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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
david_ten
5,480 posts
 
Speakers don't do math. Nor are they polymaths given the numbers of instruments, materials, musicians, tuning, styles, etc. etc. in existence.

Yes it's fair to say that all speakers must either be adding or subtracting to timbre

Timbre is the human (expert) perception of the sound of a note made by a specific (tuned) instrument, brought into existence by a musician.

Instrument. Musician. Human Perception of Sound. Note: No speakers involved.

From this point on, there is a very long chain which attempts to provide a 'facsimile' of that note. What you are hearing in your listening chair has to do with that entire chain.
roberjerman
4,319 posts
 
Rectilinear III's with their 5 drivers and wide baffles have a lot of "presence"! I have both the Highboys and the Lowboys! 
danbyrd
6 posts
 
Hi, there may not be a problem with your speakers or system.  Jim Smith's book points out that bringing the speakers closer together riches the timbre.  I find tweeter to tweeter should be inside 5 feet with speakers towed straight at you and exactly the same distance from your sitting position/ears..  Benefits include good focus with no smearing and a better sense of dynamic contrast between instruments and acoustical space.  Of course multi-miked pop and rock records have little or no ambiance, but at least the timbre is better.  I assume you attend live un-amplified concerts.
hddg's avatar
hddg
123 posts
 
Many actually, but what comes to mind are Tannoy, Harbeth, ESL in general, and I must state as always the XTZ Master M2... a jewel of a speaker given the right amps
audiokinesis
2,737 posts
 

What generates rich timbre out in the real world?

Well, what makes your voice sound richer in the shower?

What makes a grand piano’s timbre and texture so rich and lush in a good recital hall?

And what makes the difference between a good seat and a crappy seat in a concert hall?

The reverberant field.

Get the reverberant field right, without screwing up the first-arrival sound, and you will have rich timbre. The best speakers for that may differ from one room to the next. But unless you listen nearfield, most of the sound that reaches your ears is reverberant sound. You don’t get directional cues from the reverberant sound because of the precedence effect, but the reverberant field plays a major if not dominant role in just about everything else.

Exactly what is involved in "getting the reverberant field right" is a big topic and well beyond the scope of this post, but awareness that the reverberant field matters is a crucial first step. It is not the only thing that matters, but it is one of the more important ones, especially if rich and natural-sounding timbre is a high priority.

Duke

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