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

Magnepan 3.7i in a decent room using SS high current amp.

@1111art,

"The most expensive Dali you can find/afford. So rich I can’t seem to listen with my eyes open"

Another contender for the ’must listen to’ club.


@wester17 ,

"Ahh yes! The audio merry-go-round. I’m truly ready to get off. Over the past two weeks I have sold three sets of speakers and a tube amplifier. The basement looks so much more uncluttered now! It actually feels good!"


Can’t say I blame you. This hobby has a strange way of turning from pleasure into pain, and then sometimes back again.

It sure sounds as if you’re ready to get back into your music again.

Tonal accuracy rather than pursuit of detail is the way to go. I’m sure of it.
One = pleasure, the other = analysis.

You won’t go far wrong with Tannoys but you might also be able to do a smidgen better with something else. @prof has written extensively on this subject so it might also be worth reading some of his posts.

Anyway, what are you using currently? It might possibly help those who are a little further up the same mountain path give you a few pointers.

You can’t rely on millercarbon for speaker advice because he rates all Tekton speakers very high even if he hasn’t listened to them. You want to have somebody that actually has heard or owned the equipment before giving any advice.
As for good quality speakers used for under $10k, I would look at Wilson, revel, usher, totem, golden ear, and and Others.

Tekton Encore

I’m not sure if you’re looking for towers or bookshelves, but after listening to a decent range of speakers, Salk and Fritz speakers consistently evoke the word "honest" when I listen to them. In a musical piece, the represented instruments -- whichever they are -- consistently remind me of the live occasions in which I’d heard them played, and the vocalists seem immediate and present in my room, to a startling degree.

Check out Danny GR Research. He mods many speakers XOs which seems to be the Achilles Heel of most speaker companies. He has a YT channel you might want to watch a few episodes


He also has some speakers that he bought a container full and is selling them at a great price

Personally, I have Emerald Physics 3.4s (not longer made) they have a 12" concentric driver with a polyester tweeter.  MSRP was ~ 6K, you might find them or 2.8s for a great price used

Also +1 to whomever mentioned Spatials, I'm an open baffle fan


hth

Amazing how very few mentions there are of Klipsch. Just about anything in their Heritage series, Cornwall 4's or lower would fit the bill nicely, especially since he is running a tube system. Tubes really shine when not fighting low efficiency speakers.

How about under $1k?  The Caintuck open baffles are incredible.  I heard these matched with a Decware SET amp and holy shnikies.  Listened to some Brubeck on these and you would have sworn you could go over and shake the man's hand when the song ended.  That said, I understand room treatment is much more important and part of where the bass comes from is reflecting off the floor surface.  You need a hard floor is my understanding to get these where they can go.  From there I go to the old stuff to find the 4k, full color sound that I seek.  I get what you are saying about going from black and white to 4k full color.  Another aspect is listening volume.  In many cases, black and white is easy until you hit a certain volume with a speaker and then it seems like all drivers are firing and takes the music from black and white to color.  Had some maggies that were absolutely the most clear black and white I'd ever heard.  I found these in the long run, fatiguing to listen to, for a long period of time.  I have since found a more full color sound with old speakers from the 50's. 

Surprised nobody has mentioned the Spatial Audio Lab X5. At 97db sensitivity, you should have plenty of power with your Prima Luna. Open baffle design, very natural tonality once broken in and set up properly. 60 day in-home trial. I am very pleased with mine (Rowland amps, tubed BHK pre). I did listen to the Saphires, but found them to be too forward for my tastes (detail and imaging, yes; timbral accuracy, no). 
https://www.spatialaudio.us/xseries/x5

ATC

+1 for devore 0/93s

Wharfedale Elysian 4. Awesome

If you want to do it yourself, I build 2 big box for the Altec coaxial 604e + super tweeter and I test with many amps, and I love this speakers always do neutral in reproduction a magnifying glass of what an amp can do. Presently I test an old integrated Sima PW-3000, a 5 watts classe A and 50 watts AB total, I am bluffed the song play clean with good timbre, space and bass clean too, I think it's always have a good sinergy,

