The best speaker you ever heard?

dear shakeydeal and mapman
yes i am guilty of the pompous statement " rock or jazz or other over driven drivel " but come on , let's have a sense of humor shall we ? the larger point i am trying to express ( however pompously ) has to do with speaker systems and their capabilities . over the last 75 years the rise to prominence of the electric base , the electric guitar , the rock drum set , and the synthesizer has also given rise to the design of speaker systems which have the capabilities to reproduce the ear splitting gut pounding hyper dynamics that these instruments require . all well and good if that is what you want to listen to . personally electric guitars , electric bases , rock drum sets , and synthesizers drive me out of the room or club or concert venue screaming in pain and holding my hands over my ears . i realize that i am the only person on earth that is critical of rock , jazz , rhythm and blues , country , etc . but i find all such banal cacophonous noise depressing . i am not under some illusion that because an individual studies bach fugues or beethoven sonatas that he is somehow more sophisticated or evolved in his musical preferences . there simply is more music to appreciate in one single line of chopin than the entire catalog of rock and roll recordings since the birth of elvis . i do not need or desire a speaker system that has the capability to reproduce the pounding beat of a rock drum set . most hifi consumers apparently want their speaker systems to have the dynamics necessary to recreate the raw power of over amplified entertainment . the very best speaker systems that can play rock and jazz convincingly contain dynamic cone drivers in their midrange and midbase . the martin logan clx with two martin logan descent i subwoofers is an electrostatic hybrid stereo system . this speaker is startling in its ability to recreate accurate timbre . the acoustic grand piano is notoriously difficult to record and play back on a stereo system with any hint of realism . without exception all conventional cone drivers no matter how complex portray the striking of a piano string with the sound quality of a bell . but full range electrostatics sound much more like a hammer striking a real string . the difference is in the details . my point is i believe not every great speaker system is suitable for every kind of sound and music by design . the unfortunate consequence of owning the martin logan clx with two martin logan descent i subwoofers is that this system may not be as capable as other similarly priced designs for the reproduction of megadeath and twisted sister albums . darn .

Tvad, my system sends live orchestral music recordings to hair raising dynamic range, yet will do far less justice with amplified rock music. There, the live music is going to be blared out to the stadium audience in massive horn loaded speakers systems with truck sized woofers.

Actually, for the sake of my ears, I stopped going to concerts decades ago.

tvad your observation is correct on many levels . take for example the famous live recording of martha argerich and the berlin orchestra performing rachmaninof's third piano concerto . it is passionate bombastic and thrilling and contains within its score a wide range of soft and loud passages . yet when played on a very good speaker system with convention cone shaped drivers the detail and definition that makes a grand piano sound like a grand piano is ever so slightly obscured . that is not to say that it is not clearly rendered or distinct from the surrounding orchestra - it just sounds more like a bell . with a well designed full range electrostat the concert piano is much more realistic - its timbre is fully characteristic of the actual tone of a felt hammer striking a seven foot long metallic wire strung across a nine foot soundboard . the martin logan clx with two martin logan descent i subwoofers covers the full dynamic range of any acoustic instrument used in solo or orchestral recordings . the timbrel accuracy which only a full range electrostat can deliver produces a far greater sense of acoustic authenticity than is possible from even the finest speaker systems which are based on conventional cone drivers . though the dynamic range of some orchestral compositions may be far wider than many rock and roll recordings there is normally an emphasis on constant rhythm peaks throughout a rock tune that demands the room filling projection best handled by cone shaped transducers . so its a bit of a trade off . when playing a beethoven piano trio on a speaker system like the clx / descent i the realistic nature of a grand piano and violin and cello from the very softest passage to the loudest is rendered more authentically than can be displayed by any cone driver technology . but only a great cabinet design with multiple cones will project the relentless rhythm peaks contained on a majority of rock and jazz albums - though such systems ultimately lack delicate detail required for true acoustic timbrel authenticity .

Doggrell, which amp drives your MLs? Thanx