Best Loudspeakers for Rich Timbre?

prof, I think you're right about the underdamping of the speaker. I recall getting a wonderfully unrestricted breathing bass from a pair of Rega bookshelves when driven by a cheap 7 watt amp.

The sheer unfettered free sound coming from those small boxes was highly compulsive listening. Rega don't give much away regarding construction but as the speakers don't feel particularly heavy I guess some form of thin wall cabinetry
(in best British style) must be involved.

I also remember that you had to turn up the volume to get them singing in this fashion. The timbre of the free flowing bass was as good as I've heard. If only the midrange had been as expressively free. 

Still, whilst not being ideal as main speakers, mainly in terms of scale, openness and bandwidth, they remain far too good for me to ever pass on.

@atmasphere 
I generally try to ignore your posts because many times you indirectly seem to be hawking your own amps. But I have interject here in protest of your negative statement about 4 ohm speakers. I owned on of your amps in the past and very aware of their limitations. Namely, your amps don’t do well with speakers that are 4 ohms or less.  But it doesn’t mean other great amps have this limitation.  In fact, some of the greatest speakers made are 4 ohm or less and are inefficient  (Apogee and Magnepan are few examples).  Paired to proper amp, these speakers can sound unbelievably real.  Sorry, Atmasphere amps paired with Classic horn speakers always sounded colored and unreal to me despite your claims.

@dracule1I think you might be glossing over my comments here.
All amps, tube, solid state and class D, make more distortion driving lower impedances. Its a simple physical fact- you can see it in the specs.
Its also a fact that the human ear converts distortion into tonality, and a further fact that the distortion generated by all amps into lower impedances tends to be higher ordered harmonics and increased IMD. Both are extremely audible to the human ear and contribute to harshness and brightness.
I agree that the Apogee and Magnapans are excellent speakers (and if you have enough power, work quite well with tubes). But what you may not be considering is that if these speakers were higher impedance, they would sound smoother and more detailed- in fact, more real, regardless of the amplifier employed.

If you have a 4 ohm speaker, and a solid state amp, you may have a 3 db argument for 4 ohms if sound pressure is your goal.

But if **sound quality** is your goal than your amplifier investment dollar is best served by a loudspeaker of higher impedance.

Now one problem with a speaker that is simultaneously low impedance and also low efficiency is that you need a lot of power to make it work. There really aren't many amps out there that make a lot of power while also sounding like music. It puts them at a disadvantage. Its really a Bad Idea to make any amp work hard for its living- the result is less musical.

Regarding your comments about the Classic Audio Loudspeakers (which are 16 ohms), as you already know the impedance is not what makes them sound a certain way. Some people look at them and see a horn, and don't take the speaker seriously no matter how it sounds.

In my case, I recorded an LP (Canto General) and because I recorded it, I was actually at the recording sessions :) 

I know what that LP is supposed to sound like- I was there. It makes an excellent reference for me.

The Classic Audio Loudspeakers do more of what is needed to sound like that than any other speaker I've heard, but by no means have I heard all speakers. While many speakers can make the soundstage, often the bass is missing or colored, or the highs don't sound like O'Shaughnessy Hall and so on. My choice to use the Classic Audio Loudspeaker is purely based on them providing the most neutral presentation of that reference. I have high regard for Sound Labs, and would have bought a set if I could have figured out how to make them work in my room (I've also considered Magnaplanars as many of our customers own them, but couldn't make them work in my room either).

Please pardon me for walking my talk. I'm not going to tell you something that I don't believe myself. If you feel that I should not be participating on this thread, please say so.

Your argument that apogee would sound better if it were higher impedance is false based on imperial evidence.  Case in point the 1 ohm Schintilla sounded better than 4 ohm Schintilla, as long as you could find an amp that could drive 1 ohm load.  

Sorry, but those Classic speakers driven by your amps never sound correct to me. However, I do remember your amp sounding fantastic on Mirage M1s back in the early 90’s.

Who is Rich Timbre?