Audiophile speakers that rock well

Mark and Daniel Ruby, WLM, Green Mountain Audio, and if you can find one, American Acoustic Development E-48s. The AAD E-48s are not expensive but just very big sounding, great with rock. I used to own a pair, if I wasn't a sick audiophile I would have just kept those and been perfectly happy. I have not actually heard the PSB Stratus Golds, but a dealer told me a fews years ago they are a poor recording friendly speaker too. Also, wide bandwidth amps can help in this area too.

They pull off the counter-intuitive trick of revealing many recording flaws, while NOT making those flaws intolerable to listen to.

Yes!! That's exactly what my GMA Callistos do. Bad recordings don't sounds bad - they sound like the are *supposed* to sound bad. Husker Du is listenable because the awful recording and engineering is presented as part of the art, not as a mistake. Now, subs are a must if you want to articulate the low end. But once you augment the low end of a GMA system, IMHO you have a full-range system made in heaven.

But then again, I'm biased....just check out my system.

I love Husker Du and I used them to do a direct comparison with the Mark and Daniel Ruby and the GMA Callisto. Both did a good job, but the M and D, just had more depth and wt. However, a sub was not used. But yes the GMA's surely fit the bill. The Husker Du album I used for the direct comparison was Wharehouse. As bad as that is, it is their best recording. I don't think there is any system that could bring help Zen Arcade. That one needs a good headphone system.

Nick couldn't be more right about GMA speakers. I have never heard music reproduced so "right" in my room.

Shakey

Krell Resolution 3. I've owned a pair for five years. They can rock. The 8" woofer gives an added weight that many monitors with smaller drivers don't have. Excellent power handling with the Resolution 3, and you want that with a rockin' speaker. These speakers will play LOUD. But they are quite refined as well. There is a good review of them on 6 moons, just google Krell Resolution 3. And they look really nice to boot. In the used market they can be found within your budget.