Speakers for string Quartets

I have two friends who are professional classical musicians, playing in orchestras (one being the Philadelphia Orchestra), and both have

Vandersteens, and love them.

I also have an older series 2

Vandersteen. They have beautiful tonality fitting for violin and piano. My top priority in speakers choice is 1. violin, 2. piano, so this recommendation might be useful for you.

And Ann Akiko Myers has the model 7 (I believe) in SoCal.

 

Well, I agree that I don’t think you buy a speaker for a genre of music, as a good speaker will play all well…..but….

Another vote for Vandersteen. I play a lot of classical both orchestral and quartets, and love the tone and timbre Vandersteen’s provide, especially with quartets….listening to a quartet as I type this.

I have Vandersteen Model 1’s, Model 2 Sigs, and now Treo. The Treo are a step above, especially for classical/quartets. I would highly recommend the Treo, Quatro or above.

I play a bit if everything (rock, Punk, Folk, a smaller amount of classical and Jazz) and like piano and vocals… and especially woodwinds.

My 2C pair play everything pretty well. They are 35 years old, and I expect that the newer ones are no worse. 😀 (I have heard some and they do seem to be better… but even a used pair the really are hard to beat.)

If you are going to shove them against a wall, then the Treos are probably a better choice than the 2C.

You probably would be well advised to also consider their subwoofer for the cello “body”, as well as it frees up the Pass amps from servicing the lows..

But I have also heard Maggies that sounded good, and some others.
(The Devore and the Harbeth seem to have cabinets that possibly sing along with the music?? - to me some of those more boxy speakers loose something in piano and strings.)

What shops are near you?
Or what area of the country are you in?

I had a pair of Totem Arros that worked very well within those constraints, in a small to mid-sized room. The speakers disappeared, the center image was very clear, the mid range was beautiful.  The price was under $2K.  

Chief say, “totem pole provide many face.”
Best is “about face”.

This comes up often and the answer is always the same: Any well designed speaker will reproduce any music sent to it as a "music specific" speaker is simply silly. 

^Agree^
 

Piano and vocals are the hardest to fake as we are pretty evolutionarily well tuned into the voice… and pianos are purer tones.

If they play those well, then everything else is sure to be nice as well.