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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
cakyol's avatar
cakyol
940 posts
 
JBL S3900
1111art's avatar
1111art
132 posts
 
The most expensive Dali you can find/afford. So rich I can't seem to listen with my eyes open
bigkidz
3,381 posts
 
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?

Happy Listening.
kren0006
1,859 posts
 
The title question is so subjective that everyone will have a different opinion.  In my case, it is Spendor D series.  D9.2 can be found for under $10k.
m-db's avatar
m-db
971 posts
 
No suggestion here.
Without glomming onto the word "best" in your subject line, the body of your post described your experience and goal quite clearly and reminiscent of my experience.

If your like me I’m guessing you may have ridden the audio merry-go-round for a time.
Faced with the reality that a thirty minute listen of the multiple products at an audio show or in stores is nothing like that first dissatisfied listen at home as the fear of the possibility system synergy could add to the cost of your resent purchase and still not reach the goal you’ve heard, just not at home.

Like you I made a not so lateral change to an unaffordable new speaker at the time which was suggested by someone I later learned is an industry professional. Years past until I could afford his suggestion used and bingo. That was thirteen years ago.

All the BEST in your search.
M
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