Speakers - Your "Safest" Choice

@gnoworyta wrote: "What I was trying to get to is the speaker that you or others think are a "crowd pleaser" (for lack of a better term)...."

I understand the appeal of a safe-bet "crowd pleaser" speaker, but imo this is an unrealistic expectation for two reasons.

First, while a wide range of listeners would probably agree on a list of desirable attributes for a loudspeaker, in the real world tradeoffs are inevitable, and individual tolerance for the various inevitable shortcomings (in dynamic capability, timbre, imaging, sweet spot size, bass extension, inner detail, aesthetics, positioning requirements, or whatever) varies widely.

Second, given that speaker/room interaction plays a very significant if not dominant role in the final result, imo it is premature to specify speakers without having a pretty good idea of what their acoustic environment is going to be.  Actually, I would expand this to include the amplification, with "speakers + room + amp(s)" being in effect a "system within a system".   

Imo there really is nothing approaching a "one size fits all" solution within a given loudspeaker price range.

Duke

Three cheers for grislybutter providing an actual list of good speakers. Congrats on the research and time ti took to compile. You have provided an excellent service.

Thanks!

For rock? Big ATCs.

@ellajeanelle , “jl35: Aren’t the speakers themselves unnecessary?  Logic tells me that most able to spend 20K on a pair of speakers would likely be traveling first class, staying at a 4–5-star hotel and eating in nice restaurants, not including drinks and entertainment. Not to sound snobbish, but I know I would.”

not necessarily, I live in Brooklyn. Can afford 20k speakers, would happily stay at an under $200 hotel, use the subway and eat street food (which we have some of the best in the world). And I personally love dive bars which still have beer and shot specials for $7. Even in nyc!

As for the OP, I’m on the exact same boat TBH and I’m targeting Focal, Borrensen, Vandersteen, Persona, YG within that range.