The audio Dr. reference to choosing musicality or accuracy is absurd. The whole reason high-end audio exists is the replicate a recording as accurately as possible. Unfortunately, if the recordings are poorly engineered that playback can be fatiguing. You do not buy a system based on its ability to color the recording with its characteristics. My father was a Julliard trained jazz pianist and had a Steinway grand in our living room which I listen to almost every day. I played jazz guitar for nearly ten years and know what instruments sound like. I have a pair of Martin Logan master series loudspeakers along with a paraquat 2905’s electrostatics. I am using audio research on the Martin Logan’s and Cary audio electronics on the quads (second system) I just had a chance to listen to the Vandersteen Audio Quatro against the Martin Logan’s and quads and they sounded like speakers rather than music. I find the most significant difference was listening to drivers on the Vandersteen rather than the cohesive image generated from the electrostatic speakers. The timbre of the instruments and attack were much better on electrostatics. I also find some dynamic speakers that stay true to the original recording such as the Wilson Benesch revolutions (auditioned at the Rocky mountain audio show) and still like the Rogers LS 3/5 A’s for musical accuracy in the mid-range. I think one of the finest loudspeakers for the money was Sanders new Electrostatic which was incredibly realistic sounding. I’m in the process of downsizing my systems and would recommend looking at the following loudspeakers. I think the monitor audio new gold series for $7000 retail is an excellent speaker and was reviewed highly by absolute sound. Wilson Benesch is less expensive speakers that range between $5000 and $10,000 that sounded quite good at the audio show. I have to mention that my opinions are based on listening to primarily jazz and blues. I was one of Linn Sondek premier dealers at one time but Primarily listen to the high-resolution digital source (24 bit depth/192 or recordings using MQA). I once thought digital sources sounded like transistor radios compared to vinyl, but the differences have diminished exponentially.
PS in the 90s I owned one of the most prestigious audio stores in the country and was introduced to the audio business by Dan D’Agostino of Krell and Levinson. I did business with many of the industry icons including Bill Johnson (who used to fly his plane to deliver audio research product to me) Bill Conrad, Nelson pass, Richard Vandersteen, and too many more to list here. I also imported along with Paul Heath the JR Rogers loudspeakers from Britain.
