Speaker Preferences?

what is the reference for an electric guitar, unless you happen to own the electric guitar played on a recording

Weeell, just because you mentioned the guitar (presumably, as an example), there is some sonic signature re, different brands of guitar & players... In the same vein, what's the sonic signature of a drum sequence and synthi bass???

Hey. I just replaced ML Requests with Aerial 9's.

The MLs can have a really spectacular sound when they are firing on all cylinders. However, I spent 9 years fiddling with the placement and could never nail it, especially when I played a variety of styles of music (a placement that worked w/jazz did not work for Rock, etc) . My room is about the size of yours (15x 22) and I just think they need a much bigger room. I also don't think they are a good rock speaker and don't sound particularly good at high volumes (incredible, however, at low voloumes).

I was nervous about replacing the MLs, but I am glad I did. After listening to newer MLs, Dynaudio, Revel, B&W, Wilson, I got the Aerials. I could not be happier. They work perfectly in my medium size room. Huge soundstage, great imaging, very neutral. Most importantly for me, they sound good with all kinds of music and sound good at both low and high volumes.

The 9s are a little out of your stated price range, but can presently be had on Gon for $5800. Highly recommended and worth a listen along with the others you mentioned.

at the risk of being labelled an elitist, why is speaker selection so critical if recordings feature mainly amplified instruments ?

Hang on...acoustic instruments all sound different too!

How can you judge what is real timbre anymore than with amplified music?

Sabian, for example, hand make cymbals...each one probably sounds different.

Sir Christopher Hogwood and the Academy of Ancient Music had period instruments copied/rebuilt so they could replicate the timbre of the day.

Pavorotti caried throat lozenges in his pocket handkerchief that he used to wipe his brow..surely that affected the sound outcome too

Perhaps the quickest/easiest test for timbre are male and female vocals so may be you have a point about unamplified... but even this is not perfect (I'll grant you that at least we are all skilled at recognizing voices)

So how to decide, for me it is easy. I tend to trust others who have ample opportunity for direct comparisons to "real" sounds.

My rsuggestion would be to audition a pro main monitor that studios use to impress clients with. If clients can be impressed by listening to themselves in a studio (just after a recording session) then the speaker/system must be doing something right in terms of accuracy. There are many speakers to choose from in this category and most are very good over a wide range of music. Although even in this case, microphone selection and placement can do a lot to influence the sound. One Nashville studio claims to have $1 Million invested in microphones alone...go figure!

Or like J. Gordon Holt...he selected a speaker that made his own recordings sound the most like the live event itself.

At the end of the day, I'd suggest that all sounds (amplified or not) must be all weighed and accounted for in the speaker selection. However, something like Sheffield Drum Track is a good starting point; great eliminator disc, as most systems fail that one altogether, and if a speaker can't do transients convincingly then how can any system connected to it begin to even hope to get timbre right...

So my quick check would be Sheffield Drum track followed by all kinds of vocals, and then loads of different instruments.

Shredder,

I will look into the Aerial 9s... if you were impressed with them and you had ML background, it may be something I'd like to audition. Just for kicks. And if they are truly better, well... que sera sera... this is life.

Joey

Joey. Don't get me wrong, I love MLs. If I had a bigger room, I would probably still have them.

I am pretty happy with the Aerials though. Definitely worth a listen.