[gongos]

I'm trying to generate a list of speakers that fall into these two categories, i.e. ones more suited to a particular genre of music. This list will hopefully help me in determining what speakers I'll buy next. Let's keep it in the $2500 and under range new or used.

[_scotty_]

This is no help for your list, but something to think about. An accurate loudspeaker should faithfully recreate an acoustic waveform that reflects the electrical signal that was fed into it. Nothing more and nothing less. Accuracy
also implies freedom from dynamic compression.
No accurate loudspeaker should sound better with a particular type of music.
  I would recommend  going to stores with the type of music you prefer and pick the speaker that  sounds best to you.

[mcrespo71]

Rock- Neat Mystique or Neat Elite.  None are better at rock/electronic IMO, including my own speakers (MM De Capo I).

Michael

[JLM]

I agree with Scotty,

It seems like in effect you're trying to catagorize speakers by the type of colorations they produce.  That's not hi-fidelity in my book.  The goal of any quality audio component is to faithfully reproduce proper tonality, detail, imaging, and dynamics.  As some of these catagories lend themselves more or less to various musical forms we can all come up with products that address one style of music better than another, but that's still not hi-fi IMO.


But I can understand that some may want to recreate the rock concert effect and so they look for speakers that sound like professional sound reinforcement speakers.  In college we lived next door to the venue used for rock concerts and we always listened to recordings of the performers before hand and again afterwards and so could do a fairly decent A/B test.  The concert was always an acoustical disappointment compared to my small, but high quality two-ways in a block wall dorm room.

OTOH trying to strive to provide a warm sound via resonant cabinets (like a violin) is just as flawed as going for a rock concert reinforcement sound.

[flintstone]

While I agree that speakers should not color sound...to bad it can't work that way in the real world. I'll take my old turd quality rock recordings over a colored rock speaker any day, after all...these types of music are very seldom recorded with-out a million colorations added to make them sound good on the boom-box.

That said, rock recordings along with any other type of music that has been recorded for accurate play on a good Hi-Fi system does sound very good on these types (accurate) speaker designs.

Sorry to say that most of the big lable record companies could care less about our wishes for quality recordings across the board.


Dave

[JLM]

Dave,

The problem I see with using "rock colored" speakers for rock music is possible doubling of the "rock coloration" effect (if it's possible to over exagerate rock too much) above what the artists/studio has already done.  Of course the same would apply to any form of music.

[flintstone]

Hi JLM

I see your from michigan also, I am in Grand Blanc area.

Most good rock speakers (coloring) as we have called it cut fq. response above 15k and boost mid-bass response. More a reduction than a doubling of anything.

Dave

[flintstone]

JLM

I should have added that my rock speakers are mostly used as subs, I'm a planer guy for a good while but still retaiin my so-called standard as a great rock speaker (Vmps supertower/r's)

A link to the Supertowers:

http://www.audiocircle.com/index.php?action=gallery;area=browse;album=391

Dave

[JoshK]

I couldn't live with a speaker that didn't bridge many genre's well.  I admit that my heavy metal listening went down when I got my RM40's, not because it couldn't do it well but because the recordings I had were so piss poor.  Still even the not-so-best recordings are still very fun to listen to on my RM40's.  

I even listen to rock on the radio through the RM40's with my Yamaha T100 and it isn't too bad.  I mentioned to my wife today that I now able to understand the words of lots of rock music/grunge/metal that I have long listened to but never knew the words.  

I listen to a pair of ProAc Studio series speakers once at a dealer.  They had some chamber music on when I walked in and they sounded really seductive.  Then I made them put some rock on and all went to hell in a hand basket. To me this is the impedomy of a piss poor speaker design.  I like too many genres of music to tolerate that.  I never understand how it could be any other way.   My speaker auditions ever since have revolved as much with making the speaker show its faults as with showing its grace.  

I listent to too much music to want all my speakers colored the same way.  Neutrality is a goal of mine, but not without finese, detail, dynamics, imaging, etc.

[nathanm]

The style of music is mostly irrelevant.  If a speaker sounds good with one type of music and not another it's not a good speaker and you're probably deceiving yourself a little about the stuff which sounded good to you.  But I do know what you mean, it can seem that some things work for "nice" music and when you play something with pounding drums and dynamics it sounds weak.  This would be related to power handling and bass response.  But the thing is, it really does sounds weak on the nice music too, I just didn't realize it.  That's been my experience.

Recordings vary widely and there's no one right way to do things, so you just have to find a speaker which does no harm to the majority of your music and then you're good to go.

[flintstone]

nathanm

I agree, the style of music does not matter...a good recording is a good recording. Listining to Supertramp (live Paris) right now over my hi-fi system...sounds great!

I only wish all rock sounded this good, can't blame it on the speakers....most rock recordings are BOSE quality and sound very good over BOSE systems. May be one of the reasons why BOSE is such a big company?

Dave

[Lost81]

OOT here, but how many of you folks listen to your music with the speaker grills on?

The music doesn't seem so muffled (clearer) with the grills off, but I'm concerned about the long term effects of frequent insertion and removal of the grills.


