Rate these on order of importance:

Nrchy, we've been down this path before. While speakers can't improve the signal it recieves (digital correction excluded) they are the most likely culprit to intertwine with a room in such a way to distort it more than any other resonably performing component. And by the same logic no component can improve what was put on the recorded medium (equalization(?) & digital correction excluded) to begin with. There seems to be more consistantcy of performance amongst other like components than speakers. You may disagee with the opinons of others, but, that alone doesn't make them "incorrect".

The point is that if the signal can be transfered to the speakers with a fair degree of accuracy that the speakers will have something of quality with which to work.

Garbage in Garbage out! If the signal is so corrupted when it arrives at the speakers, it doesn't matter how good the speakers are, it will not sound good, or should I say correct?!?

Nrchy, of course I can't disagree. From the postion of the listener, it doesn't matter where the corruption comes from. I just think it's more likely that the most corruption will come from the speaker/room. How many components other than speakers measure worse than 20-20k Hz +/- 3 db? I think it fair to guess, not too many. Yet most speakers, even highly touted very expensive ones can't manage that in anechonic chambers, never mind the wildy unpredictable rooms that most audiophiles have to contend with. Hence the challange to find a speaker whose foibles irritate the least and radiate in such a pattern not be have the room further excasperate the corruupted signal forced into it. Even this argument doesn't make me correct, as I suspect you've already decided. Hey, there are many paths to the same destination.

Unsound - I was reading with rapt attention until you started with the measurements. Sorry, you lost me there. If measurements reliably did equate to the actual listening experience then reviewers would be without a job and the rags would be nothing more than diagrams and numbers.

I've said it before, I'll say it again: "Did someone just fart?"

I'll add this too: Hook up your Kenner Close-N'-Play turntable to you favorite flavor of amplification, lets say it's Lamm tube gear. Pair that marvelous combo off with a suitably decadent speaker choice that says to everyone, "....Don't fuck with me, God made these speakers and you can hear his/her message in every note played through them! Oh, and they cost me a whole butt-load of cash too.....enough to pay for two years at Harvard." Let's call this system "Unsound's Slightly Compromised Reference"

OK, now let's build another system using the same sensational Lamm amplification but this time we'll swap out the Kenner Close-N'-Play turntable front end with, perhaps Albert Porter's front-end rig but now play the whole thing through a pair of speakers with at least a similar efficiency as the first, but this set was purchased from the back of a van somewhere on the Lower East Side from some moke named Vinny for all of $93. Will call this system "Nrchy's Making the Better Argument"

So, if you had to live with one of these two systems for the rest of your life without changing either, Which one would you prefer to listen to music on? No tweaks either. You get to replace the needle on the Close-N'-Play when it wears out....I think you can get them at the Fabric Store. For those of you who'd take the Unsound Reference I have a great resource for some custom moulded earplugs!!!

Marco

5, 4, 1, 2, 3