Speakers which always sound good

I love my Vimberg Tonda D can’t wait to spend long listening sessions with them forget about the rest of the world for a while

The goal here is not for one audiophile to isolate and listen, but to listen to music with others. Headphones are right out for this particular discussion.

erik_squires
is this a trick question? I ask, because the more I read the more I understand that appropriate room treatment, for the specific room geometry and materials, has a major overall bearing on the sound quality.

Erik, if you have the funds to purchase a house, and you're in the market for one, then my opinion is that you could probably build one, if you're patient enough?? Done correctly, you could even get more for your investment.
Consider building.

Honestly, I have never had a difficult time getting speakers to sound good. But the easiest I have ever had it is with my Salk Songtowers. Easy Peazy speaker to place. In fact, they are the first speaker I can put right up against the wall and not get overly booming bass. They just sound better quite a bit better away from the front and side walls.

I know there is a lot of talk about speaker placement.  But the best results, for me, were obtained from 'source placement'.  Place the source on the side wall.  Nothing between the speakers.  Thick rug...with speakers on rug...nothing else = great imaging! Not a reality for most people but you gotta at least try it once. 

The most problematic issue with speaker choice in the rooms of my own, my friends, and at shows, seems to be bass boom. This may be more a feature of Europe: we have smaller dwellings and hence smaller rooms on the whole than the USA. Even small 2-way stand mounters can boom away in some rooms.
There are 3 speakers which never seem to cause this problem.

1. The LS3/5A. This classic monitor always sounds great. It may need a subwoofer in some rooms but it sounds good wherever you put it in any room.

2. The B&W 804D - a floor standing speaker which sounds good in every room I’ve heard it in. It can stand against a wall or in free space, it doesn’t care. The smaller stand-mounted 805D seems less flexible, oddly. And the 803D and down can overwhelm small spaces. I own a pair of 804s in my second system and would never get rid as they’re so versatile.

3. Boenicke W8. These stunningly beautiful small floor-standers like a bit of space behind them to sound best but they always sound good in every single room I’ve heard them in. Small rooms, large ones, odd-shaped, even troublesome cuboid spaces...the lot. And it has a wide sound field so they work in busy rooms for all present.