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What speaker – under $10k – has the best timbre and tonal qualities?

Several years ago, a prominent reviewer had this to say as he was praising the natural and life-like tonal qualities of a particular speaker:

It’s [speakers] like these that make me question the priorities of audiophiles who relegate accuracy of timbre to secondary status. How are the richness and color of instruments, voices, ensembles, and textures to be reproduced in all their infinite variety and beauty if a loudspeaker has less than accurate reproduction of timbre? What do dynamics, imaging, detail, transparency, and the like matter if voices and instruments don’t sound like themselves?

I’ve come the same realization, late in the game. I recently made a lateral move from one of the most popular of recent speaker models to a different speaker, because it sounded so much more natural and realistic in timbre. I sacrificed a touch of image precision in doing so, but it has been well worth it. The sound is so much more engaging. It’s like going from a high-resolution black and white photograph – which is very detailed and impressive – to a color version of the same photo, but with slightly less resolution. The color version offers so much more in terms of realism.

So I’m now contemplating the purchase of what I hope will be my last speakers, with the objective of realistic, natural, and rich (but not artificially warm) tone being the primary attribute.  

What speakers, under $10k, would you recommend? (I’m driving them with a PrimaLuna Prologue Premium)


wester17
joeldi
8 posts
 
I've been a fan of planar speakers since the early Magnepans and a pair of Crown ES212s that I owned back in the day. I prefer a system with transparency, precise imaging and timbre and currently own a pair of Martin Logan 11As powered by a Bel Canto E1X amp. I also tried the Bel Canto REF600Ms, but they weren't quite as detailed as the E1X.

The downside to this system, as others have pointed out is that you really hear what the recording is like. Many, many recordings sound flat and unbalanced. But—when an excellent sound engineer has been in charge of recording a stunning performance, it's simply magical.

And one other thing... The ML 11As have the capability to use Anthem Room Correction (ARC). Before I ran this software on the speaker I had an annoying hump around, maybe 100Hz, possibly lower. I know that it was in the woofer range and not the panels. I suspect it was a resonance in the bay window near the speakers. After I ran the software and downloaded the custom filter that hump was gone. Absolutely fantastic technology. I have an electrical engineering degree, so I understand how they did this and think it's a superb solution.
kelven
4 posts
 
As the layers get peeled away, timbre and tonality can (often) mean different things to different people.
That said, timbre and tonality have been noted by many in the PranaFidelity brand. 
danbyrd
6 posts
 
Before you buy more speakers,  place them between four and five feet tweeter to tweeter and tow them to get a coherent ambiant field on a simply miked classical record.  Over spread whitens and weakens the timbre and discombobulates the image of the sound field as a whole.  You'll learn to hear the richness as wholeness as you experiment.  Happy listening.
jlin
57 posts
 
Second vote for Quad ESL-57s. I grew up playing first the violin (badly), then the piano (less badly), so have some notion of live instrument sound. First time I heard the Quads, in college in the late 60's, I was blown away by its reproduction of that sound, and have heard nothing since that can beat them. Robin Wyatt of Robyatt Audio puts on audio show demonstrations that consistently win best of show awards. He uses different turntables, tonearms, preamps, and amps but for the past decade he has used Quad ESLs (occasionally ESL63s) on the sharp end of the chain.
vintageaudio57
1 posts
 
mdiaz37 posts

I've had many different brands over the years. My original Sonus Faber Extremas were hard to beat. I also like, at a more affordable price, the Merlin VSM SE's.


I agree on the Merlin VSMs, they have arguably the BEST tweeter on the planet, the Dynaudio T330D.  My VSMs are a little newer with the Cardas wire and they sound as accurate as anything I've heard. 
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