Most "Accurate/Realistic" Sounding Speakers?

erik,

2 - Imaging. I challenge everyone to go to a live acoustic event and close their eyes and listen. Compare to home. The truth is most real life venues imaging is not that specific. Listen to a street busker even. Close your eyes and compare. IMHO, "hyper imaging" is not at all realistic and a deliberate artifact of speaker tuning.

I accept the challenge :-)

I hear the "live music doesn’t really image" claim so often and I don’t agree. I’ve always been in the habit, especially when listening to acoustic sources, of closing my eyes when listening.

I’ve tended to prefer closer seats at the symphony and when I close my eyes and find the "imaging" fantastic. I could easily point to whatever instrument is playing, as it occupies a dense easily identified space in the soundfield. (If someone is used to sitting at the back of the hall, this will be less the case, but even from the back when I do this I get pretty good imaging with eyes closed). This is also the case whether I’m listening to smaller jazz ensembles, or even if I come upon people performing on the street. I close my eyes and the sonic images are like the best imaging I’ve ever heard.

That is one of the reason I enjoy a speaker that images precisely. Because when that happens all the sound energy is condensed such that the "force" of the sound seems to be coming from the specific instrument, more like a real source I hear in life, rather than being distributed in some vague, swimmy manner. (Though imaging isn’t my number one concern - timbral beauty being first, dynamics etc being important...if those aren’t there I don’t care at all how a speaker images).

+1 prof. I find myself quickly fighting the urge to look about the listening room (and notice others often pulling out their social media devices but I refuse to do that), a sign of boredom, when listening to a system that fails to image well.

I think that we both prefer the closer seats at the symphony etc. because we value the impact of imaging on the listening experience. Not coincidentally, we both own Thiels. :)

Dave

To the OP's opening question.... don't know if you can actually define a "best". Line up every audio nerd that is an A'Gon member and you'll get as many different answers as there are people on that list. What sounds correct and accurate to you, in your home is what counts. I do think there are some things that will help in the quest, however...

1. Don't spend too much time listening to reviewers and pundits. Their perspective is skewed and they generally don't listen long enough to a given model to get a true representation of performance (although I do believe there are a handful that are pretty good, the aforementioned REG being one of them). If you want a benchmark amongst professional reviewers, find out what they've actually purchased. Not what they have on loan, not what they'd "buy if they could", but what they've actually put their hard earned money into.

2. Define what's important to you. Tonal and timbral accuracy, bass response, dynamics, imaging, whatever it may be. Realize that NO loudspeaker is perfect (despite what we're led to believe by the press and the slick marketing of mega-buck manufacturers). If you do find a six figure (or even 7 figure!) loudspeaker that tickles your fancy, by all means, buy it! But, I'd venture to guess you'll find what you're really looking for at a much more reasonable price.

3. Take your time. Seek out every opportunity to hear a speaker you're interested in, preferably in your own home or at the very least an environment that you're extremely familiar with. And be careful; you may hear something "different" and be initially wowed by it, but it may not really be something better or more accurate.

4. Keep listening to all the live music you can. As a matter of fact, you'll generally get more for your money doing that than you ever will from any form of electronic reproduction, no matter how far up the audiophile tweak-o-meter you wish to rise. And when you do listen to live music, remember that you'll get just as many opinions about the sound and performance qualities of a particular performance as you do about loudspeakers. Ever read reviews after an opera or a symphony? It's our nature to critique...!

Lastly, being the good audio twerp that I am, I will throw out my opinion on a speaker: Acoustic Zen. In my opinion (and remember, I said opinion....), nothing else has ever come close. The Adagio is probably the best speaker for the dollar spent that's ever been built. If you can afford the Crescendo, so much the better. In any case, Robert Lee's (Robert is a musician himself...) creations are without peer in my book, and properly set up have come closer to the ideal of any I've had or heard (and that's a lot).

Enjoy the journey, and happy listening!

That post should be a stickey (if Agon had such a thing).

Good job, dogmcd!

Dave

I'm not saying there is no imaging in real life, obviously. I am saying that some high end speakers seem to make this effect more etched than real life. Like turning on the sharpness settings on a TV. 

Sometimes this effect is bought at the price of a dip around 2.4kHz. A convenient place since crossovers often occur around there. Designers can push the individual driver crossover points a little apart to achieve this. 

Best,

E