Best Loudspeakers for Rich Timbre?

You can buy electronics based on good reputation or recommendations and get good sound, but speakers are the soul of the system and need to be chosen by personal interaction.  But with so few dealers, old speakers are such a pain to resell, package and ship, and it's usually a financial bloodbath, so I don't buy often.

The right speaker (for me) is usually"You know it when you hear it.." I make a short list, set a max price, then wait for Axpona and go with an intent to buy while I'm there. Makes for a fun trip.

Axpona gives you a chance to hear your preconceived short list, then wander the rooms and hear pretty much everything that compares and exceeds.  I went to hear Revel, Focal, Elac, Harbeth and heard better that were over budget, then stumbled upon "I knew it when I heard it" (Sonist Concerto 4's) for half my budget.  A long-term purchase that I could not have described as "What I want" before I had personal interaction.

 On the plus side, it's a way of getting to know yourself better.

+1 @cd318 Thank you for your post above and a prior post.

Earlier, I had posited that some of the posts by some of the posters were "self-critiques." With the exception of @cd318 , there was silence in response.

Said another way, I was learning far more about the poster than the speaker.

Speakers Do Not Operate In Isolation.

Without the entire system (inclusive of source material, cabling, isolation, power, etc), the room, and the listener being taken into account these 'speaker' discussions are fairly meaningless.

This forum is littered, daily if not hourly with examples, both pro and con on  "speakers" working small wonders or frustrating the poster to no end, generally divorced from their systems and themselves.

Focusing (unflinchingly) on understanding one's own self and learning what one's preferences and dislikes are and which trade-offs and compromises (vis a vis one's self or capabilities) one is willing to accept and live with, would be far more helpful THAN the repeated efforts to analyze and deconstruct speaker attributes (especially isolated from the system and room and the individual).

In other words, Understand Yourself. And keep working on it.

I also believe that our discussions would be markedly more polite if we led from What / Who We Are or where we want to go or what we want to be, rather than the focus on singular components.

I recently had the privilege to experience the effort and time one of our members has put into squeezing the very best out of his multiple systems - all bent to his preferences and offering him the connection to, and understanding of, the music in his special and unique way.

I experienced HIS experience in time and space relative to what he has come to know and become, as expressed through his system and room.

Last evening, I was again exceptionally fortunate to experience a completely different system. What I found was one of the best examples in my audio journey (and to my preferences) of balancing sheer musicality in conjunction with many elements of so-called 'modern hi-fi sound' or 'analytical' sound. This system delivered a thoroughly emotional and breath of life connection to the music.

It wasn't the speaker. It was an expression of these audiophiles choices from source material through room reflections.

It is an art form.

prof  I have a pair of Legacy Focus (originals) in the main listening room and a pair of their Signature IIIs in the living room.  

I have managed to achieve a wide sweet spot only recently.  I aim my speakers so that I can just see the inside sides from the center seat 13 feet away.  Then I use two pair of Shakti Hallographs and 32 SR HFTs mostly on the walls (none on the face of the speakers though-doesn't work for me).   My room is larger at 25' X 23'.  I couldn't imagine the speakers at a 45/45 angle towards me.  

The sound within four feet to the left and right of center now does not have a pronounced sound from the closest speaker on that side.  I find that a very happy situation as just two years ago, there was a severe drop off of sound from the further speaker toward the 5' edges away from the center spot.   

I've heard several Audio Physic speakers and that's something they're great at, disappearing from the room and creating a wide listening area.  Many small monitors can do that too but are destined for smaller rooms.  My former 5 pairs of high end (at the time) electrostats were not good for wide listening areas.  They beamed the sound towards the center spot (heard the same from Sanders speakers-really narrow listening area).  

Among the best disappearing speakers are omnidirectional speakers.  Recently, I auditioned the Carver Amazing speakers which excelled in the mids and highs sending sound evenly throughout the large room (as well as incredible stable imaging). 

prof  I have a pair of Legacy Focus (originals) in the main listening room and a pair of their Signature IIIs in the living room.  

I have managed to achieve a wide sweet spot only recently.  I aim my speakers so that I can just see the inside sides from the center seat 13 feet away.  Then I use two pair of Shakti Hallographs and 32 SR HFTs mostly on the walls (none on the face of the speakers though-doesn't work for me).   My room is larger at 25' X 23'.  I couldn't imagine the speakers at a 45/45 angle towards me.  

The sound within four feet to the left and right of center now does not have a pronounced sound from the closest speaker on that side.  I find that a very happy situation as just two years ago, there was a severe drop off of sound from the further speaker toward the 5' edges away from the center spot.   

I've heard several Audio Physic speakers and that's something they're great at, disappearing from the room and creating a wide listening area.  Many small monitors can do that too but are destined for smaller rooms.  My former 5 pairs of high end (at the time) electrostats were not good for wide listening areas.  They beamed the sound towards the center spot (heard the same from Sanders speakers-really narrow listening area).  

Among the best disappearing speakers are omnidirectional speakers.  Recently, I auditioned the Carver Amazing speakers which excelled in the mids and highs sending sound evenly throughout the large room (as well as incredible stable imaging). 

prof  I have a pair of Legacy Focus (originals) in the main listening room and a pair of their Signature IIIs in the living room.  

I have managed to achieve a wide sweet spot only recently.  I aim my speakers so that I can just see the inside sides from the center seat 13 feet away.  Then I use two pair of Shakti Hallographs and 32 SR HFTs mostly on the walls (none on the face of the speakers though-doesn't work for me).   My room is larger at 25' X 23'.  I couldn't imagine the speakers at a 45/45 angle towards me.  

The sound within four feet to the left and right of center now does not have a pronounced sound from the closest speaker on that side.  I find that a very happy situation as just two years ago, there was a severe drop off of sound from the further speaker toward the 5' edges away from the center spot.   

I've heard several Audio Physic speakers and that's something they're great at, disappearing from the room and creating a wide listening area.  Many small monitors can do that too but are destined for smaller rooms.  My former 5 pairs of high end (at the time) electrostats were not good for wide listening areas.  They beamed the sound towards the center spot (heard the same from Sanders speakers-really narrow listening area).  

Among the best disappearing speakers are omnidirectional speakers.  Recently, I auditioned the Carver Amazing speakers which excelled in the mids and highs sending sound evenly throughout the large room (as well as incredible stable imaging).