If your classical music friends are also regular orchestra concert goers, I think that whatever speakers they decide on purchasing, they should be speakers with good "imaging". It is probably a characteristic that they would not think of seeking out, but that characteristic would help more closely reproduce the experience of listening in a concert hall with which they may be familiar. The physical setup of most symphony orchestras varies very little from orchestra to orchestra, whereas the instruments on "Pop" albums are wherever the recording engineer chooses to "pan" them. Good imaging will showcase that reality.
A comment about subwoofers in classical systems : I spent over 30 years as a performing classical musician and can honestly say that I never heard the magnitude of bass that many audiophiles consider to be appropriate on an orchestral recording ---- and I was sitting right next to the double bass section ! I think that the advent of the "Electric Bass" on pop recordings gave the impression to some that the same powerful bass response that an electric bass is capable of rendering at the twist of a knob is also possible on the traditional "stand up" contrabass typically found in a symphony orchestra. It is not possible ---- nor desirable. They are two distinctly different experiences.
If the fore-mentioned classical music friends are simply wanting to wander about the house bathed in classical music [ as I can confess to doing every day ], their "in-wall" system should be fine, but if they want to go that extra step into our "Make Believe Concert Hall", they should spend some time researching the joys of entering the audiophile world.
What a great hobby !!
A comment about subwoofers in classical systems : I spent over 30 years as a performing classical musician and can honestly say that I never heard the magnitude of bass that many audiophiles consider to be appropriate on an orchestral recording ---- and I was sitting right next to the double bass section ! I think that the advent of the "Electric Bass" on pop recordings gave the impression to some that the same powerful bass response that an electric bass is capable of rendering at the twist of a knob is also possible on the traditional "stand up" contrabass typically found in a symphony orchestra. It is not possible ---- nor desirable. They are two distinctly different experiences.
If the fore-mentioned classical music friends are simply wanting to wander about the house bathed in classical music [ as I can confess to doing every day ], their "in-wall" system should be fine, but if they want to go that extra step into our "Make Believe Concert Hall", they should spend some time researching the joys of entering the audiophile world.
What a great hobby !!