Judging speakers to purchase.

Speakers are the only component that can affect sound radiation pattern. There are qualities not found in “typical box speakers” that you find in varying amounts in dipoles/bipoles/omnidirectional speakers/open baffles/wide dispersion box speakers. If you haven’t heard any from these categories worth a listen before you decide. Huge soundstage and they disappear.

soix

I like it...

@immatthewj

stellar phase coherency

@knottscott , can you expound upon that?

In a nutshell, the idea is to create a music wave that sounds natural when it reaches your ear, as if it’s coming from a single source. For example, splitting the female voice between a woofer and a midrange means creating a uniform wave from two sources, so the timing of those two drivers to create the illusion of a single source poses challenges, or it won't sound natural. The slope of the rolloff of both drivers and the crossovers all come into play, along with reflections of the baffle. One of the appeals of full range drivers is that they are a single source, though there are other downsides, as there are with every option...never a free lunch. 

soix - something the speakers are actively doing, vs effortless performance - good point, I agree. When my system sounds good, I don't think it is "doing" a lot, I just get into the music. Trouble  is, there is a huge middle zone. Music is quite good but something is not right. Like a too insistent tweeter. But then I find out that the problem is clear with some music, not all.

Very often I have suspected problems in my system, only to find that I (mainly) hear the same problem in my system nr 2, and from digital as well as analog, and so on. It is (mainly) in the recording. Can better speakers help with that? Or - should they? What about the raw truth? I think we are often chasing problems in our systems that are in fact problems of the recording and production of the music. Although I do agree that speakers can exaggerate recording problems, like sibilance, too hot takes, etc.

In my experience, there is one problem that dominates. The music sounds fine as long as it is fairly subdued, sparse, not too many instruments, etc. Often the verse is fine, but then comes the refrain and chorus. The whole band rocks on. Not to speak of the band AND a full orchestra! What happens? Distortion! My impulse is to turn the volume down. And then, up again, at the next quiet passage. I have not yet found a speaker that "cures" this impulse. Although some hide the distortion better than others.

@o_holter

Your reply highlighted a lot of things I suspect most of us experience...especially the last part about small group sounding fine, only to have things intensifying during the refrain and sort of falling apart.  I can't say for sure, but since it's not true of all recordings, my best guess is that it's due to noise and compression in the recording.  Not something a system can fix without mucking up several other things, but maybe a good remix could help.  Best bet is to build a system around the music you like best and listen to most often.