Best Loudspeakers for Rich Timbre?

cd318,

Interesting list.

The main problem I see is the subjectivity involved.   If we surveyed everyone here we'd see a huge variety of speakers being used, and I doubt many people would say "My speakers don't do instrumental timbre well."  In other words, that list could be expanded to the point it's not terribly useful.

That's not to say that I think that it's just entirely subjective whether a system produces accurate timbre, or accurate sound in general.  In principle, it seems to me, blind tests could be set up with, say, live vs reproduced sound and a large enough sample size of participants, and tests, over time could produce results showing some speakers produce sound closer to indistinguishable from live (and hence good timbre) than others.

But as that isn't happening much at all, we are left to what measurements can tell us, and ultimately our own impressions.

cd318,
I wasn't implying that tube gear would help in getting rich timbre. I was agreeing that the whole chain of gear must be taken into consideration. 

You can swap out speakers until you run out of patience and won't get rich timbre if what is upstream of it is not up to par. If you can get as accurate as you can a set up, rich timbre should be one of the results.

All the best,
Nonoise

@prof , yes live v recorded demos would be a great way to show off loudspeakers.

Gilbert Briggs (Wharfedale) used to do this back in the 1950s in absolutely huge arenas like London's Festival Hall.

Surely someone big like B&W could do something similar now.

cd318

I'm somewhat puzzled by the fact it seems no one (or no speaker manufacturer I'm currently aware of) is doing the live vs reproduced tests for their speakers.  (With the exception of the occasional live musician brought in for some audio shows).

John Dunlavy claimed this was fairly routine when testing the success or not of their speaker designs.

@nonoise , I agree wholeheartedly that what comes before the loudspeaker matters. When it comes to vinyl sources. you have to get as good a turntable as  you can.

However when it comes to digital sources, amplifiers (SS) and cables, I'm firmly in the Peter Aczel camp.

I also live in fear that I will eventuality just give up and end up listening to vinyl via a pretty tube amp and high efficiency speakers. By then no doubt fully convinced the entire industry took a wrong turn some 60 years ago and have been duping us all in the process ever since.