I’m selling a pair of Sonics "Allegrias" I don’t know for the $$ if these can be beat! Top of the line German handmade speakers by Joachim Gerhard! Maybe a consideration at 20+ thousand USD but offered at $7900 barely broken in I feel they can’t be beat! Honest opinion Thx, Jim Listing ID: lisa6cfb
I did have subs with these noticing that the bottom although there, is not enough for my taste! Aside from that good luck matching these for the price...I have listened to many sets of speaks before buying I was blown away at the clarity of voice instrumental and piano, guitar we put on a CD last night and was asking myself why I am selling? We moved into a smaller home and they need a bigger room the soundstage is expansive you could play these in a church Holy Crap pardon the pun :) They are known for that, last home had over 20’ my living room now is 13’ and it needs a wall mounted sound bar to be honest! We live in Maine bring a CD/DVD best of luck! I am using MIT Matrix 3.5s cables and those are listed as well, maybe package deal for the right money I am willing to talk :) I was told by "sunny" when I bought my Class "D" amp Arcam AVR 750 doesn’t do it justice at 400 watts...so with that being said if you are sporting Class "A" monoblocks I would actually luv to hear them but prob won’t sell and end up returning home with them...Happy Holiday’s People!!! I will add Watching a movie with these is insane...Talk about Timbre hahahaa someones gets shot you jump, scary movies you’re screwed, the kids will leave the room I promise!!! If you close your eyes listening to Michael Cohn you can picture the instruments where they are situated on stage thats how much separation these achieve even with 38 pole cables I can’t Imagine Oracles or better...Don’t have the $$ to buy those so never got the chance to hear at that level...Noticed that this post was from 2015 hope your not still looking Geeze LOL

Hello,
I don’t hear Proac speakers mentioned a lot. Very nice sound. Also, for another box speaker the Tekton has the open sound of the Maggie’s and the mids and bass to fill the range. The Proac are for normal volume listening. 

I have a pair of Cube Audio Nenuphar Mini’s on order. Everything I’ve read about these has been amazing so I’m really looking forward to them. It’s a major splurge for me but I’m going for it. They’re a bit over 10k but might be what you’re looking for. The Spatial X5’s or M series were also on my list but they’re too big for my space and I know my wife would be all over me about that and I don’t want to deal with that. If you’re interested in the Cubes check out reviews online. They also have the Magus speaker for a bit less and I might know where you can get a mint used pair of Mini’s. I wanted a pair in walnut so I passed on the black used ones but if you pm me I’ll let you know if you’re interested. 

Yamaha NS-1000M. Especially recapped with high quality caps (the famous 6 3uf in parallel).

Oops! In serial.

I don't believe you mentioned the kind of speakers you presently have.  Have you heard a pair of SALK speakers?  I heard a pair at the RMAF in Denver a couple years ago, and the impressed me the most at the show.  They played everything well.  Jim Salk sells direct in order to user higher end drivers and cabinet build so he doesn't have to discount his speakers to the dealers.  However, the problem is having the ability to hear them other than listen to them at audio shows because he manufactures his speakers in MIchigan.  You will love this guy.  

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 own Liberty Audio X-VOX Loudspeakers and love them! The Spatial's are getting a lot of attention as well...

Wig 
Loudspeaker Break in revealed - YouTube
Hi-fi Stereo | 11 Stereo

The problem is - there is a relationship between many of the common audiophile descriptors and timbre. It's is one of the most difficult to portray accurately without a fairly high level of detail retrieval, driver to driver cohesiveness, dynamics, etc. on top of that, you need a quite high quality system to allow a speaker to portray timbre accurately. And, of course excellent recordings. 

That said, there are very few speakers (with associated gear and music) that I've heard that capture the tonal accuracy (or timbre) of instruments well. And <$10K, even fewer. IME only the largest of Wilsons are capable and Magico M series most certainly does. Another is Vivid Giyas (I bought them) and Vandersteen 7s. At <$10K new, the Magico A3 is  good, the smaller Vivids and possibly the smaller Vandys albeit I haven't heard Richard's newer models.

+1 for GR Research -  the NX-Extremes are excellent on their own, but paired with a set of servo subwoofers (2) I think would be virtually unbeatable at the price (and probably any price).

Danny is a great guy and is very responsive to email, etc.  His YT channel is definitely great if you're interested in the science of it, and he actually takes speakers people send him, measures them, gives feedback on their strengths and weaknesses and then determines if an upgrade path is achievable.  Often times, he redesign the crossover or suggests filtering to reduce baffle reflection, etc.

In terms of accuracy of timbre, the speakers under $10K who deliver (that I’ve listened to) are:

- Martin Logan (Spires, Montis)
- Yamaha NS-1000(M)
- Tannoy Westminster

As a musician, that has always been my number one expectation of my audio system.

I used to own Yamaha NS-1000 (a few decades ago). I went through several changes of speakers until I auditioned ML Spires against Tannoy Westminsters. While I really liked the Tannoy’s, they are very different to the MLs. Not better, just different. I ended up with the ML’s as I felt that they more accurately reflected the tonal qualities I was expecting. If the ML’s weren’t in the picture, then I could have happily lived with the Tannoy’s.

YMMV.

I second ProAc.  Detailed with a very rich tonal palette.  

If your can accommodate them Magnepan 3.7i with a few subs or a gently used pair of 20.7. Magnepan is just so life like with a large soundstage it's all you'll ever need.
As always listen before you buy.

Forget about it. If you’re looking for the best of both worlds there’s going to be a compromise. Pick your line and roll with it. You like these new speakers because they’re more natural so enjoy them. I know we’re all addicts here. Do what I do. Have 2 systems, 1 dedicated to rock, preferably active with low distortion and another system for the better recordings where the hyper detail doesn’t suck the life from the music. 

