Accuracy vs. Enjoyment

P.S. to my previous post:  RV, I believe that your Dahlquist DQ20 speakers use first-order (6 db/octave) crossover slopes and are time coherent.  I'm not certain of that, though.

Best regards,
-- Al 

Al, your thinking on the subject is supported by my experience that a speaker having a midrange driver with as wide a bandwidth as possible, reproducing as much of the music as possible, is, all things being equal, a very good thing. In that way, it should therefore sound as close to that of the Stax ESL phones (I’m still happy with my SR Lambda Pros) as a speaker can. As Roger Modjeski has been opining here lately, the crossovers in speakers are more responsible for loudspeaker "problems" than are their drivers. I have long found planars that crossover from their midrange driver(s) to any woofer and/or tweeter at very low and high (respectively) frequencies very much to my liking. I am currently enjoying a pair of Eminent Technology LFT-8b’s, each of which has a pair of magnetic-planar drivers reproducing 180Hz to 10kHz, the filters at those frequencies being 1st order (6dB/octave). Not as transparent as my Quad 57’s, but pretty darn good. Transparent enough to reveal low-level musical detail to a satisfying degree, but not so transparent as to reveal the worst sound of really bad recordings. And they play much louder than the Quads! Good for Beethoven Symphonies and AC/DC ;-).

+1 @bdp24   @almarg  

Active speakers are the way to go. Proper size mid range driver is crucial. Phase compensated for perfect coherence between drivers. 

@shadorne, though shunned by audiophiles, active speakers are a very good idea. The amplifier(s) can be optimized for a known speaker load, not compromised to make it more universal. Roger Modjeski of Music Reference is now offering his own designed and built direct-drive ESL loudspeaker. The dedicated tube amplifier has no output transformer, the ESL no input transformer. And no speaker cables required! 

I think I’m raising this question because of my current setup on which good CDs are sounding wonderful, but others not so much.  I had to send  my  vintage CJ preamp out for repair three weeks ago and have replaced it temporarily with a solid state unit.  This problem was not really so evident when the CJ was in the system and performing optimally.  I guess I’ll have to patiently wait til I get it back to get consistency.