cd318
I've had to unlearn some intuitions along the way, or at least modify them.
I agree there does seem to often be a certain character of cleanliness and clarity with metal driver speakers. And this can come with something of an acidic or metallic aftertaste on the tone. I also had the belief that metal dome tweeters did the sound of metal more authentically. That was undone when I heard a speaker like the Josephs, which use a soft dome tweeter but on which drum cymbals jumped out to me as particularly authentic and metallic-sounding.
But if we are to stick with presuming for the moment the intuitions of how certain speakers sound due to their materials and build: something like the big fat ol' Devore speakers with their paper drivers sound particularly "organic," "woody/papery" where I just hear the wood in the body of an acoustic guitar, or the reedy tone of a reed instrument, or the vibrating wood of a cello. The sound is not electronic-edged, hard, metal-tinged.
The Joseph speakers do an excellent job of providing the sonic benefits of a modern-sounding speaker with great metal drivers (woofer/mids anyway) so you get as you say that super clean, pure, "fast" sound.But Jeff Joseph has cannily designed in, or kept, a richness in the lower mids down that, gives some richness and body, which combine with the grain-free smoothness and clarity of the upper frequencies to make a very attractive, sensuous sound.
They don't sound as bang-on organic to me as the Devore (or my Spendor) speakers overall. But they do surprisingly well and give a lot back by the sheer amount of beautiful harmonic content they dig out of a mix.
My Thiels, particularly driven by my tube amps, are a sort of in-between the Devore and Joseph sound.
I was listening to the opening track of the Bullit soundtrack which is great because it has guitar, drums, bass, and all sorts of different instrumentation, muted horns, horns, sax sections etc, flashing in and out out very dynamically. On my Thiels it's a big, rich, dense sound, satisfying in it's own way. There is what I'd call a "generalized organic tone" to everything.
However, that same track played on the Joseph Perspective2s had a timbral aliveness, variety and vividness the Thiels can't seem to match.The exact tonal difference of the muted trumpets appearing, the wood/metal sound of the saxes, the guitar, are so timbrally distinct and vivid it's sort of like beholding a timbral display of fireworks.My original Perspectives also do this. Though my sense is the new Perspectives go a bit further.
(Playing Rush on my Thiels last night was a blast. They go very loud without strain and do rock with a dense, punchy balls-to-the-wall energy).
