speakers for classical music

Atmasphere,

A valid point.

Most speakers that do all the other things well may well crumble when it comes time to reproduce lifelike orchestral dynamics.

This is a weak area for Maggies and electrostats that require significant power to drive yet still do not displace a lot of air.

Same true with certain large scale Jazz pieces, like Big Band.

06-09-08: Atmasphere said:

"...I find that if you need a transistor amplifier to get the sufficient power to drive a speaker to lifelike levels, it will never sound like real music; at best only like a good stereo (Ho hum). So its tubes all the way for me..."

Well my friend, I enjoyed and agreed with most of your very thoughtful post, but I do take exception to your lack of success with SS. My experience is the opposite. As I think you know, I'm also an orchestral, big band and rock musician (trumpet).

Dave

Atmasphere,

Had never heard of Classic Audio Reproductions and their horn designs.

Very interesting!

I've been drooling over the Jadis Eurythmies in one agoner's system here for quite a while mainly because they look gorgeous and I also have had an interest in Khorns for ages.

I no longer have issues with detail and dynamics with my current set-up, but high efficiency horns is an area where I've believed significant upside might still exist for my system somewhere down the road.

I love my Tyler Acoustics Woodmere 2 floorstanders. They do everything right. Adding a subwoofer, limited from about 40 Hz down, makes the system truly splendid.

I also use Quad ESL63's in a different system. While they are nearly unbeatable in their realm of small ensembles, they simply cannot reproduce the dynamics of large, bombastic orchestral pieces.

I second Atma-Sphere's endorsement of Classic Audio Reproductions speakers. Tonal balance is excellent, as is inner detail, and they seem to have no dynamic limitations. They convey the emotion of the music extremely well, presumably by preserving the dynamic contrast that the musicians use to convey that emotion.

At CES a few years ago my wife and I made the rounds along with my brother and his wife, and the only room where the two ladies just started dancing to the music was was the Classic Audio Reproductions room. Okay that's not exactly a precise measurement of loudspeaker quality, but it was an honest one. I've also observed my own butt spontaneously shaking when in the Classic Audio Reproductions room, and I've seen some serious air guitar playing in there as well. I have no doubt that with classical music they would be superb - probably inducing air bowing, or whatever classical listeners do when they think one is watching. They are speakers that you can totally get lost in the music with.

Classic Audio Reproductions changed my thinking about loudspeakers in two regards: Before hearing them for the first time, I thought that horns couldn't sound natural, and I thought that vented boxes couldn't do tight bass. Designer John Wolff really, really knows what he's doing.

Duke