Speakers that handle every genre of music - important?

Mike

Mike

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If you mostly listen to classical or rock or jazz, how important is it to you that your speakers play every genre of music well?

I have audio friends who mostly listen to rock, and their systems rock! But, I'm not so sure they can convey the emotion and message and tonality of a cello in a classical piece.

Conversely, I know some who only listen to classical and they are magnificent, but when you play rock on their systems, they just don't cut it. For example, my Strads did most genres well, but they didn't rock.
 
In practical terms maybe not, if you have found your musical taste.

My $0.02: If you are however looking for a SOTA system, IMHO the speakers need to manage it all. This is especially if we're talking midsize car purchase level of price tags, there can be no excuses.


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I have not yet heard that perfect pair. (I've seen a perfect pair, But back to audio).
What I have noticed is those speakers that come closer to being "all-arounders" do not do many of the holographic traits well.
I have always struggled with this discontinuity.
Has anyone else experienced this?
 
jadedavid said:
I have not yet heard that perfect pair. (I've seen a perfect pair, But back to audio).
What I have noticed is those speakers that come closer to being "all-arounders" do not do many of the holographic traits well.
I have always struggled with this discontinuity.
Has anyone else experienced this?
Click to expand...

Interesting. I need to think about this a little....


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I don't have much experience with true upper echelon speakers (e.g., Alexandrias, Q7's, NOLA Grand Reference, etc) but certainly at levels below that any speakers I have heard do better with some types of music than others. That doesn't mean they can't do everything well, if you understand the distinction.
 
While this viewpoint is antithetical to those of us who wish to spend $20,000 and up for a pair of speakers, and is contrary to my great love of monitors, Linkwitz Orion's and LX521's reproduce all genres of music superlatively well. There is something to the open baffle concept, eliminating the limitations imposed by a speaker cabinet, allowing the room to essentially become the "cabinet", particularly with excellent drivers like the SEAS Excel and a custom-tuned external crossover designed by Siegfried Linkwitz.
 
My Raidho D-3's played classical and jazz extremely well but came up a little short on rock and roll. Lower quality recordings were not particularly enjoyable. My Vandersteen 7 MkII's seem to excel on all genres of music with very little deviation in performance. Lower quality recordings can still be highly satisfying. I find myself playing a much wider selection of music now.

Ken
 
Alan Sircom's new review on M3 centers on this very topic. He says when he put on different genres of music it was as if the speakers were built for that genre. That was the part of the review that stuck out for me. He is one of the very few audio writers I truly respect - Alan for speakers, Michael Fremer for analogue, and our favorite reviewer on this forum for anything.


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I wasn't thinking of price necessarily. I was thinking more about experiences. My Strads and Maggie's didn't rock, but they were champs for everything else. I remember playing AC/DC Back in Black on my Strads and literally burst out laughing. My Raidho's would make me weep listening to classical and older poorer quality recordings, they were incredible. Still haven't heard a better violin or cello than with my Raidho's. But I wouldn't play Daft Punk on them. But I don't listen to Daft Punk anyway. My Wilson's, AG's, Focal's and Magico's played all genres well. I'm not so sure a BBC type design would be ideal for rock, but I could be wrong.

Too early to tell on my Vandy Quattro CT's, but first impressions are very good. Very musical with great spatial attributes.


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My experience has been that the higher the quality of the audio equipment, the more problematic it becomes to find music that really satisfies in terms of recording quality. I often find music that really moves me but then the recording quality is terrible. For me it not genre related but recording quality related.

The answer lies in having two systems, a high end setup for serious listening and a mid-hi-fi system for poor recordings.

And having valves helps a lot to make things bearable....
 
RDSChicago said:
While this viewpoint is antithetical to those of us who wish to spend $20,000 and up for a pair of speakers, and is contrary to my great love of monitors, Linkwitz Orion's and LX521's reproduce all genres of music superlatively well. There is something to the open baffle concept, eliminating the limitations imposed by a speaker cabinet, allowing the room to essentially become the "cabinet", particularly with excellent drivers like the SEAS Excel and a custom-tuned external crossover designed by Siegfried Linkwitz.
Click to expand...


Ditto on the open baffle speakers, especially in combination with horns. Eliminating the box so the drivers can couple with the room, can have very positive results. Especially the bass.
 
I believe this is a very underestimated aspect of speaker assessment. I'll call it the MYMC (Mine Your Music Collection) Factor. :)

Best,
Ken
 
I heard the best Straker playing cello on my Tannoy Westminster with tube amps ( goose bump ) but not so much on Rock genre. However I heard the same speakers that sounded great on rock and heavy metal in different room and gear but the Jazz and classical wasn't good as my set up. I think it's all depend on your room and gear too.


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Mike, what about the open baffles you had? Were they a very good all-rounder? If not, what about if they were paired with some "good" subs?
 
In a perfect world, all really good speakers should be able to play any genre of music and not favor one over another. The more full range your speaker system is, the easier it is to pull this feat off. But, if you own mini-monitors or small two ways, that isn't going to happen. If you own Quad 57s, that isn't going to happen. If you own a pair of speakers with built in bass lift that goes boom in your room, that's not going to happen. On the other hand, even if your speakers can play all genres of music with equal authority, it doesn't mean you want to listen to all genres of music. I don't listen to opera, hillbilly hee haw, or rap, but I think my speakers could pull them all off.
 
bzr said:
Mike, what about the open baffles you had? Were they a very good all-rounder? If not, what about if they were paired with some "good" subs?
Click to expand...

I think so. The biggest challenge I recall with open baffle speakers (aside from the different look) is the bass. The rear bass energy can cancel the front bass energy. Many subs and DSP helps this problem. I believe a wider baffle helps too.

As for music variety, I would say they do all genres well when setup properly with DSP, multiple subs, etc.


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ADS speakers from the 70s / 80s.


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Shouldn't a reference level speaker be able to play all genre well? If not, IMO it shouldn't be regarded as such.
 
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