Best speakers for classic rock

@carlsbad2 , good point about Cerwins. I had AT-15s in the late 80s and listened mostly to 70s music on them. I then went to more of a "hifi" speaker with a Mirage M460 in 1991 which sounded great and were better hauling around from place to place in my 20s and 30s. But while I loved the better overall sound (but w/ less bass) of the Mirages, I still missed the Cerwins very much. 

When I replaced the Mirages in 2021 after 30 years, I made a mistake buying Spatial M3 speakers. While they did and do sound great, they didn't do hard rock very well. Honestly part of that was an under-treated room but they still didn't rock as hard as I wanted. They sounded phenomenal with "regular" rock like Fleetwood Mac, etc. but has soon as you have heavy and screaming electric guitars, I think the low crossover tweeter couldn't deal with that very well.

FF to 6 months ago I now have what I consider the ultimate, hifi, 15" Cerwin-Vegas; Volti Rivals - and am thrilled with them. I know people will say this is thier last speaker but I'm very well convinced, the Rivals will be mine. As noted above I don't go through speakers very often anyway.

Again??? Spoken like a simpleton....over and over

What’s your real story here dude?

LOL I think Atmosphere is a very talented amplifier designer. I don't know about his taste in speakers, although I'm sure he'd argue high efficiency for his tube designs and maybe otherwise for his new class d adventures?

My free advice- I think we can agree that there are speakers that are forward and speakers that are laid back (generally) From there there are speakers that are forward and bright (highly detailed- think lots of room treatment careful cable selection etc.) I'd say a speaker that is forward but not bright- possible a synopsis of deep-33's thoughts about himself and atmosphere at a bar. 

I think Paradigm hit it out of the park with the Monitor SE speakers. I have the 3000f in my garage and they are just a really great sounding speaker and do really good things with rock music. Super punchy and clean clean clean. Basically got them free as I got 2 pairs for $375 total and sold 1 pair for the same. Otherwise they are way too good for the garage.

I’m surprised what that smallish amount of money can buy these days in the speaker realm. The big 8000f goes for well under your budget and I bet you might be really surprised. 

Again??? Spoken like a simpleton....over and over

What’s your real story here dude?

Did you blow all your cash on a single pair of speakers (’cost no object’ or something?) and you’re trying to convince yourself somehow that it is simply the best thing ever for every kind of music out there? Deep down, are you regretting blowing all your cash on 1 pair of speakers and trying to cope somehow?

@deep_333 I have multiple sets of speakers and run a recording studio. My taste is from all forms of western classical, ethnic folk music, prog rock from the late 60s to now, electro/ambient from the 70s-2020s. I play keyboards in a space rock band right now, also string bass, flute, sitar and sarod although rusty on the latter two as my sitar is electric.

My main speakers are the Classic Audio Loudspeakers model T-3.3. They are 98dB and flat to 20Hz.

As a manufacturer in high end audio, I’ve long been exposed to the myth of speakers somehow being better at one genre than another. Anyone who understands the frequency range of musical instruments and how the ear perceives sound will know right away that a mechanical transducer cannot be made to favor a certain genre simply because all humans have the same range of hearing and design their instruments and music accordingly.

So a speaker that is good at rock is also good at classical, electro, jazz and so on because the things that make that speaker good apply to all categories of music- such as resolution, the ability to play loud easily and the ability to play bass. Those attributes are common to a lot of different forms of music!

@deep_333 

Lol!  mic drop by @atmasphere 

”atmasphere out!”