Recommendation for detailed/analytical bookshelf speaker?

Thank you. Sure, I'll try and look for them. Maybe the 6 series and if everything is good, invest on a higher model. I read somewhere that the Martin Logan were even better than the B&W is such kind of sound but from some videos I've seen in YouTube (I know, I know) the B&W sounds quite clear and revealing to me.

THANK YOU very much to all for all the suggestions! I'm very grateful. 

 @tlinkie : Thank you for the suggestions! You almost read my mind because this last Friday I received my Wharfedale Diamond 225 and yesterday I placed an order for a pair of Martin Logan LX16. My approach in those speakers is to buy the "cheap" entry level options and if the sound suits me I would try and buy the highest model. The Diamond 225 sound is quite nice, more musical than analytical but not darkened. I really like it but would like something more detailed. I will keep the 225s for another room, that's how much I liked them

I'm really really tempted to try and buy the ATC speakers (the 11 or the 19). The only problem is that because I live in Costa Rica it's harder for me to return them if I don't like the sound and even living in the US, I don't know where can I audition them... But, as I told you, I'm really tempted because I've read wonderful reviews from everybody about them.

In amplification power I think I'm ok because the amp I would be using is my NAD M22 V2 that produces 300 wpc.

Thank you again to all! Best regards,

Hello everyone. I'm here reporting my latest tests. First I must say I've learnt to things: i) How good this forum is! I posted in other forums as well but this is the one with the best responses, most opinions and helpful members and ii) How näive I was in regards to amps and speakers. I thought that with so many options I couldn't keep the same amp for years and I saw that au contraire, most audiophiles tend to change speakers oftenly and now it makes complete sense to me as it is quite impossible to have a better-for-all speakers.

With that being said, I auditioned the Wharfedale 225 and the Martin Logan LX16. The Martin Logan tweeter is the most treble-ish I've heard and as expected with almost no bass. It's a good speaker but nothing remarkable and the mid frequencies didn't sound as polished and refined as other speakers.

Now with the Wharfedale 225, I get why all the great reviews and recommendations from publications like The Absolute Sound and Stereophile. I've never heard before a speaker like this one. The sound creates a very nice atmosphere, it's a pleasure to hear it and basically all kind of songs (bad, medium or audiophile grade) sound good. I could hear them for hours. I guess that's how a MUSICAL speaker sound. The sound reproduction is not accurate or precise, the speaker has its own sound signature and it's a very pleasant one. As you might expect, the treble and/or high frequencies are a little off and notably, the voices sound like being between a veil but a very lush, luxurious veil. It's certainly not an analytical sound but it's musicality and warmth is addictive.

The bad thing is that, as wonderful as the Wharfedale 225 are, I couldn't live with them as my only speakers. 

THEN today I had the opportunity here in my country to demo the KEF LS50 speakers in my own listening room in my house. I've read a lot of great reviews about this speakers and was way curious to hear all the fuss about them.

They are high on the treble, 2 or 3 degrees to being shouting piercing speakers and certainly none a hint of warmth. The imaged like crazy, even if I moved a little from my chair, the singer's voice in the center stayed there and the soundstage was quite wide. Not only could I hear all the instruments, I could almost pinpoint within inches the separation of one instrument from the other.

I browse through different songs with the pressure, of course, of being with the vendors by my side in my room but even then, while browsing indistinctly from song to song, I heard Herbie Hancock's Rockit song, not a favorite song of mine but one I've heard for many many years and when the synth line came in, the sound I heard from the synth line was one I've never heard before in all those years. I then swapped other speakers like the Martin Logans and the synth line was there but with added "trebliness" and other artifacts and the original sound was lost and, even more revealing, I heard the same synth line with the Wharfedales and they actually "transformed" that synth line into another tonality (believe me or not): it was like being made with another synthesizer and it sounded "tamed down", sounding inoffensive but warmer, richer, with an added layer of "lushiness".  

My questions are: Could it be that the LS50 sound is just NEUTRAL, as real as it gets? Is these sound an analytical/detailed one?

Speakers like the much recommended ATC SCM11 could sound even more "neutral" or "analytical" without being more harshers and fatigue inducing? 

I think I could live with a sound like the LS50 but with an even more clinical or colder sound I don't know if I could. 

Does the B&W speakers provide that kind of neutrality/analytical sound of the LS50 and the warmth of the Wharfedales?

Before listening to the LS50 and after hearing the Wharfedales, I tough that maybe, as I really loved the Wharfedales sound but wanted more detail, if a high end option like Harbeth speakers could be a more refined, polished, detailed Wharfedales speakers but keeping the warmth and lush sound?

