which excels at Rock and Roll

Audiophila to me is about extracting details and dynamics. Thus a speaker that can reproduce classical orchestral music well, can reproduce anything well,

Orchestral music covers most of the audio spectrum vs rock and roll, where the bass and treble is most important and midrange takes a back seat. 

Given that, I would check out the kef ls50 meta, and a good sub (svs, seaton audio, etc). 

The magnepans 2.7 are detailed as hell, but when I auditioned the 1.7 years ago, I thought they lacked dynamics. However, I would want to check out the 2.7 or above. Givem they are larger they can move more air.

Find a pair of AR9's and a Perreaux PMF 5150 amp or pair of PMF 2150B run mono and Jimi would rise from the grave with a thumbs up! 👍

@robshaw - Hi Rob! I did not consider floor standers as I've been using stand-mounts for decades. Many of these thinner floorstanders have smaller footprints than my Martens, though, and they're certainly no shorter - the stands are 29 1/2 inches tall and the speakers are another 16 3/4 inch on top of that; they're designed for your ears to be at midrange speaker level, not the tweeter; it's weird, but it works! I'd think that sub would go great with them. I bought mine from Audio Vision in San Francisco; they carry an immense number of different speakers; check out their website.... 

The party-hardy, rock n roll speakers I remember are Cerwin-Vega

SL-15's.  No finesse, just pin you to the chair power.  Two pair just to be 

sure. 

(facepalm) Midrange took a backseat for rock??

Orchestral music covers most of the audio spectrum vs rock and roll, where the bass and treble is most important and midrange takes a back seat. 

Wrong speaker for orchestra, wrong speaker for rock, good luck.

The magnepans 2.7 are detailed as hell, but when I auditioned the 1.7 years ago, I thought they lacked dynamics. However, I would want to check out the 2.7 or above. Givem they are larger they can move more air.