Should a reference speaker be neutral, or just great sounding?


I was thinking about something as I was typing about how I've observed a magazine behave, and it occurred to me that I have a personal bias not everyone may agree to.  Here's what I think:
"To call a speaker a reference product it should at the very least be objectively neutral."

However, as that magazine points out, many great speakers are idiosyncratic ideas about what music should sound like in the home, regardless of being tonally neutral.

Do you agree?  If a speaker is a "reference" product, do you expect it to be neutral, or do you think it has to perform exceptionally well, but not necessarily this way?
erik_squires
A reference is anything you refer to. For words we can refer to a dictionary. You could look it up and see, that is literally the meaning of reference. Nothing about neutrality, objectivity, or anything like that. Your reference could be a Picasso painting of a woman with three boobs and a few other odd body parts. Your reference could be last years iPhone. 

A reference is nothing more than a standard. There's nothing objective about it, not at all. A meter is a reference, defined about as objectively and with as much precision as anything probably ever could be. Yet the meter itself is totally arbitrary. We just decided for convention to make it what it is. 

Same with your speaker reference. Totally arbitrary. Make it what you will.
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Everyone’s “reference” will certainly be different. So many things determine the way we hear. The shape of your head. The size of your head. The shape of your ears. Even the size of your torso affects the way you hear.

Now let’s get into the room you listen in. And the list goes on and on. My reference and yours may be very different. With all these variables, what is neutral? Your neutral,may be tipped up to me. I think,of course,only my opinion,is reference would be what sounds great to your ears. A great topic with many different correct answers.  Now,if a speaker measures flat,do we all hear it the same way? 
One reference I can think of is Greenwich Mean Time.
What single loudspeaker model could aspire to the kind of acceptance that GMT has?
As others say, an individual can establish their own reference if they like, but it pertains only to them.
The rest is advert copywriter gobbledygook.  Along with SE, Signature, etc.

Reference in HEA is fairly generic and weakens the origins of "reference" or "referencing" music, which was started by going from the Live room to the Control room to the Playback room.

I've seen High End Audio try to use musical production terms from the very beginning. Cute but not reality as far as the production of recordings and playing back goes.

As said above, your room is more your reference than your speaker is.

mg