speakers for classical music

Hi Musicnoise,
have you decided on a budget? I have read many of the opinions above and of course they swing many ways. From a Mackie PA to a quad electrostat...!
(by the way the mackie is very good as a PA. Their little studio active monitors are sweet too)

Box speakers are always going to give you problems though, and IMHO a bad place to start if listening to classical music only.

Many people have mentioned planars like Magnepan, Quad, Apogee etc including myself. All great, but Quads will give you problems with light bass and flat dynamics if listening to large scale works. Magnepan and Apogee will need a lot of power, but will give you beautiful bass, detail beyond your dreams and excellent soundstaging. In fact problably the closest to being in a concert hall experience for the money and maybe any money.

I also mentioned the Avantgarde Trio with bass horns. Very expensive but if you have the room and the cash, would probably end your search as they have an intimacy and dynamic contrast few can match and certainly would kill every speaker I know in palpability due to their high sensitivity. The cheaper models from Avantgarde are good too (Uno/Duo etc). Avantgarde are the kings of dynamics. They are utterly effortless and are almost as transparent as the planars mentioned above.

Many classical recordings are made using B&W 801d or 802d as monitors. A very good speaker but again needs lots of power to come to life and lots of money to buy. I have used them tri amped with 1,200watts/channel.

To help you we really need to know the size of room and your budget otherwise you will be getting all sorts of advice that is useless.

If you have very little budget buy an old Magnepan. They wont let you down (Not too old though!).

Good luck

06-09-08: Chadeffect said:

"Box speakers are always going to give you problems though, and IMHO a bad place to start if listening to classical music only."

Lot's of us disagree with your opinion here.

Later you mention B&W 801 and 802s somewhat favorably. Is that not a "box speaker"? Anyway, many of us think that floor-standing, three-way speakers are the logical place to start for high quality, highly dynamic, full range sound for classical music reproduction.

People that can't afford the three-ways should consider two-way, stand-mounted mini-monitors, IMHO, and accept the compromise in low frequency response.

Dave

I'm thinking one of the keys to a good speaker for classical is that they are "fast" and able to keep up with all the details inherent in large scale classical recordings, symphonic or orchestral recordings in particular. Rigidity is another factor.

Planars and electrostats probably have an inherent advantage in regards to speed and rigidity, but I have heard "box" speakers that are fast and detailed as well, though the fact is that many box designs are not, so you may have to be more careful.

The Triangle speakers I have heard come to mind as a good example of a fast box speaker design. The material used in the cone of the bass driver is a key factor as I understand it. Lighter materials are inherently faster and more re-active.

I think the polymer woofers used in many B&W bass drivers and the paper cones used in Triangles are representative of the two ends of the spectrum in regards to the physical properties inherent in bass driver cone materials. Paper drivers can be lightweight and fast, as in Triangles. Polymer is not perhaps as light weight but perhaps more rigid?

Lighter materials are inherently faster and more re-active

Inuitively it would seem that way. However materials need to be rigid as well. In order to make something light and rigid at the same time you end up with something that "rings like a bell" - i.e. your speakers make their own music which is applied over top of the signal that they are fed.

Often a damped design such as a paper cone or fabric dome tweeter can provide just enough rigidity to be fast(especially when properly supported through appropriate voice coil sizing and cone shape). The advantage of pulp paper and doped fabrics is that they are internally damped and dissipate the "ringing" rapidly...this will make them sound even faster than rigid marterials as you get that sharp transient and nothing more.

A less rigid damped paper woofer or woven fabric cone tends to require a larger diameter voice coil to give it better support. In the case of a fabric tweeter the 25 mm voice coil is sufficient as it couples to the edge of the dome but larger diameter voice coils get expensive in order to achieve a decent Xmax.

Rigid lightweight drivers allow the use a small diameter voice coil on a large woofer with the principle advantage of lower cost, high efficiency, greater bandwidth but inevitably some ringing issues to contend with.

Shadorne, your comments seem consistent with what I've observed with several different speaker makes and models over the years, I believe.

When I owned B&W P6s, with the B&W polymer (I believe) drivers, they struck me both physically and audibly as rigid but not fast. They sounded pretty good at higher SPLs, but not clear to the extent of the Maggies I also owned at low volumes. They never impressed me for classical or anything else at low volumes though they sounded pretty good in a larger room at higher SPL.

Of course the amp I was using at the time (Carver m4.0t) may not have had the current or damping factor needed to really handle the B&Ws optimally, so that may have been a factor as well.

On the other hand, my Triangle Titus's were as fast, clean and transparent as the Maggies at lower volumes and held up pretty well at higher SPL as well, but did not have the authority in the bass to match the B&Ws.

The maggies were fast, authoritative and transparent at all SPLs. They were not perhaps the ultimate though in dynamics and low end extension, though a different amp might have help here somewhat as well. Also, I was not able to position them correctly in my current quarters as I had been able in the past, so eventually I decided to change.

Bottom line is that doing classical well is hard. A good design can cut it, box or otherwise. A poor or inferior design will not.