most accurate loudspeakers....

"Why Is There Air?"
-Bill Cosby, 1965

The first and last speaker to fool me I was listening to a live performance is the Apogee Scintilla. No other system, in any room has come close.

That moment when I walked into an audio store, where I had listened to scores of speakers, I heard a piano being played - in the near vicinity - I literally walked all about the store looking for the recital.

I completely agree with Donald. You cannot have both and I prefer the first possibility he's mentioned. I would only add the old Quads to his Sound Labs.
Cheers,

I would agree with Donald & Detlof above, and raise the following point: an "accurate" speaker-system is capable of creating a NEW musical event in the room, BASED on the original recorded event."
This is just an attempt to paraphrase or review Donald's No1.

Gregm,

Good point. I think that

an "accurate" speaker-system is capable of creating a NEW musical event in the room, BASED on the original recorded event."

is a nice way to put it.

I also think that Donald's statement,

1. Most accurate at creating the illusion of a live concert or musicians in your home?
2. Most accurate and reproducing the input signal's waveform in room at your listening seat?

At this time I believe these 2 possibilities are mutually exclusive.

is so true of the majority of HI-FI today. Sadly the pursuit of sizzle and hyped sound in order to differentiate and impress has left people feeling that the above are mutually exclusive goals. Either you get an atmospheric warm lush sound with little accuracy in timbre and poor dynamics or you get a clinical and dynamic sound with the tiniest sweetspot and with music so unnatural sounding that it feels like it has been torn apart or dissected, even if it is exciting because of the impact.

However, I strongly believe that THE goal is to strike a healthy balance.

A large sweetspot with an even and natural sound field coupled with precise timbre and realistic dynamics.

Aristotle would describe this as the "golden mean". A "Goldilock's System", where everything is just right and balanced; natural in tonality, timbre, dynamics, accuracy AND acoustic sound field.

The blind pursuit of any single passion, such as a holographic image or deep lush bass, generally comes at the expense of other virtues in a system. It soon becomes tiring and the gear "merry-go-round" keeps on turning...