Classical speakers that do violins well??

in order to do a definitive test of a speaker's ability to reproduce timbre accurately, it is necessary to record an instrument in one's living room and compare the recording to a musician's presentation of the same music.

of course one will need a musician who is willing to particpate in this experiment as well as a way to method for recording, such as an open reel tape deck, a dat, or a cd recorder. hopefully, the quality of the recording is sufficient to make a meaningful comparison.

Not completely necessary....you could simply buy the equipment used to impress musicians in the world's top studios...the main monitors...there are literally at least a half dozen highly respected designs and all of them have excellent timbre and play at realistic sound levels of live music. You have to count on the fact that top artists and top conductors are auditioning play back of THEIR music on these same speakers which you can easily acquire...what more checks and controls do you want?

Of course your room will always be a major factor....no doubt that studios spend a lot on room designs and acoustic treatment. I figure it would be highly wasteful to get such quality speakers and then not treat a room at least modestly even though many of us have to respect domestic dual purpose requirements.

Good Luck! Try trusting the artists and musicians and sound engineers themselves...pick an artist or a record label with outsanding audiophile quality productions and then find out what they gear they are using...for example Bob Katz of Chesky uses Lipinski monitors....

i actually performed a simple experiment myself. admittedly not ideal, but here it is:

i used a cymbal as an instrument. you can purchase a decent cymbal for under $100.

i visited my friend who has a cd recorder. we recorded a cymbal and then compared the recording played through his stereo system to the sound of the cymbal.

yes there are flaws and the comparison is subjective.

the lesson to be learned is that there are obvious differences between the sound of an instrument and what you observe when you hear a recording of that instrument.

Mrtennis...There are enormous differences in the way that different microphones sound. Part of the skill of a recording engineer is to pick from a wide range of mics the ones most suitable for the instruments to be recorded. It is very unlikely that your mic was "right" for cymbals.

Nice try, anyway :-)

Shadorne, the real question is how many recording engineers use the same equipment in their personal systems. The needs of a recording studio are different from those used for entertainment.

Classical music (the OP's interest) is often not recorded in a studio. More likely it's recorded in a concert hall, a church or a recital hall.

If you've every been privy to comparing a Neumann to a Schoeps, to an AKG, to a Shure, to an Audio Technica, to a Beyer, etc., etc. you'll know that the mic colors the sound at least as much as most speakers.

If you've lived with a recording from take through mixing through master, you'll realize that seldom is the final master the same as the original take. Tacet is one label that tries to keep that unalterred, but they use Neauman-based rebuilt tube mics that are noted as some of the most euphonic available. (I love them in fact).

I highly recommend Tacet to anyone wanting to test their system's string timbre. They really get it right, with a loads of overtone without undue edge. You hear the body of the instruments, not just the strings.

A cymbal... sheesh. Yes, a challenge to record well, but not really a great test of string timbre. Talk about letting the budget limit and influence the validity of the test. Mrtennis, don't you know any "real" musicians. (Drummers and percussionists are real musicians, but cymbal wackers are NOT). I'll bet neither your or your helper knew how to make the cymbal properly resonate. It's not as easy as it seems.

Dave