speakers for classical music

Yes MRT, I owned a pair of MG IIA for 20 years, marvellous speakers indeed. Drove them with Aragon 4004 first, then with JRDG 7M later. Then I started to wonder why cello vibrato was barely perceptible. . . and why PPPP was so bleedin' similar to FFFF, and why FFF sounded close while PPP came from afar. . . . and the rest of course, is history. Of course for 20 years I was perfectly convinced that wishing for a deep, tight and tuneful bass was pure frippery and totally beneath me.

Opera from Italy; Almarro from Japan.

David,

If you like to drive speakers loud and particuarly realistic dynamics/spl then this is generally what happens. Go horns or pro speakers would be my suggestion. Consumer designs generally are never required nor do they claim to reproduce realistic music levels so it is unfair to push them so hard.

Hi Shadorn,
Yes, I hear what you are saying. My next pair of speakers will be from the JBL Project line, with thier famous compression drivers and 15" bass units.

Quad, Magneplanar, or Ohm.

Compromise nothing, timbre, dynamics, etc. Nothing! Accept a speaker as ultimate for ANY genre of music if it has less than spectacular results in every parameter? No way!

The best speaker for classical is the best speaker for rock is the best for Jazz, etc.

In other words, I want the best no matter what I play. I don't want a speaker that only performs well with one kind of music or media.

A Better speaker for me better be better across the board. I'll not take exceptions to this rule.

Everything sounds better on a superior speaker - Chamber, orchestral, solo instrument, voice, everything!

And you know you have a winner when virtually nothing sounds bad, even music that sounded poor on other speakers with the same source, cables, etc has a lesser degree of "poorness"!
:)

Atmasphere's comment in this regard is dead on.