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What speaker – under $10k – has the best timbre and tonal qualities?

Several years ago, a prominent reviewer had this to say as he was praising the natural and life-like tonal qualities of a particular speaker:

It’s [speakers] like these that make me question the priorities of audiophiles who relegate accuracy of timbre to secondary status. How are the richness and color of instruments, voices, ensembles, and textures to be reproduced in all their infinite variety and beauty if a loudspeaker has less than accurate reproduction of timbre? What do dynamics, imaging, detail, transparency, and the like matter if voices and instruments don’t sound like themselves?

I’ve come the same realization, late in the game. I recently made a lateral move from one of the most popular of recent speaker models to a different speaker, because it sounded so much more natural and realistic in timbre. I sacrificed a touch of image precision in doing so, but it has been well worth it. The sound is so much more engaging. It’s like going from a high-resolution black and white photograph – which is very detailed and impressive – to a color version of the same photo, but with slightly less resolution. The color version offers so much more in terms of realism.

So I’m now contemplating the purchase of what I hope will be my last speakers, with the objective of realistic, natural, and rich (but not artificially warm) tone being the primary attribute.  

What speakers, under $10k, would you recommend? (I’m driving them with a PrimaLuna Prologue Premium)


wester17

Showing 1 response by joeldi

joeldi
8 posts
 
I've been a fan of planar speakers since the early Magnepans and a pair of Crown ES212s that I owned back in the day. I prefer a system with transparency, precise imaging and timbre and currently own a pair of Martin Logan 11As powered by a Bel Canto E1X amp. I also tried the Bel Canto REF600Ms, but they weren't quite as detailed as the E1X.

The downside to this system, as others have pointed out is that you really hear what the recording is like. Many, many recordings sound flat and unbalanced. But—when an excellent sound engineer has been in charge of recording a stunning performance, it's simply magical.

And one other thing... The ML 11As have the capability to use Anthem Room Correction (ARC). Before I ran this software on the speaker I had an annoying hump around, maybe 100Hz, possibly lower. I know that it was in the woofer range and not the panels. I suspect it was a resonance in the bay window near the speakers. After I ran the software and downloaded the custom filter that hump was gone. Absolutely fantastic technology. I have an electrical engineering degree, so I understand how they did this and think it's a superb solution.
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