Maybe my solution is to have both the LS50 speakers and also the Wharfedales depending on my mood.

As you can see, the new option that I haven't contemplated before are the LS50 speakers and they could sell them to me immediately.

P.S. I also hear the Klipsch RP 600M speakers. They sound absolutely great with rock, 80s pop and such, but they lack a high end more detailed sound in my opinion and the soundstage it's quite narrow. Even then, I liked the RP 600M that much that in the future I'm planning to buy them as well and keep them in my BBQ/party area of my house

PLEASE excuse the long post and the wrong words I maybe have used as english is not my native language.

Best regards,

Hi. In terms of making bad recordings (e.g. some awesome 80s and 90s tracks that while great were very bad/cheaply recorded or the ones made under the loudness war), being that both speakers (KEF LS50 and ATC SCM11) are known for being detailing, which one handle those kind of recordings best? By handling I mean, which makes those recordings sound more full/airy and/or less harsh or shouty? Thank you very much!

P.S. Would the solution for having detailing speakers that also handles well bad recordings and that doesn’t excel only on premium recordings, if it is not a "contradictio in terminis" and such a speaker exist, the Klipsch speakers like the RP 600 M be a solution?

Thank you very much!

Thank you very much for all the suggestions. @b_limo , thank you for the detailed comparison between the ATCs and the LS50. I'm more and more close to try and buy the ATC SCM11. If the are as revealing as the LS50 but also managed to keep it somehow more "musical" than the LS50 I think I have a winner!

Why do you have that so many speakers on a short frame? Do you have more than one pairs of speakers? It's comforting to know I'm not the only one! Right now I have 4 pairs of speakers and I constantly rotate them and I always want to hear other options, it's like a "healthy" addiction... 

Hello. It's been hard to find ATC SCM11 speakers online in USA stores. In a placed called US AUDIO MART, there's someone selling a pair of ATC SCM7 speakers. I've read very good reviews about the SCM7, as well about the SCM11 and SCM19. Do you think a good strategy would be to buy the SCM7 -as they are now available- and then if I like the sound, enjoy them and later "jump" to the SCM19? Thank you!

Hi. I would like to thank everybody for their helpful answers and specially to all of those who recommended me ATC speakers. After reading your opinions and others from similar forums, since no SCM11 speakers where available at the moment (3 weeks ago) I found a pair of SCM7 speakers (V.3) used but in perfect condition. WOW, I've heard many speakers before, including my KEF R7 and LS50 speakers, and even though it sounds cliche, I can really say like other forum members had said, that these ATC are in a completely different league of their own and are BY FAR and NOT EVEN CLOSE than others, the BEST speakers I've heard in my life.
With my first hearings and comparing them with my LS50s, I thought the sound produced by the LS50 was linear, I mean, all the instruments sound at the same volume level but in their different positions and with the SCM7, some instruments sound specially louder than the voices but in a very nice way, almost 3 dimensional where I could "touch" the instruments.
After more hearings I still think there is like a V shape or something like that where voices sound a little less loud than the other instruments but in other songs the volume is equally distributed, BUT, that's just an observation. The main feeling with the SCM7 is that they provide an uncanny neutral sound WITHOUT being fatiguing at the same time. Everything sounds "like the real thing", sometimes "too close to reality" but without any harshness and almost all kind of songs from all kind of recordings sound great.
ONE GREAT THING these SCM7 speakers also has is that they provide a superb soundstage and instruments separation way beyond their physical space.
Anyway, this "review" is the least technical one you might find because, in plain words, the sound they deliver is MAGICAL, there's no better word that come to mind. They make me feel a special joy because EVERY SONG I've heard, even those I've been hearing since I was a teen in 1988-1989 and have been hearing through all the years through a lot of car speakers, home speakers, headphones, etc, SOUND ABSOLUTELY NEW when heard with the SCM7. It's the excitement you could get if, suddenly, all your favorite movies could be seen, in a future, in full 8 or 16K with 3D, I mean, a complete revelation that makes you PLAY and TOUCH the music if you know what I mean.
These SCM7 speakers have been an unparalleled  sonic revelation.
My search for the perfect speaker is over, I think. From now on, I'll be concentrating and other ATC models as an upgrade.
Best regards,

I was tempted to try and buy either the 11s or the 19s but I haven't had the chance to hear them. I bought the 7s without hearing them, based on the great reviews and yes, they are wonderful for nearfield. I wouldn't like spending more for the 19s only to realize they are not as good for that type of listening. BTW, though I love my 7s, I divide my time listening to the 7s and also to my Wharfedale Denton 80TH. But, different as can be, have their own strenghts. I want to try the Harbeths monitors. Best regards,