What is the best HEAVY METAL speaker?

In practice, if its truly good at classical its probably also good for heavy metal.

But the technical difference that classical music tends more towards dynamic peaks whereas heavy metal played as intended tends to be more consistently loud. Continuous delivery of power is not the same as delivery of peaks. If the amp can do both whenever called upon with the speakers used at the volume desired, then you are in good shape. Most good quality modern gear matched and set up optimally with those specific goals in mind can probably do the trick. If your amp is even slightly underpowered for the task at hand, and even subtle amounts of clipping occurs maybe not.

Clipping is always public enemy # 1 for good sound, its just that heavy metal, and large scale works of any kind, like big band jazz or classical/orchestral ups the ante.

The boundary between good sounding heavy metal and an ear bleed is a fine one. Keep clipping out of the picture and chances are best for good results.

I listen to a lot of metal. Some conventional speakers do metal ok, but I think there's a reason they use big horns at rock concerts. The best sounding metal I've ever heard was recorded music (Alice In Chains) coming out of big JBL Horns before an Ozzy concert. Outdoors!

And the latest JBL horns do that very well, and are smoother sounding than the JBLs of the 70s.

"if a speaker system can do full tilt boogie warp 9 orchestral music without limits, it will easily rock your world with Heavy Metal. no worries at all. full on orchestral, or organ, or choral......is the most demanding of any genre. maybe 'big band' might be '1-a' as the second most demanding genre."

Well said Mike,...couldn't agree more and would love to hear your system "cut loose" on any of that list.....if a speaker can tackle all the 'big boys' works in orchestral, Japanese taiko drumming on a large scale, pipe organ, and full-on Big Band, you've got yourself a contender for Heavy Metal/Hard Rock to be certain. The only thing that will really vary with Rock/Metal for a given a speaker will depend (IMHO) on the quality of the tweeter and/or super-tweeter in the speaker on those Rock/Metal recordings that were simply laid down "too hot" in the upper frequencies. We all have a few of those poorly done recordings that can make ears bleed. Wish the record companies would learn their lessons once and for all....

To the list of speakers above that do very well with Rock/Metal, I'd add the newer versions of the Legacy FocusHD, SE, AERIS and the new V. I run the gamut across all these genres here and the Focus and AERIS in various generations haven't let me (or the neighbors :-) ) down yet!

Speakers and electronics really don't care what the signal is. If they are good at their job they will not be genre-specific. Its really that simple- if a speaker is better at one thing than another, its not a very good speaker., quote by Atmasphere.
Damn Ralph, you are a mind reader!, here we go again, I agree with you 100% my friend, happy Listening.

To my ears and body nothing handles the heavy metal genre (as others) like pro drivers, i.e. through compression drivers via horns or waveguides and larger diameter bass/midrange units, preferably in addition with a sub (also with larger diameter, 15"+ units).

My recommendation, also to stay within affordability, would be for the Geddes loudspeaker model Abbey (would have preferred the larger Summa model, but I'm not sure whether they're still made), which are in the need of the assistance of a sub. They're to be had both as DIY and pre-assembled, ranging from $1,700 to $3,000 per piece.

http://www.gedlee.com/loudspeakers.htm

These comprises pro drivers from Italian manufacturer B&C, and what's very important here is how they're able to withstand serious beating without breaking a sweat (many others brands of pro driver would do similarly well), hereby providing that elusive but extremely vital aspect of effortlessness to the sound. Moreover they're able to communicate the edge, energy and sheer feeling of power needed, not only for this genre of music, without in any way sounding harsh.

Many an audiophile would disagree on pro drivers not sounding harsh, but well implemented they'll cleanly give you dynamics (both micro and macro) and transient response that would see most typical hifi-speakers crumble into smoke trying to achieve. Hearing cleanly reproduced dynamics and transients approaching live levels might deceive some into thinking it sounds "harsh," simply for the reason that they've never before heard it via any typical hifi-speaker, which are prone to seriously "mute" and lessen the impact of dynamics.

But remember, it's not so much about max. SPL's per se as that feeling of effortlessness, low distortion, ignition, and the sheer area of displacement afforded by the bigger units and horns/waveguides. Heavy metal needs to be felt as well as heard.