-Lost81

[JLM]

Some speakers, like Paradigm, design their drivers for use with grills on, but most aren't and seems like that would have to negatively effect the sound.  My speakers never had grills, and so far the dust caps are still in place and undamaged (crossing my fingers everyday).

[PhilNYC]

If a speaker sounds good with one type of music and not another it's not a good speaker and you're probably deceiving yourself a little about the stuff which sounded good to you..

I disagree with this.  IMHO, there is no absolute standard to which recordings are made.  A lot of things come into play; for example, recording engineers for rock/pop music master their recordings for a specific audience...usually targeted towards car audio systems, boom-boxes, or whatever else they believe their target audience is listening to.  Recording labels like Chesky aim for purity of signal, whereas a label like Sony might be aiming for something completely different.  

I do believe that there are some great speakers that can do most genres very well/fantastic.  But if a speaker can't do all genres well, I wouldn't say that they are not good speakers. Admittedly, I would say that they would have to do the genres they do well *really* well to be considered good.

For me, two speakers come to mind that are absolutely magical when it comes to acoustic/jazz/quartet-classical/etc music.  The Audio Physic Virgo II (which I used to own) and the JM Reynaud Trentes (which I auditioned for a month in my home) are *stellar* on small acoustic recordings (jazz, classical, vocal).  Quite frankly, they were below-average on classic rock and electronic music.  Electronics used were Blue Circle solid state/hybrid gear...I've used this gear with a lot of different speakers, and they can do various types of music very well, so I'm very sure of my comments regarding the Virgo II and Trentes...

[lcrim]

I think that unwittingly I have tailored my 2channel system to the kind of music I listen to most.   Small jazz combos are what does sound best on my 2 channel system.  Recently, I got Give by the Bad Plus and heard a bit of distortion on some of the more dynamic drum sections.  The same cd on my HT system w/ 150 watts per channel doesn't constrict the music at all.
I don't think that makes one system better than the other.  On the other hand, why don't the rock LP's I have from the late 60's and early 70's  sound anywhere near as good as the jazz I have from the same era?  Why did the guys who recorded jazz and classical do such a better job of it than the guys who mixed the rock albums?
I think that if your system sounds great on large scale music, then it will probably sound great on more intimate recordings but the converse won't necessarily be true.  I like the sound of SET amps and high efficiency speakers but maybe you give up something when you choose that type of system.

[Zero]

I will side by Phil on this one.  Quite a bit of music is engineered to appeal towards a certain crowd and subsequent associated equipment.  I am sure you don’t hear 50 cent and Nickleback when walking into a high fidelity shop.  I’m sure you hear plenty of it while driving around in the ‘burb’s being played through some car system.  Some speakers are less forgiving than others, and when you get less than perfect recordings -  it will sound horrible.  Is this really the fault of the speaker?  

I remember owning some Polk Audio 2000p powered towers.  These things could rock all modern material like nothing else I have heard to date.  You like to jam out with the latest hip hop/techno/rock/movies, than this is certainly your speaker.  That was its forte and what it was designed for, modern applications – and do so with exceptional quality.  As Phil suggests, any speaker designed for certain apps should do it very well.  This is a fine example of a speaker that fits that bill.  

There are speakers for those who love it live.  There are speakers for those who love acoustics/classical.  You also have plenty that attempt to be the jack of all trades.  I for one have never heard a speaker that can excel (above all others) in every genre.  You cater your system towards what you listen to most frequently.  Some people have the fortune of only listening to maybe two or three genres.  People such as myself listen to it all, and typically in succession. Very few people can afford the pricey systems that can do it all (for a meager 100k-200k). A lucky few have enough real estate (and/or understanding significant others) that allow them to construct multiple systems in the house.  If your one of those people, count your blessings.

Really, the idea of one speaker playing it all incredibly well is ideal – but not realistic.  There is always going to be something out there (price aside) that can better what you have for a certain application and genre.  Tell us what type of music you primarily listen to and what your expectations are.  I am sure we all can help.

[8thnerve]

While I won't say that a speaker that doesn't sound great on all types of music is a bad speaker, I certainly maintain that the best speakers I have heard excell at ALL types of music.  A bad recording is still a bad recording, but a speaker that makes a bad recording sound good in one genre, and a good recording sound bad in another, is just not something I am willing to live with, especially now when there are so many INCREDIBLE speakers that sound fantastic with all genres for so little money.

At this point in the industry, if you are spending over $2000 on speakers, they should sound incredible with ALL types of music, have a full range response (I mean that, using a frequency limited monitor in this price range is simply losing out.  Bass problems can be fixed with proper acoustic treatment, no matter how bad the room is, and music happens down to 20Hz, whether there is a drum or just a soprano.  Any speaker at this price should be comfortable at around 30Hz) and offer superior dynamics, imaging, and aesthetics.

I just don't think you have accept anything less these days.

[JoshK]

I agree with 8thnerve on this point.

[Zero]

So -  lets start naming a few.

[zybar]

Gallo Nucleus Ref I II or III
Silverline Sonata II

These are a few I have some good experience with.

George