speakers for classical music

Shardorne, I'm actually measuring those peaks, with my speakers, in my room. I don't think the peaks are lasting long enough to lead to significant compression when listening to actual music in my system.

Those graphs you showed a few days ago of some top flight speakers really didn't display much compression when compared to the frequency response graphs for the same speakers. Adding less than 1% due to compression on top of a curve that's flucuating several percent seems small and perhaps not all that obvious.

Believe me, I'll be listening to horn speakers at the next RMAF to see what I hear. Assuming that horns now produce a natural midrange, then I'll be very interested to hear the true impact of this added dynamic capacity. If I hear something I like, then I'll be following with my wallet. I already know that Duke will be there and I hope that a few others from the genre will be represented.

What a speaker can do with a sine wave for several seconds is not of great interest to me, if it doesn't correlate with my actual listening experience. The compression shown on the graphs your referenced took seconds to start building up. I think that's way longer than typical musical peaks above 105dB (live or recorded).

Dave

I don't think the peaks are lasting long enough to lead to significant compression when listening to actual music in my system.

What a speaker can do with a sine wave for several seconds is not of great interest to me, if it doesn't correlate with my actual listening experience.

I don't expect anyone to agree with me. Especially those with dynamic speakers. I think you bring up some very good points on thermal compression, such as the lengths of the peaks. For sure some music will be more forgiving than others.

Have you considered though that driver non-linearities above Xmax are another form of compression (as the voice coil travels further outside the linear region of the magnetic field with large cone excursion). Again horns tend to have an advantage there too.

A demo at RMAF is a great idea - if they will allow you to play that loud. Sheffield Labs Drum track is a good stress test.

Salk HT3 or any Salk according to your budget.

AV123 according to your budget.

If more bottom end is desired, a Rythmik servo sub for a tight, precise, accurate, musical subwoofer.

Hi Atma, now that you mention a hint of Karl Orff. . . I remember listening to Cantos General on the radio. . . quantitatively, a most impressive work.

"quantitatively, a most impressive work"

I must give this a listen. Surely must sound better in digital/CD format than in phono/analog!!! I'd also like to run a sum check on the file and compare the total to other works!!!!

Now I think I've discovered how to truly quantify the merits of any partilular piece of art, as long as its in digital format!