If you are looking for truth and accuracy in sound, I would look at my Verdant Blackthorn 1.  Don’t take my word for it.  Look at Andrew Quint’s (The Absolute Sound) AXPONA coverage from 2019 when he covered speakers under $20K.  
The other speaker I would look at is Audiovector.  The R1 will roll up under $10K, the R3 is $10K without freedom grounding.  Again, Check out Andrew Quint’s review from earlier this year.  

A beautiful pair of Daedalus Poseidon just came on yesterday in your price range—check them out!

Another vote for Harbeths. They are quite remarkable, especially paired with tube electronics.

@ hoosierinohio,

"I have since found a more full color sound with old speakers from the 50’s."

You’re not alone in that opinion.
Far from it. Without extensive measuring techniques they must have relied more upon listening back then.

Some of today’s best designs still try to emulate the best from the 50s albeit with less colouration. Zu audio are definitely one who places impression over measurment. They even had a model called Zu Tone!

Alas another brand difficult to hear in the UK.

Detail yes, but not sterile detail.

Accuracy yes, but not sterile accuracy.

Poster......

This is solid gold.........

Good question. Part of the equation comes from the components. Tube, SS, etc. Some speakers have better bass, some are more open sounding but without the upstream components the sound can vary greatly. Tone to me comes from the source. IN manufacturing components I can change the sound completely with capacitors (think oil or copper caps), resistors think Audio Note non-magnetic, silver, etc. TO me the speaker has an impact on the sound but tone IMOP comes from your components. Have you ever heard a speaker sound poorly and then hear the same speaker somewhere else sound much better?

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.

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. 

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.

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.

Legacy Audio makes fantastic stuff.  Made to order right here in Springfield, Illinois, so there is a waiting period.  But I have their Classic HDs, and I couldn't be happier.

I own Tannoy and appreciate the tonal qualities. 
I am assuming you've ruled out Electrostatics?
The Devore, AudioNote and Harbeth are three 
that might work for you.

Please let us know the final outcome!

any of the Tannoy Prestige Series

“Timbre” and “tonal quality” are the characteristics that the OP values most. So a good definition of these qualities is a requirement. For me these attributes are what makes an instrument or voice sound like the instrument or voice that is actually is. What distinguishes these instruments is the amplitude and temporal relationships (phase) of the fundamental tone and the harmonics, as well as Initial note attack and decay. So you need a speaker that is not colored, and one in which the designer has factored in time coherence.
You also need an amplifier capable of supplying that initial attack. I have found that Goldenear Triton One.R, Audio Physic Scorpio (now rare), ELAC, and Revel 228BE fill the bill. So does YG, but it’s out of your price range. I’m sure that there are many others - but no one has access to everything.

Use Magico S1

https://www.audiogon.com/listings/lis98ica-magico-s1-mk1-full-range
For me, personally, I would not consider Maggies the best for tone and timbre, though many love them. I find I love them on some stuff, not on others, and that can even vary in a song depending on the instrument / voice.

Have you ever heard a speaker sound poorly and then hear the same speaker somewhere else sound much better?

That's called the room. The biggest impact on sound next to the speakers, and the two work in concert.
For the op, speaker alone won't give you tone, timbre, and realism. You need to work on your acoustics too.

IMHO, ATC active. Probably why their pro monitors are used in most of the best recording studios. Removes the amp/speaker interface question as well as all the problems even the best passive crossovers present. No more need for expensive speaker cables.

I would buy used Legacy Signature IIIs or Focuses at $2K to $3K, respectively. Both will work well with your PL and give you great dynamics and with the Sig IIIs, open sound (rear ambiance tweeter). They also have room tone adjustments (bass, mids, tweeter) which most speakers don’t have. I will have to pay big bucks to get superior speakers.  I don't like beamy speakers so the guy who mentioned original Quads-they are like giant headphones, nominal bass, dynamics, etc. 

If you can find them I would look around for a pair of Harbeth SHL5+ and pair them up with a decent sub or pair of subs. The Harbeths should come in around 3-4K. Best midrange and super tweeter speaker for the money coupled with a sub commit around 50Hz. What they’re made of is least important, it’s how they sound.

These:

https://www.audiogon.com/listings/lisa20ah-graham-audio-ls5-8-full-range

Best of the best.

Harbeth Super HL5xd would come around 7-8k msrp.

I wish they come around 3-4k in the US.

You can get them from an authorized EU retailer and they are much more reasonably priced. The Anniversary editions are marked up quite a bit and the only published difference other than cosmetics is higher quality connectors and wiring. The soul comment from Harbeth referencing the sound quality between the anniversary and standard editions are that they sound a little better.

Harbeth, Audio Note & Spendor! BTW the only Stats I heard that can do tone and timber really well was Quad ESL-57!😃

Find some used Harbeth's and then go from there.