Best speakers for classic rock

Make sure to look into Open Baffle speakers. I listen to everything except Rap. I absolutely love my Emerald Physics 3.4s

In that price range, Zu

burkeys66

Modern or Vintage? Excellent suggestions as above. Add :

B&W 805, Thiel Audio CS 2.4/2.4SE speakers.

Happy Listening!

My budget is used or new around 10K, give or take. Currently listening through Tekton DI’s upgraded and love them. My wife thinks I’m nuts for looking. She loves my DI’s. I guess I’m looking for a hi end speaker that enjoys R&R. As I have a SUB that I really like that supports my bass dreams, integrated very well, currently. Just wondering if a speaker exists that has a GREAT MID RANGE and TREBLE to die for. Don’t want JUST LOUD, want accuracy and detail to die for. Maybe I have it now and don’t realize it. I need to get out more often. Spoke to ERIC at Tekton recently, as I really like my DI’s.He suggested his MOAB speaker with a BE tweeter. We also spoke of his ENCORE speaker, which he loves , but stated it is more at home with Classical,etc. He mentioned that he is working on a ENCORE with different, faster woofers, and different crossover. That really interests me. Looking for the best of both worlds, accuracy, hi end R&R. Does it exist!!!! Robert TN

@robshaw , Assuming you are looking at something specific for "Classic Rock" or other rock genres (prog rock, indie rock, etc), it might be hard to beat the JBL HDI stuff in this price bracket. It is not just your typical loud rock speaker...it has pristine levels of detail and accuracy without feeling analytical (engulfs you instead). Buddy of mine has these speakers. It might be worth an audit.

https://www.crutchfield.com/p_109HDI38WL/JBL-HDI-3800-Satin-Walnut.html

I would be also be careful with the choice of dacs for this genre and wouldn't screw around with any ol' dac. The Schiit multibit dacs (Bifrost, Yggdrasil, etc) would be a great pairing with the detail+meatiness they offer.

P.S.

Diana Krall fans are going to give you suggestions on rock speakers soon enough (Don’t get bamboozled)...lol

I”d get whichever used ATC floorstander you can afford. Built like tanks, sound like live music, go loud with very low distorsion, not colored. Get a sub if necessary.

Again:

The idea that a speaker is the best for a certain genre of music is one of the biggest myths in audio. Is 'classic' rock from the 50s, 60s, or 70s? Or, if one is a bit younger, does that mean 80s and some 90s?

I actually had someone ask me what the best speaker for downtempo 80s was. I *think* he was actually serious about it. (Downtempo 80s might be on the 4AD label and recorded by John Fryer. Or maybe not...)

Seriously, what makes a speaker good at playing an original pressing of Electric Ladyland will make it good at playing classical and ethnic folk music as well. The speaker does not have taste and does not care what your taste is.

Again:

The idea that a speaker is the best for a certain genre of music is one of the biggest myths in audio. Is ’classic’ rock from the 50s, 60s, or 70s? Or, if one is a bit younger, does that mean 80s and some 90s?

I actually had someone ask me what the best speaker for downtempo 80s was. I *think* he was actually serious about it. (Downtempo 80s might be on the 4AD label and recorded by John Fryer. Or maybe not...)

Seriously, what makes a speaker good at playing an original pressing of Electric Ladyland will make it good at playing classical and ethnic folk music as well. The speaker does not have taste and does not care what your taste is.

Again??? Spoken like a simpleton....over and over

What’s your real story here dude?

Did you blow all your cash on a single pair of speakers (’cost no object’ or something?) and you’re trying to convince yourself somehow that it is simply the best thing ever for every kind of music out there? Deep down, are you regretting blowing all your cash on 1 pair of speakers and trying to cope somehow?

Or do you just have 3 audiophool records on repeat all day long? Yeah, one pair of speakers would work freaking brilliant for the 3 audiophool records on repeat, i suppose! Gearheads with 3 audiophool records on repeat!..(triple facepalm)...I sincerely hope you’re not one of them.

On a different note, some of have us may have a very eclectic taste in music. We may listen to all kinds of genres/instruments from all over the world (instruments you may have never heard of in your life and so on). Some of us may play different instruments and we just know that certain types of speaker designs just don’t cut it/sound right for certain types of instruments. One pair of speakers just doesn’t cut it for everything, no matter if its ’cost no object’ or not!

In any case...Good luck with your 1 pair of brilliant unicorn flippin speakers that worked brilliantly for everything (apparently)!!

Vintage Cerwin Vega from the 1970s.  I don't think Rock and Roll will ever sound better than it did in our college dorm suites in the late 1970s.   Of course, you had to be there.

Jerry

Psb Stratus Gold Ti

Altec #19's

@carlsbad2 , good point about Cerwins. I had AT-15s in the late 80s and listened mostly to 70s music on them. I then went to more of a "hifi" speaker with a Mirage M460 in 1991 which sounded great and were better hauling around from place to place in my 20s and 30s. But while I loved the better overall sound (but w/ less bass) of the Mirages, I still missed the Cerwins very much. 

