This is a really interesting question rockpanther, because I know where you're coming from. When I was shopping for an amp, trying to decide between two different units, the dealer and I went through his CD collection looking for what we thought was the absolute worst recording - I think it was a 1989 White Lion album. We wanted to see which amp could make a bad recording sound more tolerable. Through a Rogue Audio Sphinx into a pair of Proac Studio 140s the CD was unlistenable...bright, strident, just lousy. Through an Audio Research VSi55 into the same Proacs with the same cables, it sounded better. Still lousy, but not as lousy!
Fast forward, and I just listened to that Heart song you like, "Alone". I have two pairs of speakers in my room that I switch between depending on my mood. Through my Wilson Benesch Arcs it sounds thin and lifeless - through my Proac D2 it sounds warmer and easier on the ears. But if I chose to keep the Proacs over the WB because of that song I'd be making a bad mistake - the WB are better speakers, and with any decent recording they sound better than the Proacs. Because the problem isn't the speakers, it's the recording - that Heart album is an awful recording. Not as bad as some of Pat Benatar's '80s albums, which sound like she recorded them in a garage on a $13 Radio Shack tape recorder with a $5 microphone perched on a beer keg, but still pretty bad.
The Proacs lean towards a slightly warmer sound than the Wilson Benesch, which helps on crappy '80s albums. And I do love the Proacs for that...I can listen to them all day long, such a sweet sound. But with a good recording, something like Green Day's "American Idiot" or Diana Krall "Live in Paris", I'll connect the WB Arcs - they're just more transparent and neutral and they get me closer to the music as it was recorded.
The lesson, at least from my standpoint, is that if you choose a system just because it makes poorly-recorded '80s albums sound good, it may also be a system that has to color the sound to do so, and when you go to listen to a really great recording that doesn't need that "help" you'll find that what you've gained on bad recordings has been sacrificed on really good recordings. That may be oversimplifying things too much, but you understand the idea. Just my experience, take it for what it's worth.
Fast forward, and I just listened to that Heart song you like, "Alone". I have two pairs of speakers in my room that I switch between depending on my mood. Through my Wilson Benesch Arcs it sounds thin and lifeless - through my Proac D2 it sounds warmer and easier on the ears. But if I chose to keep the Proacs over the WB because of that song I'd be making a bad mistake - the WB are better speakers, and with any decent recording they sound better than the Proacs. Because the problem isn't the speakers, it's the recording - that Heart album is an awful recording. Not as bad as some of Pat Benatar's '80s albums, which sound like she recorded them in a garage on a $13 Radio Shack tape recorder with a $5 microphone perched on a beer keg, but still pretty bad.
The Proacs lean towards a slightly warmer sound than the Wilson Benesch, which helps on crappy '80s albums. And I do love the Proacs for that...I can listen to them all day long, such a sweet sound. But with a good recording, something like Green Day's "American Idiot" or Diana Krall "Live in Paris", I'll connect the WB Arcs - they're just more transparent and neutral and they get me closer to the music as it was recorded.
The lesson, at least from my standpoint, is that if you choose a system just because it makes poorly-recorded '80s albums sound good, it may also be a system that has to color the sound to do so, and when you go to listen to a really great recording that doesn't need that "help" you'll find that what you've gained on bad recordings has been sacrificed on really good recordings. That may be oversimplifying things too much, but you understand the idea. Just my experience, take it for what it's worth.