Stirling Broadcast LS3/6 - reference level midrange by any standard. Doesn't get any better and they're only $5500/pair.
Speakers with the most detailed midrange? (non-ESL/planar)
Anyone care to give their opinion on what dynamic speaker has the most detailed/revealing midrange? Not including electrostatics or planar speakers. Approximately between the frequencies of 400Hz to 3kHz. Also, just to clarify what I mean by detail: when there is a musical passage that entails many different layers of instruments, the speakers' ability to separate all the elements so all the instruments are heard clearly and nothing is obscured. Also the ability to retrieve every last bit of information on a recording, such as random sounds in the studio, distortion in recordings and reverb tails.
As far as price goes... 2 categories... below $12,000 USD (new) and any price range. Thanks.
As far as price goes... 2 categories... below $12,000 USD (new) and any price range. Thanks.
- ...
- 144 posts total
Anything by Tonian Labs http://www.tonianlabs.com/ Legacy Audio Calibre https://legacyaudio.com/products/view/calibre/ Teresonic Magus http://teresonic.com/magus/ |
First-order crossovers is a good start. (Less phase shift.) Dynaudio does a nice job with their midrange drivers, and use first-order. Another thing that drew me to Dyns is their dynamic sound at low levels. You don't need to crank them up to hear the music, although they don't induce Listener Fatigue at 85 - 95 dB. |
This has much to do with overall speed, ability to reproduce an accurate impulse response in the lower registers (ie no out-of-phase bass ports), and aligned mf/hf phase coherence by avoiding all sorts of interpolation issues between drivers at the crossover. Some less savvy mfgr's even intentionally wired the woofers out of phase with the rest and you certainly don't want that. These are reasons speakers designed for no to minimal crossovers or simply using single drivers are more coherent for less $, however they're also usually ported so limited at building an accurate foundation to a musical event, which I believe reduces perceived coherence (unless you only listen to clarinet recordings or sthg). Certainly pistonic driver motion is a requirement, also. Flex creates phase distortion. All of this is why truly great full-range speakers are so expensive. So we're talking about things with highly evolved crossovers and multiple drivers (yet no port). This is it, in an expensive nutshell. All this also, unfortunately, makes the speaker larger. So we have a large, expensive nutshell. I'd recommend Evolution Acoustics. Secondarily, Magico. Thirdly Vandersteen (Treo CT and up). Possibly also an honorable mention in the budget category.. the Elac Adante (tower). I've spoken with Andrew Jones and he seems to know what he's doing. If you're budget constrained beyond that, but have the space then i'd recommend finding some well-cared-for second-hand Dunlavy's. Freight may cost as much as the speakers, hwvr. |
- 144 posts total