speakers for classical music

Most planars. Quad, magnepan, Apogee, martin logan cls.

If you are needing high SPLs and have a large enough room then Avantgarde Trios with bass horns will be all you will ever need.

All these large amplifier problems mentioned above will evaporate as the high sensitivity will leave you being able to use pretty much anything you like from low power to quite high powered amps.

The dynamic range will kill all the above speakers leaving them sounding muted and flat. By the time you have found an amp to run low sensitivity speakers at the SPLs needed for full orchestral works in a big room
your bank balance and you floor will be very tired.

Hi Musicnoise,
have you decided on a budget? I have read many of the opinions above and of course they swing many ways. From a Mackie PA to a quad electrostat...!
(by the way the mackie is very good as a PA. Their little studio active monitors are sweet too)

Box speakers are always going to give you problems though, and IMHO a bad place to start if listening to classical music only.

Many people have mentioned planars like Magnepan, Quad, Apogee etc including myself. All great, but Quads will give you problems with light bass and flat dynamics if listening to large scale works. Magnepan and Apogee will need a lot of power, but will give you beautiful bass, detail beyond your dreams and excellent soundstaging. In fact problably the closest to being in a concert hall experience for the money and maybe any money.

I also mentioned the Avantgarde Trio with bass horns. Very expensive but if you have the room and the cash, would probably end your search as they have an intimacy and dynamic contrast few can match and certainly would kill every speaker I know in palpability due to their high sensitivity. The cheaper models from Avantgarde are good too (Uno/Duo etc). Avantgarde are the kings of dynamics. They are utterly effortless and are almost as transparent as the planars mentioned above.

Many classical recordings are made using B&W 801d or 802d as monitors. A very good speaker but again needs lots of power to come to life and lots of money to buy. I have used them tri amped with 1,200watts/channel.

To help you we really need to know the size of room and your budget otherwise you will be getting all sorts of advice that is useless.

If you have very little budget buy an old Magnepan. They wont let you down (Not too old though!).

Good luck

Hi Dave,
Sorry to hear many of you disagree. Of course opinions are like bottoms... everyone has one. I am just glad everyone doesnt disagree with me.

It is very hard to explain audiophile experiences in short sound bites.

Of course the B&W 801d and all B&W speakers (including Mackie) are box speakers. What I mean with boxes is the lengths speaker makers can go to to damp the box and make the box disappear sonically vs cost. Usually this attention seems to come (unfortunately) with more expensive speakers.

The B&W 801D is expensive but good if powered well. Box speakers of its quality and better get very very expensive (Wilson/Kharma/Acapella/Marten etc).

I mentioned that "boxes are a bad place to start" only because makers like Magnepan give you a full range package thats very hard to beat at the mid price level partly because they do away with the box and its complications. All the weight of the braced box has to be built and shipped around the world which all impacts on the cost and quality of the product you get. Never mind the drivers.

Magnepan (and planars) have their problems too (large dynamics at high volume being one) but when driven well and used for naturally recorded music at reasonable SPLs they are very hard to beat. I dont know of any box speaker around $1500 new that can get so much right like the Magnepan, let alone going up the range to MG3.6r and MG20.1. Although you start to get close to Avantgarde territory then.

The world is full of ok speakers, but to find a complete and natural sounding speaker at any price is difficult. If you like valve or transistor amps all has to come into the equation. But if you are looking for low coloration and speed with extension the field narrows very quickly.

You make the point that if you cant afford a full range speaker then make do with the compromise of a mini monitor. Well maybe, but come on, if you are an audiophile how can you compromise on extension? I dont think so. Also remember the question did ask for floor standers... Headphones anyone?

I cant help myself so here I go...

This old argument about tubes or SS does drive me mad.

I have heard a few great sounding tube amps (ARC, Lamm, Audio note), but they always have sonic problems. Some almost worth putting up with, but still ultimately annoying. SS amps too. Then finding the right speakers to match etc.

I heard some Atmaspheres which sounded very good by the way.

Cant we have an amp technology that just works? Its like buying a car that goes great around corners, but just wont go in a straight line unless the road is made of a special concrete and not tar!

If you like a characteristic, say a type of tube, lets just put that software in. But the amp its self having no "sound" but will drive any type of speaker with no distortion or noise unless asked to. Oh small, cheap and efficient too!

Lets all start praying.

HI Dave,
there is an issue with volume in the bass with the smaller Maggies, but not to the point where they are that compromised. But the quality of the bass and the pluses like the open midrange, treble extension, inner detail and naturalness for classical music would be very tempting.

I do take your point about dynamic potential. A good amp can help that to a point, but for sure a frustration in their design along with size.

The problem of knowing a budget becomes so important. But I guess as the 803 is mentioned we are talking about $2500. You would get a hell of a pair of headphones for that!

A few years ago I was looking into buying some Lamm amps. They had a paper like the Amasphere paper, describing the maths models they researched to get to their sound . At the time it was a wonderful sounding amp.

Many amplifiers and speakers later I am sure that if you have a good clean amp that can drive your speaker, you can EQ or alter the presentation to get most of the sound you want.

I have not noticed a decent amp completely change character due to a different speaker types (I dont mean flea power amps). There are many good around amps now.

The Halco DM series amps I had were a testament to what is possible from an amp. I had never heard anything like it up until then. An utter lack of noise or distortion made me realize the ills I had accepted from tubes. I have not had a tube amp since, much as I enjoyed the ones I have owned very much.

Again I agree with dave here. I have tried the Avantgarde Unos with some pretty powerful SS amps including a Halcro DM38. Most impressive.

If you spoke to Avantgarde themselves you will find they wont recommend tubes, in fact they make their own SS amp. Orpheus amps work very well too.