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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
tweak1
3,553 posts
 
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
hobo1452's avatar
hobo1452
85 posts
 
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.
hoosierinohio
146 posts
 
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. 
markmuse
249 posts
 
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
rbyington711's avatar
rbyington711
60 posts
 
ATC
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