Cannot find perfect sound


I've been listening to supposedly some of the finest speakers that currently exist. These include b&w 800 Series, revel high end, vivid audio, Psi audio and kef blades.

None except the kef blades satisfied my high level standards.

When I play my reference tracks on cheap earbuds I hear timing accuracy that is missing on all the above speakers. Only the kef blades came closest to what I hear from cheap earbuds. 

Explanations please?

I really suspect that none of these high end speakers are accurately reproducing the sound on my CDs despite all the marketing claims about accuracy and high quality sound.

What could there possibly be that my cheap earbuds can do that eludes these super high end speakers?  

I'm not so eager anymore to spend any money until I have a good explanation.

kenjit
for example multiple sets of speakers aka resonators, Linn knew this back in the 80s
This myth was debunked back in the 80s with Ivor as the listener: "The second test, also single-blind, used a Linn "Kan" loudspeaker as the undriven transducer. Again the female vocalist was used as source material. The loudspeaker lay on the thickly-carpeted floor behind the listening couch. It was placed either on its side (the "uncovered" condition) or on its face (the "covered" condition) according to a random series of choices. Ten trials were conducted during which Tiefenbrun achieved a score of 5 correct out of 10. Again, this demonstrates no discrimination ability beyond what one would expect purely on the basis of chance." from  https://www.bostonaudiosociety.org/bas_speaker/abx_testing2.htm

@kenjit What you are hearing is phase error. Vertical baffle speakers are the worst offenders. Since you are particularly sensitive, look at speakers with minimum phase error. Vandersteen and Wilson are a two that attend to this very real defect.

Most manufacturers ignore the issue. Most dealers, reviewers and the overwhelmingly vast majority of 'audiophiles' have no clue what you are talking about. They have also never heard what is on the recording!

It's not the frequency. It's the Time!

BTW, are you a musician?
You have a couple of choices and all are time and phase coherent designs. This is the key as why you like that sound.

Meadowlark - preowned.

Thiel - preowned only these days unless Tom Thiel (please!!!) can find a way to restart the REAL Thiel.

Vandersteen - NEW or preowned. (recommended even though I am a big Thiel fan)

Dunlavy - preowned.

Wilson DOES NOT DO THAT but instead inverts the polarity of the mid drivers so as to minimize the phase distortion caused by high order crossovers. From Stereophile for the Sophia:

"The initial up/down spike is the tweeter output; the negative-going decay of the tweeter's step blends smoothly into the midrange unit's step response, the positive-going decay of which blends smoothly into the start of the woofer's step response. (The tweeter and woofer are connected in positive acoustic polarity, the midrange unit in inverted polarity.)"
Read more at https://www.stereophile.com/content/wilson-audio-sophia-series-3-loudspeaker-measurements#eASZCHpoiE...

And it's not just this model but other Wilson models too.

Based on you description of what you like about headphones and your disppointment with the speakers you’ve listened to, these are your choices.
I use headphones only during late night reading or when recording music, and am currently using a Schiit Magni III with Audioquest Nightowl Carbon headphones. Also, I don’t like the way earbuds feel...never have, never will...the Nightowls, which maybe aren’t broken in yet, sound great.
As someone else mentioned, try planars: Magnepan (ribbon), Martin Logan (electrostatic), etc. Completely different sound from multiple driver box speakers.
I agree that you need to cast your net wider.  These mainstream "supposedly some of the best" speakers don't always turn out to be that.  Speakers vary A LOT.  You've heard one you like; there are hundreds of brands out there, and I'd bet there are 4 or 5 out that you would like as much as, or more than, the KEF.