What are the best speakers for 80's hard rock?

There are speakers that might sound good which is subjective and those that perform well with proper amplification which is more objective. Not the same thing necessarily. I think Atmasphere is saying if it truly performs well for classical it will also for rock. I would tend to agree in general.

The CErwin Vega recommendations are interesting. Its been many years but that is one brand of speakers I can say I have never, ever heard sound good. The bass always seems to be muddy. DID these get better later on? Specific models that are better maybe? Or maybe improvements in amps and other gear over time makes them sound better than they did?

The CErwin Vega recommendations are interesting. Its been many years but that is one brand of speakers I can say I have never, ever heard sound good. The bass always seems to be muddy. DID these get better later on? Specific models that are better maybe? Or maybe improvements in amps and other gear over time makes them sound better than they did?

Muddy undefined bass is never good, 80s rock or otherwise.

I never liked cerwin vega with anything including hard rock but that is their most common application in practice I'd bet.

Even distortion produced by design in rock music only sounds right when played back accurately. Adding noise and distortion during playback is always bad, even if present in the source material.

No doubt rock music always sounds best played back on the best system, just like all the rest. Best in terms of least amount of noise and distortion, which always sounds the best that is possible given the source material in the end.

Public enemy # 1 in most systems in terms of noise and distortion is amp clipping. Insure against that ever happening, especially at louder volumes often called for with certain kinds of music for lifelike reproduction in particular, like rock, orchestral and big band and chances are the rest will work out a lot faster as well.

If louder listening volume is not of concern, then things get easier, but realize there will be performance limitations imposed upon ones listening choices.

I know a lot of people who listened solely to rock tended to like Cerwin Vega yes because of the large 12" bass drivers and price. I just know they always finished dead last in the auditions for customers for me.

THey also used to like the old Realistic Mach One speakers for similar reasons which were lets just say not that good.

Big speakers with big drivers was often all it took to make a sale to a rocker, no doubt.

OHM Walsh 5X models use a single 12" driver to better effect for producing most of the music much better than any other 2 or 3 way design with a 12" driver that I have ever heard.

That includes 80s hard rock along with all the rest.

In fact, I can't think of any 2 way designs with a 12" driver? Some pro gear I suppose. Most have to go three way to do things well. That opens up an additional can of worms. I've never been a fan of 3 way designs in general though I know there are many good sounding ones out there.

Ideally I would want a large single driver to do it all but practically the options there are limited to other forms of very hard to find Walsh speakers that over the years have typically also proven to be quite fragile.