When I replaced the Mirages in 2021 after 30 years, I made a mistake buying Spatial M3 speakers. While they did and do sound great, they didn't do hard rock very well. Honestly part of that was an under-treated room but they still didn't rock as hard as I wanted. They sounded phenomenal with "regular" rock like Fleetwood Mac, etc. but has soon as you have heavy and screaming electric guitars, I think the low crossover tweeter couldn't deal with that very well.

FF to 6 months ago I now have what I consider the ultimate, hifi, 15" Cerwin-Vegas; Volti Rivals - and am thrilled with them. I know people will say this is thier last speaker but I'm very well convinced, the Rivals will be mine. As noted above I don't go through speakers very often anyway.

Again??? Spoken like a simpleton....over and over

What’s your real story here dude?

LOL I think Atmosphere is a very talented amplifier designer. I don't know about his taste in speakers, although I'm sure he'd argue high efficiency for his tube designs and maybe otherwise for his new class d adventures?

My free advice- I think we can agree that there are speakers that are forward and speakers that are laid back (generally) From there there are speakers that are forward and bright (highly detailed- think lots of room treatment careful cable selection etc.) I'd say a speaker that is forward but not bright- possible a synopsis of deep-33's thoughts about himself and atmosphere at a bar. 

I think Paradigm hit it out of the park with the Monitor SE speakers. I have the 3000f in my garage and they are just a really great sounding speaker and do really good things with rock music. Super punchy and clean clean clean. Basically got them free as I got 2 pairs for $375 total and sold 1 pair for the same. Otherwise they are way too good for the garage.

I’m surprised what that smallish amount of money can buy these days in the speaker realm. The big 8000f goes for well under your budget and I bet you might be really surprised. 

Again??? Spoken like a simpleton....over and over

What’s your real story here dude?

Did you blow all your cash on a single pair of speakers (’cost no object’ or something?) and you’re trying to convince yourself somehow that it is simply the best thing ever for every kind of music out there? Deep down, are you regretting blowing all your cash on 1 pair of speakers and trying to cope somehow?

@deep_333 I have multiple sets of speakers and run a recording studio. My taste is from all forms of western classical, ethnic folk music, prog rock from the late 60s to now, electro/ambient from the 70s-2020s. I play keyboards in a space rock band right now, also string bass, flute, sitar and sarod although rusty on the latter two as my sitar is electric.

My main speakers are the Classic Audio Loudspeakers model T-3.3. They are 98dB and flat to 20Hz.

As a manufacturer in high end audio, I’ve long been exposed to the myth of speakers somehow being better at one genre than another. Anyone who understands the frequency range of musical instruments and how the ear perceives sound will know right away that a mechanical transducer cannot be made to favor a certain genre simply because all humans have the same range of hearing and design their instruments and music accordingly.

So a speaker that is good at rock is also good at classical, electro, jazz and so on because the things that make that speaker good apply to all categories of music- such as resolution, the ability to play loud easily and the ability to play bass. Those attributes are common to a lot of different forms of music!

@deep_333 

Lol!  mic drop by @atmasphere 

”atmasphere out!”

Yeah right....you’ll make a sarod and a piano sound the same (equally flippin brilliant) on every kind of speaker...Immense Bullsht is what it is! Lol

@deep_333 

I never said anything like that (take a look). Of course different speakers sound different and so will instruments playing through them. When you create an argument where its not one I made but one you made, and then knock it down, that technique is known as a 'Strawman'; which is a logical fallacy, and is therefore false by definition.

In case you wish to make credible arguments, its not a bad idea to know how fallacies like this work, so you can avoid them in your debate:

Strawman fallacy

What I did say is that what makes one speaker good at rock will make it good at other genres like jazz or classical or ethic folk. To that end it will have good resolution, the ability to play loud and decent bass. All forms of music have these requirements to sound right when reproduced.

@deep_333 Your trash talk really isn’t impressive and won’t earn you any respect here.

Why don’t you just explain, in technical terms, why a really good speaker can’t sound really good on a wide variety of genres. That way we can deal with facts and come to a conclusion one way or the other and not have to read a lot of opinionated garbage.

Speakers can excel more at one genre than another because of different requirements in volume and bass.  This becomes blindingly obvious when you take it to an extreme.  Say a speaker needs to be able to do 120db at 20hz and can't cost more than 3k.  Another speaker is fine being down 3db at 35hz and can't cost more than 5k.  Does anybody really believe these aren't two different designs?  The first one is going to have to have most of the money in bass drivers and big boxes.  The second one will not.  

oops, I meant 3k for both or 5k for both, not one of each.

There are lots of speakers that don't play ANY genre well, and there are lots of really good speakers that play many genres well.  That's the disagreement with deep 333.  He thinks that no speaker can play a wide variety of genre's well.