which excels at Rock and Roll

I remember in the early-70’s the JBL L100 being sold as a "Rock ’n’ Roll" speaker.

I also remember that! JBL L100 being sold as a "Rock'' speaker is salesman BS.

JBL L100 brochure see here. No mention of it being engineered or designed as a ''Rock'' speaker. 

Mike

To start with, comparing home audio speakers to those at a live rock concert is silly. Being calibrated to send sound to cover an entire open air stadium will mean they can only lack nuance, for all their might and power - this is a matter of physics, not opinion.

There are those who will say that a domestic speaker that plays the genre of rock better than others, plays to the strength of rock, which is loud, raw, and less discerning of the subtlety found in, say, classical recordings. It is likely this opinion comes from those who have never heard rock from a speaker which hits with depth, raw dynamics….and absolute nuance. There is as much nuance in the rudest rock as there is in any other genre or music, in the same way there is as much slam in Ravel or Stravinsky as there is in the grungiest of rock.

It is for this reason that I believe Ralph is absolutely correct, that pound for pound, speakers are agnostic, and a well-engineered speaker which addresses the common disadvantages of its typology, will play with every ounce of slam and subtle touch of the same recording, as much as a badly designed speaker will make any music sound awful.

Lesser speakers, all of which predominate the entire spectrum of speakers made, will favour their strengths. Good speakers get as close to agnostic as one will find. Most speakers, even by the most heralded manufacturers in the world, are compromised, lesser speakers. They give one the sound of hifi, while failing to bring high fidelity to sound.

The limited sample size refers to one’s access to have critically listened to the various and highest states of development for each typology of speaker made, not merely the range of music played. And without the benefit of that, we cannot wax on about the tiny sample size of what we have heard. It’s true what is said about not knowing what we do not know.

I suspect Ralph was being polite and kind.

In friendship - kevin

Actually, there IS one speaker which can be related to Rock music more than perhaps any other: the Yamaha NS-10. The NS-10 was for years found if just about every recording studio control room I was in, used to monitor the sound the recording engineer was getting from the mics out in the studio. The tweeter in the NS-10 was so nasty engineers began placing a sheet of toilet parer over that driver.

Way back in the 1960’s J. Gordon Holt pointed out in his reviews of both loudspeakers and recordings that the sound he heard in many Pop music recordings (as opposed to Classical, not Rock) was an inverse of the frequency response he measured in many speakers that were being used as monitors in studios. Get it? The engineers were using graphic equalizers to make the instruments and voices sound lifelike, but they were using monitor loudspeakers with very inaccurate frequency responses. If you looked at the frequency respose suggested by the sliders in the equalizers, it was the inverse of the frequency response of the monitor loudspeakers! +1 plus -1 = 0.

The Satori Helios Textreme kit is great for rock. They measure flat but their bass dynamics (punch/slam) are in an entirely different league relative to most speakers. Proof that measurements don’t tell everything one needs to know about how a speaker performs. Certainly, part of their dynamic performance is due to the 4-ohm woofers. You won’t find 8-ohm woofers in most cost-no-object speakers. 

Those probably wouldn’t work well in your room though (need space to breathe), so I recommend checking out the Satori Ara kit: 

https://www.madisoundspeakerstore.com/2-way-speaker-kits/satori-ara-textreme-2-way-speaker-kit-pair-with-cabinets/

The Rinjani might also work in your space:

https://www.madisoundspeakerstore.com/2.5-way-speaker-kits/satori-rinjani-textreme-2.5-way-speaker-kit-pair-with-cabinets/

Everyone has been great. I appreciate all contributions. Yesterday I moved an older set of Tekton DI's into the smaller room, where the FRITZ are located. (these were back ups to my main speakers in my shop location, which is quite large) Just trying to get a feel to see if a floor stander might work in addition to a bookshelf in the smaller room. Found out the DI's are just to  acoustically strong and powerful for that space. (14x14 with open door to bathroom and on the other side,  door to open hallway) I am really jealous of larsmans purchase of the Martens, would love to have them but, but don't want to spend those $$$.  I would love to have maybe a small tower that would fit in that room and not over pressurize, or overpower it. I remember seeing a QLN 3 (used) that got glowing reviews for its accuracy and sound. I also remember seeing some TOTEM (small towers) that may work? Would like something that looks nice, but, more importantly something that sounds GREAT!  May end up settling on a bookshelf, and that would be fine too. Would like to stay used if possible, 7 or 8k give or take, probably last speakers I will buy, getting older. Really like my fritz, just want to jump up a couple of rungs on the latter, if that's possible. Thanks