of the servants trying get by you to serve the soup course to the Rothchilds.
I listen to 100 piece orchestras frequently, always have, and have a well rounded background decades long in myth-free audio as a professional musician/recording engineer and hifi fan. I stick by what I say...for example, my current somewhat modest rig, using small driver coherant floorstanders and a great sub, can reproduce orchestras in my room with every single recorded note and tonal dynamic preserved and delivered to my ears with stunning fidelity and soundstaging, and at levels approaching ear damage. Again, obviously larger systems in larger rooms sound larger, but ask anybody who used LS3/5A based systems or lots of other small monitor speakers (or good headphones) and, although they obviously lack the slam and volume of largeness, to say that inherent orchestral dynamic nuance somehow can't make it from the amp to these speaker systems and out to your head is nonesense. Also, an acoustic piano, drum kit, and acoustic bass have together many thousands of tiny aural cues and overtone subtleties that easily rival any orchestra, if you care to notice.
Big speaker systems usually have a couple of drivers and one tweeter, almost without exception (Magnapans and other planars are an exception...but still)...exactly like smaller systems, so the only qualitative difference is relative to listening space size and what it takes to get the mojo in that space. A smaller full range system will work in a smaller space, etc., or one simply asks the nurse to roll you closer...a large system in a small space sounds great from across the street.