If you listen to anything other than Classic Jazz, don't read this.


:)  I'm a Jazz only intermediate audiophile looking to improve my system. i ONLY listen to jazz, and i think that matters. If you are of the opinion that great speakers make all music sound good then move on to the next post, because the premise here is that speakers for Acoustic Jazz ( Big Band to Post Bop) have different requirements. My jazz audiophile buddies and i hav A/B'd lots of different speaker/amp/turntable/cartridge combinations as a fun hobby for the last 3 years. i've gone through at least 3 whole systems to get where i am now:
All Rega System - Rega Exex-R, Rega P3, with upgrades, Rega MC Phono Pre,  Rega Apheta 2 Cartridge, Rega RX5 Speakers. 

It sounds really great, but want to get to amazing if possible, and have recently done some speaker comparisons with some Paradigms and Harbeths that show the RX5's could have a tighter, deeper bass and bit more high frequency... 

The challenge is threefold -
1 )information out there is hard to come by, often confusing and  i haven't found much information specifically on what speakers jazz heads prefer.
2) I want to be able to put them up against my current system in my room, which seems a difficult task
3) They have to look good. Aesthetics matter to me. Tektons and Magnapans are cool But Ugly AF, and not going to work for me.

i want someone to tell me this is the best my system is going to get and just enjoy it (which i do 82.5% of the time), or recommend a few things to try, hopefully with recommendation for speakers to try, but i'm open to other suggestions.

I look forward to your comments :)

sincerely,
Eric the Jazz Snob
128x128ericmbass
In reality a speaker is either good on all genres of music or it is not a good speaker. It can be no other way. In fact, if a reviewer ever recommends a particular speaker for a specific type of music you should immediately discount this individual as a source of future information.  
Ah, I blew it; I read the post. Now, you'll have to endure my reply! 

Is the OP so steeped in the culture of live Jazz music, and so ignorant of electronics, that he has no idea how obtuse, how idiosyncratic his search criteria?

As a reviewer, I will make it clear; selection of one limited genre of music for assessment of a speaker, or any component is self-defeating. It is like looking for an athlete to compete in the decathlon, but assessing their ability by only desiring to know how they perform in the Javelin throw. 

Note well: A speaker that performs better in all musical genres will perform better in Classical Jazz. If someone is telling you otherwise, they are giving you horrid advice, and or have vested interests in the guidance. 

Almost without fail in 30 years+ of involvement in the High End, speakers that are said to perform with certain genres of music better, are worse speakers holistically. They are usually quite limited in critical areas of performance, tonally as well. 

You may wish to consider my adage born of much system building and assessment of hundreds of speakers: The greatest impediment to advancing an audio system is the audiophile.  

Now, you didn't want my advice, but I gave it to you anyway as a cordial response to what I saw as a dismissive, pride-filled first post. (You may have been using very dry humor, and I have given you the benefit of the doubt, so to speak)

Welcome to the community! I hope you are successful in your search. It should not be too difficult to improve markedly upon the speakers you currently own. There are numerous levels of sound quality improvement available to you. Imo, at this stage you are closer to the midway point on the High End performance spectrum than the top.   :)


i want someone to tell me this is the best my system is going to get
They could, but they’d just be lying.  Back in the real world...

First, and as much as I like jazz, I find it sad you don’t listen to other types of music, especially now where streaming puts worlds of awesome music literally at your fingertips.  Second, you’ll get better and more specifically targeted
recommendations if you share what aspects of sound and system performance are most important to you and what you’d like most to improve upon over what you have now (deeper bass and more treble doesn’t really narrow things down much).  “Classic Jazz” is a varied genre in and of itself, so using that to pigeonhole a speaker or system is too broad therefore not terribly useful or effective.  Last, having some indication of budget would be helpful.  With the information you’ve provided thus far you’ll just get a wide range of relatively unfocused recommendations, which makes this more of a fairly unproductive crapshoot as it stands. 
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I would recommend a pair of Vandersteen 1ci with a Belles Aria integrated amp. The Vandy 1ci are good all-arounders but I feel like they really shine on music that is "less dense." By that I mean the fewer the instruments, the better they sound IMO.

Listening to Miles Davis, Kind of Blue; Oscar Peterson - Night Train, Ray Brown - Soular Energy; or Dave Brubeck - Time Out. These recordings sound simply amazing on my humble system.

The Vandy's produce plenty of low end, throw a decent soundstage; and have a nice full mid range. I am thoroughly impressed by their ability to convey the correct size and scale of instuments.

When I listen to Take 5, Joe Morello's Ludwig drums sound like they're in the damn room with me. My Kef R11's, at almost 4x the cost vs. Vandersteen, still cant do that.