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
Seriously?  How long is a piece of string?

A completely unanswerable question.
With your setup - Harbeth 40.2 would be superb and meet your expectations. They are outstanding with SS amps, like the Brystons.

2nd choice would be the Maggies, with REL subs, or Spatial Audio M3 Sapphire, X3 or X5.  

You will be very pleased with any of these.
Vandersteen Treo CT's are outstanding at this price point. Exceptional high end clarity. A completely different approach would be the DeVore Fidelity O/93's. Both are excellent in the Mid $8k range.