Speakers for Rock

I don't think that either B&W's or Thiel's are especially well suited to be called "rock & roll" speakers, especially the Thiel's.

Look for something that is at least 91 - 92 dB's at the minimum, uses multiple drivers for each frequency range and will handle a lot of power. For the money and with some simple mods to the speakers, a pair of stacked Klipsch Heresy's is hard to beat when it comes to rock. This gives you high efficiency ( appr 98 - 99 dB's ) and pretty reasonable power handling with very punchy bass and the ability to rock the house without having a million watts on hand. Speaking of "wattage", couple that with a NAD 2600A power amp and you've got a pretty rockin' yet inexpensive system.

Then again, if you thought B&W's and Thiel's were suitable for Zep and Blink 182, you obviously have very different ideas than i do. Skip my idea and trust your own ears : ) Sean
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Cerwin Vegas OR Klipsch!!

Try DynAudio or Paradigm. People have said the tonal balance of Dynaudio works well with rock and roll. I use N804 and like them because they work for everything. Nothing worse than getting a speaker (or any component) which only plays one type of music (IMHO).

Sean, this is a first, you couldnt be more off base about
the Thiels.
My music diet consists mostly of the newer (alternative)
rock music. i.e...Pearl Jam,Staind,Alice in chains......
I own the CS6 speakers driven by Krell FPB300c and I have
yet to hear a better "rock" speaker.
Most reviews also point out this fact. Quotes like "I never knew Jim Thiel was a head banger" from I belive John Atkinson come to mind.

Vader, i'm simply basing my comments on what i've heard and experienced. I also took into account the scenario ( price range and associated components ) that the poster suggests.

None of the Thiel's that i've heard have had any type of "slam" to them whatsoever and have always come across as being noticeably bright sounding. Don't ask me for models as i couldn't tell you. Source and amplification were all of good quality, so i know that this was not a problem.

As a case in point, their latest and greatest "inexpensive" speaker, which was completely redesigned from the ground up, still has these traits. Keep in mind that this speaker, the Thiel 1.6, retails for $2000 and can't even do 50 Hz with ANY type of authority. It starts sloping off like crazy at 100 Hz. It is 10 dB's down at 60 Hz. Since you quoted JA as a "fan" of Thiel's for R&R reproduction, i'll use him too. On page 95 of the September Stereophile, JA stated that the 1.6 lacked bass, needed mid-bass reinforcement, was "treble dominant" and "will not be very forgiving of ancillary components" and pulled twice the current of many other designs. To me, this sounds like a speaker that would be hard to match to other components in terms of tonal balance and power requirements.

The fact that you are getting "slam" out of your Thiel's is probably due in a large part to the amp that you are using to drive them. If you take into account that the person that posted this thread is looking at Rotel & B&K backbone components, i would not expect them to get the same bottom end out of any Thiel that you are experiencing with yours. Couple the lack of bass with an overtly bright treble response that Thiel's tend to produce and the typically horrible digital recordings that most rock & roll bands end up with and you've got the potential for high SPL ear-bleed's with a complete lack of bottom end drive.

I did take notice that the bands that you mentioned did happen to have pretty decent ( not brittle sounding ) recordings though, so if that is all that you listened to, i can see how you might not find this to be a potential problem. Personally, i've got WAY too many digital recordings that don't sound nearly that good or fall into the "good sonics" category to not think about this aspect of system assembly.

I think that i've made my point pretty clear as to why i stated what i did. Obviously, we've got different opinions on this one. As with all of my comments / suggestions, i recommend that the person trust their ears when looking to buy a product. After all, nobody here is going to have the same exact system, acoustics, personal preferences, etc.. As such, all we can do is share our thoughts and experiences, good or bad. From there, each comment is worth only the value that the reader places upon it. Sean
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