Recommendation on speakers for listening to live music


Hello, I was wondering if anyone had a recommendation on speakers for listening to live music. I have a big collection of live Grateful Dead, phish, jazz, etc.. This is music on cd or vinyl that was recorded live. Are there quality speakers that cater to both live and studio recordings. Would be using McIntosh power amps mc252, mc275 etc.. Thank you very much for any advice.

jazzydrummer

Hello, 

You have some nice gear. I noticed you did not mention a budget, Bookshelf or floor standers, or even color and finish. You are addressing a group who has either owned a lot of speakers or have listened to most. I do not own them but have heard several on SS and tubes. The Tekton Moab’s are going to be the best live performance for the money or beyond the money in sound. My favorite Tektons are the Encore. Perfect mix of live and studio nuance and not as big as the Moab. If you need a better price but still a great speaker is the Double impact. 
Now if you have big budget I think you should take the recommendations from above except the Maggie’s. I have listened to the 20s on 4 bel canto mono blocks with a pass crossover. The live sound was their but it still needed a couple of subs and a subwoofer crossover to send everything below 80hz to the subs so as not to stress the Maggie’s. I will tell you for 1/4 price you will get there with the Tektons with out adding subs. I will tell you the Hegel v10 phono stage is really great for duplicating these sounds for $1650. I have been demoing the Parasound JC3+ and it does almost everything the Hegel does and more except the Hegel’s headroom is about a foot higher. I mean ceiling height! I am hoping after the full 200 breakin this does that. So at almost twice the price it would be my recommendation for doubling up after the Hegel. I also own a Sutherland Little LOCO. It works off of current instead of voltage. The advantage is full dynamics regardless of volume level. It excelled in low to mid level listening. It will reproduce exactly what is on the record. 
Soory to get off on a tangent. Tektons are what you want. Very efficient too. If you cannot deal with the looks then get you wallet out. Because Joseph are awesome, but they don’t come cheap. I looked up the Salk speakers and they have a ton of good things going for it. Infact they might be Joseph’s in wolfs clothing. I mean cheaper for you. 
there are some tweaks you can do like getting setup with a Puritan 156, GroundMaster City, and a RouteMaster. When you attack noise and ground and remove the horrible stuff from your system every performance can sound live. 
Notdost make these pucks that are powered that sit below or on top of your gear. You can look it up. I guarantee you do these tweaks at some point you will say that is enough. Meaning it’s too live. If I put a $100 pair of speakers on my system I can not only make them visually disappear but you will swear they are worth thousands. 
I know that Stereoelleven.com in Georgia and Holmaudio.com in the Chicagoland area are dealers for Puritan and Holm Audio is a Nordost dealer too. On 11/17/22 they are having some sort of event with their lines. Even Charles Kirmus will be demoing his record cleaning restoration machine. I hope this helps. I do know what you are asking for and this is how to get it. 

Hi Jazzydrummer,

As it supposed to be, everyone is in love of the carefully build own sound equipment.

In my case, I’m in love of mine, a pair of Atma-Sphere MA1 driving Soundlab

U-545. Real sound. Electrostatic sound is fantastic.

For instance Woody Herman Woody’s and his Big Band Concord Records CJ-330 “Woody’s Gold Star is like sharing the scenario.

Hope could be helpful.(Excuse my poor english)

For amplified live music ATC is hard to beat.  They're better at high volume.  

They also manage bass better than most brands.  This is one of those things that you need to experience and live with long enough to stop being emotional about it.  ATCs start rolling off bass at a relatively high frequency.  This very significantly reduces room problems, especially when you crank 'em up a bit.  They provide fantastic dynamics, very high quality bass.  The bigger ones with big bass drivers have great punch.  And you can fill in the very low end with subs if you want.  Mains with -3db points below 40hz are a bad idea in most rooms for amplified, bassy music..