Good Speakers for Rock and Roll Under 15K

I’ve heard lots of expensive horn speakers at high-end shows, yet for the money imo there’s still no competition for rock. Klipsch: Either the big "corner horn" (which don’t have to be in the corner anymore), or La Scala (which imo look better). LaScala has the same full-length midrange horn as the Klipschorn (which is a big improvement over the Heresy’s & Cornwalls smaller mid horn), but LaScala has less low-end extension.. and less sensitive than Klipschorns, I believe.

I had Heresy’s in college and my friend had the Cornwalls.. and they were both loud and clean enough to dj parties with (but more refined than a dj speaker). La Scala and Klipshorn were a step up from Cornwall and Heresy, and today’s versions in the Heritage series are much improved over those.

Ocean Way Audio also makes great speakers for R&B, pop, and rock, but the big ones are quite expensive and not easy to find. The designer is a grammy winning recording engineer.

I’ll agree with previous comments.. speakers aren’t generally designed to be genre specific (although some are voiced using traditional instruments as benchmarks.. such as Gershman Acoustics), but for rock what you want is transient response, sensitivity, and bass extension to at least 40-50hz. Also, the voice coils should have ability to withstand a lot of current/heat.

One more thing I'll say about Klipsch (Heritage series, at least) is that they smell nice. I've never had better smelling speakers. Something about the wood.

Designers of course try and design the best speaker they can to serve their Co’s ethos and their brand’s demographic, but I’m not sure all well-designed speakers work equally well for all genres. I can’t imagine using Magnepans or Quad’s for rock.. or techno.. or dubstep, etc. I love Maggie’s.. have owned them.. but those panels will last you about a month under heavy use with a high current amp until the panels start to separate and need to be serviced. Mine typically lasted about 2-3yrs before they needed service (with moderate listening on all types of music).

I don’t listen to rock anymore.. nothing goes to 11 here now.. but have returned to cone speakers for various other reasons. Some speakers just don’t work well for certain types of music. MBL’s.. amazing for orchestral.. but not for rock (..unless you are the type of concert goer that wants to stand at the rear gates.. then maybe via MBL you will get the most nuanced and delicate rock you’ve ever heard at home).

I recommended horn speakers further up the thread.. because that’s what we are listening to at a rock concert.. horn loaded systems (we obviously don’t mind the effects of the horn, here), and they might pair well with the gear in original poster's system. The contrary would be for a ’live at...’ type of recording.. if you want to accurately reproduce that live concert.. without listening to ’horns playing horns’ ..where you get into some sort of ’audiophile’s hell’ recursive horn paradox.. then maybe ATC or the GR Researches recommended early on in the thread.. I’d guess they’d be good.. but my feeling is many low-sensitivity ’audiophile’ boutique speakers will not do rock the way the actual recording artists would ever want to listen to it.