Transparency: What speakers have it in spades?

Doesn't transparent mean true to the source with minimal added distortion and without frequency abberations? That is, a speaker that does not "color" the sound (all recordings being affected) with its own personality? By the way, by this definition, I would say the Merlin VSM speakers are transparent. By this definition I would not think that the Spendors or other "British" voiced speakers are tranaparent - lovely, "musical", but not the height of transparency IMHO.

Quads, particularly the original ESL 57. For me, these speakers are the definition of transparency. With the possible exception of the Soundlabs and the Beveridge (also both electrostatic), nothing comes close. Of course, I am biased.

I agree that audio terms are very subjective with no two people having the same interpretation.
In general, you have to read between the lines when people are describing their experiences with speakers or any audio product for that matter.

Bill B

Great speakers. Dunno what you mean by transparency but a bigger three way will definitely allow you to hear much more...if that is what you are looking for.

The reason are two fold;

Experiments show that the ear can hear a maxium of 120 db of dynamic range.

Experiments show that the ear can also hear roughly 15 db below the noise floor (as long as it is random or white noise)

Assuming 10 db necessary headroom (safety margin to stay below audible distortion) and a seating position of 2 meters (6 db down); expect roughly 87 db SPL from a small two way monitor. Subtract the average calm room noise (30 db) and add the 15 db for hearing below the noise floor....and you have a dynamic range of roughly 70 DB SPL.

If you were to go to a larger three way then you might expect to comfortably get up to 105 db SPL at the listening position (with plenty of headroom and no audible distortion).

This would give you an extra 18 db of dynamic range...a significant increase that would allow you to hear more detail. Whether this is as you term "transparency" of not I am not sure....but you would definitely hear more detail from a bigger Spendor, given a good recording.