Best Speaker for classical music

johnnyb533,510 posts01-07-2014 9:53am

01-05-14: Wolf_garcia
The distinction between types of music relative to speaker design is silly. A well recorded jazz piano trio has every bit as complex and demanding a tonal pallette as symphonic music, and is only constrained or affected by level and room acoustics.

I disagree based on experience to the contrary. It's relatively easy to find speakers that sound compelling with an acoustic jazz trio or quartet. Feed them a 100-piece orchestra and listen to them serve up inarticulate mush. Throw in a pipe organ and 8-part choir and it's just sonic wallpaper.


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Hey Jonny
~~sonic walpaper~~~, 
Full orchestra had me thinking the other day, , well as of 2019/late.
That there seems to be some subtle passages with flutes, harps, percussion, which is not being voiced properly so i can hear it, I had to strain my ears. 
Sure recording engineers are partly to blame. 
Of course its in the score, as a  lightly played passge, amongst a  roaring orchestra. 

My guess is if I ever find this magical speaker than can detect, voice these tinest notations from winds, percussion, any other lightly touched passage. it will be something.
So my search went on and on,,,
Midrange, here is where i need to concentrate. 
Lets take  bass/highs off the table for a   moment.

cd3181,719 posts10-27-2020 2:22pmClassical music is a far more demanding genre - from my point of view.

My desire that a system can reproduce accurate timbre ( not washed out as is all too common) far outweighs its other qualities, such as imaging, or collosal dynamics etc.

This possibly exaggerated desire for tonal colour leads me to believe I might have some form of chromesthesia (sound-color synesthesia).

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chromesthesia#:~:text=Chromesthesia%20or%20sound-to-color,associatio....

Classical music especially, without good instrument timbres, is difficult for me to enjoy, whereas with rock I'd be looking for great dynamics or for pop it might be a great midrange.

Classical music with good timbral expression on the other hand becomes a joy. Especially piano and strings.

So I think it's a question of finding a speaker that excels at that quality that's most important to you.

All loudspeakers are not created equal, and few, if any, can do everything right.

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Yes a  speaker that is all in all perfection, is not a  reality. 
Unless you want to go 3 way horn witha  15 inch woofer, Price? Weigyht/size? wife friendly? = not a option, Oh yeah it has every fq range you could ever want/ wish for. 
But these masssive horns present road blocks.

**CM ~~Timbral expression ~~tonal colors~~~
Yes This is all midrange.
Here is where we ought to focus and forget about bass/highs. 
Super highs are more for ambience than actually in the music. 
That isa  super tweeter perhaps falsifies the actual highs within the music, ie classical composition. 
Do we want these shimmers, and sparkles? Yes we do. 
But lets forget the sparkles and concentrate  exclusively on midrange
Here is where the heart and soul of CM lies. 
I can find bass and high add on speakers, thats no big issue. 
its the massive amount of midrange fq's where we need to stay focused. 
Perahps there are a  few single drivers that have capability to voice these wide band midrange with some degree of success. 
As box/xover  speakers have failed in presenting  symphony orchestra as it will be required. That is, nothing hidden, nunaces  heard in flutes, soft cellos,  hidden harp passages, 
This is the midrange we will need to make classical music come to life.

I'm trying to find the best speaker between $25000 and $40000 for symphonic music. I listen to other things too but that's my reference.. Interested in Wilson, B & W, Rockport, Cantonkeithjacksontucson01-04-2014 11:35a~~~~~~
See you figured, if I spend big, this will leave  behind speakers which are not up to class to play CM with pure musical fidelity.
Sure there are  horns systems at that time, 2014, which are quite good at voicing full symphony orchestra. 
But again, price, size/weight/wife friendly,,, all these factors work agaisnt going massive horn systems. 
The alternative and alot less money involved is going for the new high tech wide baads,  most latest developments came out just after you posted 2015 
Or was AER making wide bands in 2014???
I am not sure.
If they were, there is hardlya mention here on audiogon 2014, So you would have never come across AER at that time. 
These drivers are too new in 2014.
maybe in europe they had attention, but certainly not here in the states. 
Again Voxtaiv in 2014 had not really been revognized here in the states. 
Unless someone can show me a  wide band topic mentioning these 2 drivers back in 2014, with more than say 20 posts. 
Why these wide band are not more  popular here in the states is somewhat of a  mystery to me. 

I agree with Dkarmeli (Audio Dealer). If you want a large scale audio display in front of you, seek out a horn based system.

Any speaker can play R&R, blues, grundge, hiphop, reggie
Jazz requires a bit more finesse.
CM (at least full blown symphony orchestra) requires even more finesse/nuances/fidelity vs all other musical genres.
Full symphony orchestra requires a ~~special speaker~~Midrange demanding.

@mozartfan Any speaker can play classical too. The more finesse the speaker has, the better it plays all genres. Seriously- if you could find a way to make a speaker genre specific you'd be a millionaire overnight. The reason it can't be done is musicians all use the same set of frequencies and all humans have the same set of hearing perceptual rules.


Its simply a mistake to lump all 'R&R, blues, grundge, hiphop, reggie' into the same spot when there is so much variety and nuance in modern music- and so much variance in recording quality, just as we've seen in classical music since the dawn of hifi. You want a nice rock recording- side one of King Crimson's Islands- you'll hear nuance, detail (if you have a good pressing) - it sounds like they are in the room. Or try a Pink Island edition of ELP's first album... Keith Emerson BTW was a master at the keyboard and integrated a variety of classical pieces into his compositions. And not surprisingly, if you want to hear these recordings at their best a speaker that does classical very well is going to do it, simply because the speaker does not care what music you play- and neither do the amps or preamps!