Your favorite musical non fatiguing speakers?


I've been auditioning speakers in the $5k to $8k range. I liked some of the Dynaudio, Sonus Faber, and even B&Ws in that range. Maybe it was the setup but in the back of my mind thought all of these could sound exciting but also fatiguing long term. And I'd hate to spend that kind of doe with that being the case.

I'm looking to use a solid state Cary amp and the tubed Cary SLP 05 pre for electronics FWIW.

From other threads I'm hearing Proacs Joseph Audio Aerials Harbeth and others may fit the bill. What are your favorite speakers for musicality and lack of listening fatigue? I'll be traveling to the next state to audition more next week.
larrybou
Listener fatigue also comes from digital artifacts such as jitter and bad phase relationship, and from tweeters that suffer from excessive overshoot, ringing, and "oilcan" resonances. It can also come from a persistent strong "one note" resonance, most commonly in the 100-200 Hz region.

There are many contributors to listener fatigue, but a little room ambience and reverb is pretty far down the list. When you consider that indoor live music is largely defined by the reverberant field, and that some of the more reverberant concernt venues are highly prized (e.g., Boston's Symphony Hall, Cincinnati's Music Hall, etc.) then the idea that room interaction is the primary cause of listener fatigue borders on the preposterous.

Add to this that dipoles such as the Nolas, MarinLogans, and Magnepans all rely on the backwave, as well as highly regarded bipolar and omni speakers such as the Mirages, Ohms, Shahinians, and MBLs, and it's obvious that--while bad room interactions can contribute to listner fatigue--there are plenty of examples of speakers that rely on beneficial room interaction with very pleasurable results.

Note also that in the latest iteration of Sonus Faber speakers, (which as a group are regarded as *very* fatigue-free), their top line $200K "The Sonus Faber" and $120K Aida models feature front and rear-firing drivers for a bipolar radiating pattern. This obviously brings the room reverberation into the playback presentation.

Taking room interactions out of the radiating pattern doesn't remove listener fatigue; it makes it easier to hear more precisely what's on the recording like in studio monitoring, which may or may not be fatiguing due to other factors.
Some good thoughts from Johnnyb, except the brightness range (2k to 5k) is more associated with fatigue than 100 to 200hz.

And definitely ringing tweeters higher up than 2 to 5k can drive folks crazy, like one brand has so demonstrated.
Anyone notice that the distortion is pretty unmanageable once the volume is pushed up past around average level. This is true for almost any system you might wish to suggest, even ones you might wish to offer as exceptions. Now, here's the bad news. The distortion you hear is completely unrelated to anything like jitter, distortion of the speakers, distortion in wires or cables, distortion on the recording, etc. That's what makes this so difficult to point out, I mean, what else could it possibly be, right?

"An ordinary man has no means of deliverance." - old audiophile adage
One more vote for the Parsifal Encore.

It features steadily falling FR from a bass hump at +/- 50 hz (in my room), except for a gentle broad elevation in the upper mid and that adds "jump" to it's otherwise mellow tonal balance. Not strictly neutral, but bright recordings are generally mellowed a bit by the falling treble, and flat recordings usually sound pretty good, too - because the upper mid plateau gets energy without etch. Bass ha real impact because the hump there falls right on the kick drum. Overall, it's a very clever mix of deviations that works much better in the room than it sounds on paper.

I currently own several high-end brand speakers already cited here (including Silverline Sonatina and Preludes, SF Cremonas and Minuettos, Maggie MMG, and Ohm 100s, among others). Each has it's own merits ans each gets use in my home or office. However, IMO, the Verity P/E comes closest to meet the stated needs of the OP.

That doesn't make it the "best" by any stretch - just IMO the best fit for the OP. As always - MMV.

BTW, I'd probably place the MMGs in second place, FWIW.
@ Kidmann, wow!, I see you do not know anything about Tara labs cables!, I laughed so hard at what you said about Tara labs cables!, Technical?, really!, your kidding, right?, I bet you do not know that Tara labs just introduced 6 new cables, A new flagship cable for the first time in 17 years!, Then you said something about gauge of the cables, The new Grandmaster Evolution interconnect sports the lowest capacitance in the industry, A mere 2 picofarads!,with dual mono-block grounding station, then the Grandmaster Evolution speaker cables are the most flexible money can buy, the linearity of a 32 gauge conductor, 288 conductors per-channel, the gauge size, Really?, The gauge size is 000, thats an area of 85,000 squaremillimeters per channel!, you really should research and go and listen, before you make such false statements about Tara labs cables, your description of ringing and not smooth is as far from the actual truth as can be!