Best Loudspeakers for Rich Timbre?


I realise that the music industry seems to care less and less about timbre, see
https://youtu.be/oVME_l4IwII

But for me, without timbre music reproduction can be compared to food which lacks flavour or a modern movie with washed out colours. Occasionally interesting, but rarely engaging.

So my question is, what are your loudspeaker candidates if you are looking for a 'Technicolor' sound?

I know many use tube amps solely for this aim, but perhaps they are a subject deserving an entirely separate discussion.
cd318

Showing 2 responses by duckworp

I recently went on the search for the perfect speaker, and the ability to capture the natural rich sound (timbre) of an acoustic instrument was one of my priorities. I home auditioned 15 speakers (review here: https://forum.audiogon.com/discussions/a-brief-review-of-15-high-end-speakers-on-home-demo-including...
and found some well-loved brands lacking in this area. The two which really shone in the reproduction of a natural rich timbre were the Sonus Faber and the Boenicke. I ended up purchasing the Boenicke. Interestingly Sven Boenicke, the designer, records live concerts of small classical ensembles, and one of the aims of his designs is to have a speaker which reproduces that natural sound of the instrument which he tries to capture in the recording.  I find with my Boenicke even the troublesome violin is rendered perfectly. 

I also heard the Joseph speakers in the Munich HiFi show. They were excellent too. Jazz was being played (isn’t it always at HiFi shows?!) from a reel to reel via an Alluxity amp. It sounded wonderful.
@Sciencecop - your posts often contain a confrontational tone, frequently belittling anyone who doesn’t love Magicos above all else. Take a breath and relax. You are a Magico Fanboy, we get it. I’m a Boenicke Fanboy and proud to admit it and don’t know or care what the measurements say or the science says, I just use my ears. And to my ears Harbeth and Boenicke and the ProAc K6 all sound better for my home-listening tastes than the Magicos I have heard (A3, S1 ii, S3 ii, M3).

If you can find a dealer you should have a listen to the Gauder Akustik Darc series. These German speakers were launched at the Munich hi-end show in May and sounded a lot like a Magico. Not surprising given they are built with a sealed and ribbed Aluminium cabinet, so I guess they were inspired by the success and sound of the Magico. With the diamond tweeter option used at the show they were very impressive - they had the essence of the Magico - the complete transparency and detailed resolution which is always impressive, but they sounded slightly different too...better maybe? Still not to my home-listening taste but impressive nevertheless. The top German hi-end hifi mag gave them a 100% rating which is something they have only ever given to half a dozen or so other hifi components ever (German hifi mags seem a lot more honest than the UK and US magazines which seem to just praise absolutely everything they review, whereas the German mags are often critical of the products they review).
https://www.gauderakustik.com/index.php/en/loudspeaker/darc-en