Best Loudspeakers for Rich Timbre?

That is part of my problem with Magico and Wilson.  They play sound okay but not music.  That's with about 15 or more auditions of each of those two brands.  Never heard a Harbeth I didn't like.  I own Legacy Focus and Signature IIIs (originals).  I like vonSchweikerts and Lumenwhites a lot.  They have timbre and rhythm correct with adequate dynamics to make the sound lifelike to the recording.  The Harbeth has some contraints in the frequency extremes and dynamics but is otherwise a very musical sounding speaker.  I came up from owning large electrostats for over 20 years (Acoustat X, Acoustat 2&2 and ML Monolith IIIs).  While I liked what they did right, my wife did not like what they didn't do-tight deep punchy bass and dynamics.  Also, the speakers I like tend to be easy to drive, unlike the Magico and Wilsons.

Totem line comes close .

@fleschler  Wow! I applaud your energy and resolve to have thoroughly investigated the sonic properties of 2 loudspeaker brands considered to be near the state of the art, Magico and Wilson.

I must admit that I am less surprised about your reaction to Alon Wolf's creations. Could it be that in his determined pursuit of ultimate scientific truth that some of the natural warmth of music has been left behind? High tech material, but too much cold truth resulting in 'sound but not music'.

As for Wilson, I am a little more surprised. Most reviews praise Wilson speakers with few reservations other than the price. In fact it was only the other day at a show that I heard great feedback on Wilson speakers from a fellow visitor. Some of the models might not be to everyone's taste visually but the Sabrina and Sasha seem to be easier on the eye.

schubert,

"Rich timbre" is not a description I personally would give the Totem line.
I've always found they had a superficially attractive sound - those sparkly highs allied to a deeper coloured midrange, but their completely obvious contouring of the frequency response for that "Totem sound" is just too obvious and intrusive for me to enjoy over  time.   There's an obvious dip in the upper frequencies that gives it a recessed sound and but comes back out still in the presence region to give the impression of sparkly, sharp transients.   But it results in a pinched sound to the upper mids.   I think it's probably that dip around 5K in the crossover region that you see over and over in measurements of Totem speakers.

It seems to me that Wilson speakers have for a while now entered a bit of a renaissance in terms of the feelings they engender in the high end community.   It used to be that Wilson was everyone's favourite whipping boy - that paradigm of the "really expensive heavily constructed high end speaker" that had tons of hype, and which some reviewers lauded, but which many people loved to hate "way to clinical, way too bright, way to colored, etc."

But these days Wilsons seem to get way more love, and words like "rich" and "realistic, natural" seem to accompany reviews and reports on many of their current models.  And they seem back in favour even with reviewers who may have abandoned them once before. 

These are all observations from a distance, as I haven't spent much time (if any) listening to a Wilson speaker for many years.