Best all around speakers

I understand the limitations of the Quads in particular, but there are other large speaker designs out there that cost a lot more that should be able to handle everything extremely well including the things the Quads excel at, don't you think?

Sure there are many other speakers that handle everything extremely well and are an all-around much better speaker than the dynamically limited Quad ESL. My point was that the Quad's are absolutely exqusite in the midrange and, as long as the music dynamics and frequency range just happens to fall right in the Quad's sweetspot, it is hard to do better with any other speaker period.

So isn't the fact of the matter then that there are many speakers out there that handle a wide variety of music types well, if not perfectly in all cases?

The answer to these threads about "best this, that or the other thing" always seems to come back to "it depends on personal preference" and of course the rest of the target system, and budget.

Some good recommendations for some very good speaks here though!

So isn't the fact of the matter then that there are many speakers out there that handle a wide variety of music types well, if not perfectly in all cases?

I'd fully agree with "there are many speakers out there that handle a variety of music types well" - especially provided you add the caveat of modest SPL levels.

As for near perfect - I think there really isn't one.

Mapman, you're quite right, an awful lot of this is personal preference. I noted my own preference for Harbeths above, but (as also noted), I find that I'm happiest with several diffent sources, each of which has a bit different voice. I guess I've gotten very picky in my dotage, but I haven't found a speaker that gets everything close enough to "right" (for my ear) that I don't feel a need to tinker with what I'm inputting into it.

I disagree with many audio designers have a narrow taste in music. I design loudspeakers and listening to most everything. Many of my friends in manufacturing have music collections as large as a university. But at most shows you get little girl with piano and when audiophiles want to demo most pick little girl with piano. I scared many off with my Zappa guitar LP and its amazing. They loved it till one asked who it was. Once Zappa was mentioned off they went. Shows and demos suck, real work for whoever does it, would you enjoy listening to music you hate over and over, some guys will play 1 cut over and over and over and yet again. You know who you are.. Maybe you guys can cut them some slack but you wont. Sure little girl music will pass in time but look how long Pink Floyds DSoM arrghh or DS brothers in arms, sure I heard both at the same time last show off in the distance with a mix of PB and DK tossed in hell on earth..