can the VA Beethoven Baby Grands ROCK?

I beg to differ, Larry. Rock isn't all SPL and bass output. Speed and precision armore important to me, and my catalog is 99% rock.

Micjo,

I'm not the biggest fan of Viennas. They're a bit too smooth, warm and slow sounding for me to keep my interest for any length of time. They're a very pleasent sounding, rich and full speaker. Sound great in a demo, but I know I couldn't live with them for the long haul.

Buying a forgiving speaker to smooth out poor recordings is a good concept on paper, but it ruins good recordings IMO. Even bad recordings benefit from honest speakers, as they'll highlight anything good in there too.

My system is a Bryston B60, Theta Cobalt DAC, and Audio Physic Yara Evolution bookshelves. The system is very honest and revealing. Slayer's albums aren't exactly recorded well, yet they sound far better on this honest system then they ever did on my previous NAD and PSB systems, which were warmer, smoother, and far more forgiving.

That's my ears, room, system and music. Everyone's tastes are different.

I can't speak to the VA speakers specifically but to say that a speaker with 6 in woofers can't rock is to say that something like the Revel F52 can't....pretty off base.

thanks for the input. I'll go audition the Viennas once more. In the meantime I've had a chance to hear the Dynaudio Special 25 monitors and WOW! pretty good dynamics and bass extension for such a small speaker!

Special 25s are very special - need good amplification (high current) for them though.

Larry is right.

If you want to ROCK, you need to move a lot of air, and you need to extend down low. 6" bass drivers need not apply.

Vienna Acoustics will do a good job at making the majority of your collection sound palatable, but you will obscure details that a more transparent speaker will expose.

The special 25 on the other hand - That is a pair of monitors that can rock.

Though - there's still more potential out there with even bigger speakers! Contour 5.4 perhaps?