I think the short answer to this question is, Yes good speakers can take the edge off digital. AND, no, good speakers can't take the edge off digital.
Trelja, is making the right point. If we have to use a filter to eliminate 'digital problems', then we have a digital problem. And as he says a speaker which is 'forgiving enough' to do this, is obviously acting as that filter.
This is, of course, the age old question, dispute. What is neutral? THIEL has taken the rap of being stark sounding, rising high end, etc, for years. No speakers measure flat, but they are reasonably so. How many manufacturers have the guts to use a 'step signal' as a measure of their designs, then print it in their literature? I know that I certainly didn't at LSA. Most speakers butcher the output so much that a true 'step' is not recognizable.
That being said, I think that the missing element of the loudspeaker as a music reproducer which 'doesn't sound harsh', depends at least to some large degree, on MIDRANGE dynamism, which can literally, if dynamic enough, 'mask' the grain we define as 'edge' in digital. This may explain in a very, very small way, why some people will have nothing but Horn speakers in their systems.
Typical measurements of loudspeakers, one in which a static volume, say 85db input signal ranging from 20Hz to 25Khz can be meaningless if in 'dynamic' situations, (read real music) the result is that the midrange doesn't come to life, or compresses important parts of the musical spectrum. And, since we hear the mid range better than any other spectrum, we are very sensitive to any anomolies thoughout the midrange, which is why some people can pick up colorations in voice and the middle range of a piano.
Quad's not known for their dynamic range as compared to dynamic speakers, don't sound 'digitalized' in the negative sense, at least, not to me, and never have. Even back in the late '80's when CD's were a (still are I suspect) work in progress. Which is to say, they didn't exascerbate the 'problem' we identify as 'edge, which accompanies digital.
