Classical speakers that do violins well??


All my serious listening is classical.

I hate nothing more than steely shrillness on violins or a glare on a soprano's voice.

I love nothing more than the faithful reproduction of the tone colors of unamplified instruments (the wood body of the violin and cello, the felt pad excting the sinewy strings of a piano).

YET, I hate bloated, indistinct, overly warm, billowy lower mids and upper bass (what I gather some think of as "musical").

Do you have any experience with speakers that might meet these needs for $2K, give or take (new or used)? Can be either floorstander or monitor, but with at least enough bass to perform decently on orchestral music. THANKS.
-Bob
hesson11

Showing 1 response by drew_eckhardt

What are your speaker + listener placement constraints (distances to walls/speakers), room dimensions, and acoustic conditions like?

These things have at least as much to do with what you're hearing as your speaker choice. Placing your speakers within a few feet of the front wall will get you a low frequency boost that will move up into the midrange as you get closer. Sitting too close to the wall behind you will do the same thing. A room that's overly reverberant at high frequencies, TV between the speakers, or coffee table in front of you can get shrill.

You really need to optimize the speakers + room as a system. If you're stuck with the speakers being too close to the front wall you want to be looking at on or in-wall designs that take into account the low frequency boost. If you're sitting far from the speakers something with more directivity (horns) will help retain clarity. Etc.