Best Speaker for classical music

01-07-14: Wolf_garcia
I listen to 100 piece orchestras frequently, always have, and have a well rounded
background decades long in myth-free audio as a professional
musician/recording engineer and hifi fan. I stick by what I say...for example, my
current somewhat modest rig, using small driver coherant floorstanders and a
great sub, can reproduce orchestras in my room with every single recorded note
and tonal dynamic preserved and delivered to my ears with stunning fidelity and
soundstaging, and at levels approaching ear damage.

Wolf, you're also right, and I should have further qualified my statements to the
contrary. In the context of the original post, there are a lot of speakers in the
$25-40K price range that can do orchestral. In the cones'n'domes category I'd
add a vote for whatever Sonus Faber offers in the OP's price range. However,
although the range of overtones coming from a jazz trio--grand piano, drum kit,
and acoustic bass--are complex, they still don't require the sorting out on
playback of "The Planets" or "Elijah." My experiences with
the Totem Arros (no WAY can those do large ensembles unless it's in a closet :))
and GoldenEar Triton Sevens vs. the Magnepans illustrate what I'm talking about.

If a jazz trio (grand piano, 4 drums, 4 cymbals, and a bass viol played pizzicato)
creates a complex set of overtones, how much more so when you add in 50
massed bowed strings, woodwinds, brass, and a full percussion section? Add in a
pipe organ and cantata-sized chorus and there's a lot of sorting out to do with
incalculable overtones. There are a lot of speakers that can't track all that but
still realistically reproduce all the nuances of a jazz trio. However, anything in the
OP's price range should be able to do credibly play back large scale orchestral
music, and some better than others.

There is still an economical aspect of planars. Magnepan's top line 20.7 costs less than the Wilson Sophia. Add in a pair of JL Fathom F212s and the combo still costs less than a pair of Sasha W/Ps, while being able to fill a room better than Alexias and more like Maxx's, with bass extension to below 20 Hz.

Big speaker systems usually have a couple of drivers and one tweeter, almost without exception (Magnapans and other planars are an exception...but still)...exactly like smaller systems, so the only qualitative difference is relative to listening space size and what it takes to get the mojo in that space. A smaller full range system will work in a smaller space, etc., or one simply asks the nurse to roll you closer...a large system in a small space sounds great from across the street.

I had a pair of Apogee Divas coupled with a pair of Vandy subs. That combo could do large scale classical! Something about dipole panels, they make it feel like you are sitting in front of a 50' wide stage filled with musicians, more so than any cone and dome has done for me.
If you could get a pair of those and rebuild them they would top most anything out there.

What about b&w 602 s3's? They shoot way above their price point!? They are so....(add superlatives here)

KLH Nine full-range electrostats! Still decades later a "Holy Grail" speaker system. Designed by Arthur Janzen and Roger West (Sound Lab). I have had a pair since 1991 in use! Too bad most audiophiles have never heard them!