Best speaker brands for transient response

@deep_333 @phusis -- I am curious, what is it about JBL that makes you not a fan?

Imo, home audio could learn a lot from a certain category of the pro audio space...like Levinson/Daniel Hertz tried to do more recently. For example, Meyer Sound and pro Yamaha (specific models),  Pro Pioneer/TAD (to some degree) spend a lot of time and energy in getting the phase characteristics, slope, etc correct  even in passive builds, which changes the whole design methodology. This tends to affect coherence, accuracy, spatial nuance etc when there is more than one speaker contributing to a soundfield. You are always listening to more than one speaker in a living space,  i.e., not sitting around with 1 speaker (mono) in an anechoic chamber with your head in a vise. Ever wonder why a huge Klipsch sits there like an incoherent sore thumb while a huge Meyer disappears like a piece of cake and sounds like you deployed some object based codec?

JBL PA plays loud and clean, good for the price..but, not as nuanced as above mentioned. Their engineers are not foolish, just a bit arrogant sometimes (think they already know everything, nothing more to learn). Home audio...Wilson, Faber, etc seem to be genuinely ignorant/unaware in their approach of above mentioned..

To be fair, the avg home audio enthusiast/audiophile is not that picky, but, a percentage of the pros or the ones who spend the big bucks (at the least) are extremely picky ...it's their livelihood. Look at the guys who do installations at the multi/multi million dollar grand acoustic halls, etc. It is a world that's not known to many.

The Spendor D7.2 are still very much in the running but they lack outrigger feet, and with two dogs and a cat that’s actually an important consideration. I do realize I can buy outriggers for them.

I am a longtime Spendor fan, but they have largely been employing the same drive unit technology for the last 10 years. They use what is essentially a $50 Seas Prestige tweeter in all their current speakers (the D series merely having a phase screen in front of the diaphragm). The original D7s were probably close to benchmark status for that price range 10 years ago, but other companies have since leap-frogged them considerably.

To my ears they don’t come very close to producing the perceived transients and tactility of many others currently around the $7K—$10K price range, not in the mids, treble, or bass.

I encourage you audition them for yourself because that is always the best approach, but buying them “blind” (or deaf rather) would be a mistake IMHO considering the other options now available on the market.

@helomech thank you for your feedback. They are the one brand that I can't find a Chicago-area dealer for (have Borresen and Marten dealers relatively close and ATC in the city, and Dynaudio up north) and agree that at that price level I need to do an audition, regardless of return policy.

The cheap 'pro audio' systems that I have heard are painfully awful. Here too, it seems like you get what you pay for. Sometimes. YMMV

I've been running D9s for 6+ years and really love them.   Previous to the D9 was 3 years of Magico S1s, a quick trip with Cornwall IIIs, and then a few years of Revel F52s.   I like all of these speakers and they all sounded very fast and 'live' sounding to my ears.    The Magicos were crazy fast and resolving, snares sounded so life like to me, but they could also be fatiguing and although they had very musical bass, I missed the slam that my previous speakers had. 

When moving on from the S1s I tried the Harbeth 40.2 (among a few other British brands) and then the Spendor D9 and found the D9 to be a great fit between the two. Yes, the tweeter wasn't as resolving or as fast as the S1's tweeter, and their midrange wasn't as textured and rich as the 40.2, but they offered a good taste of what both speakers do best.  Don't sleep on a used pair of D9s; I've seen them go recently in the $4K range and I think that is a great value personally if you like the D series sound signature.   I have no idea how D9s compare to the newer 7.2s; but I like the idea of the dedicated midrange in the D9.

Regarding how they compare to newer models, I've recently demoed the Borresen X2 and I agree their tweeter sounded more detailed and ultimately refined than the D9s older design, but I personally preferred the Spendor's midrange to the X2 and although the X2 offers a lot of bass output for the size of the speaker, I didn't prefer it over the big Spendor's bass output which to me sounds more like a sealed box than a ported design; I actually think the X2's bass output would maybe be problematic in my room, at least with the distance I could place them from my rear wall.   The X2s sound signature reminded me a lot of the Vivid Kaya 45 which I also demoed at the same dealer a while back, super detailed and clean, with some midrange texture, but also with the ability to maybe be a little lean sounding depending on the equipment used.   These are obviously just my personal tastes and opinions. Many Harbeth fans like to tell me the D series is ungodly bright (or too 'modern' sounding).  Listening for yourself is definitely the way to go if possible...; cheers.