Is there such a speaker...(loud but smooth)?

Hi all!

Interesting comments. At this point I am not looking at a price range. I was just wondering if there was something out there other than professional PA speakers that could really rock the joint. Actually, as far as that is concerned I remember hearing some Yorkville Elite PA speakers that sounded darn good.

A guy at the local higher-end store was saying that I should get a pair of bookshelf speakers and a subwoofer. That way the bookshelf speakers could play louder since they do not have to reproduce the lower frequencies. They have some Era bookshelf speakers coming in soon that they want me to audition.

Dave

I would second the Emerald Physics CS-2's....or I'm sure CS-1's when they come out

I'd also add reliability as a requirement . . . because it's no fun cranking it if you're overly worried about blowing something up. So if it's a traditional passive speaker you're looking at, you'll need a powerful amp and/or one with very dignified clipping characteristics. For this, it's hard to beat a big McIntosh amp - they have a ton of headroom, and they're virtually impossible to drive into serious clipping.

Most of the professional main studio monitors will do just what you're asking - I have personal experience with ATC 100s, JBL 4430 & 4435, Urei 813s, Westlakes etc. in studio control rooms that were all really exciting, dynamic, and smooth at very high volumes. Even some of the nearfields like the Meyer HD-1 will crank up amazingly well. The flip side is that all of these speakers work best when they're very carefully set up, and room acoustics are under control - just like in a studio. That and some of them (esp. Ureis, Yamaha NS10s) have a upper-midrange boost that many engineers actually like . . . probably an homage to the old Altec 604 that was the standard for so many years.

You might also check out the upper models of B&O speakers - they're all active, multi-amplified designs like professional speakers, but they're designed for a typical domestic environment. The BeoLab 5s in particular play extremely loud and very clean - but you might need to take them home to really hear what they sound like. I actually have a pair of early-1990s B&O Pentas that I use with my video system - they're really fun to listen to at loud volumes, and I can personally attest to their durability. Pretty damn reasonable on the used market, too.

So your going with a bookshelf!!! u so crazy man...

So your going with a bookshelf!!! u so crazy man...

LOL...yes I was surprised by this too although if he were to go with the small ATC SCM19's you can still get pretty loud. Another speaker that can go loud is Meyer HD 1...also small but deceivingly big sound. However, most bookshelve speakers ...you can absolutely forget it!!