Best Monitors for Rock N' Roll under $2500

I would put in another vote for the Reference 3A decappo's. They are seriously great monitors and can be bought in your budget used easily.

I'm running the Paradigm signature S4's/C3/S2's Paradigm Seismic 12 with Levinson power. Not real happy with rock at louder volumes. They have great detail in more jazz/blues type music but seem to struggle a little at high volumes.

I was running Klipsch LaScala'a - Now there is a "rock" speaker that will make your heart stop. It can take a relatively small power amp and make it sound huge.

I listen almost exclusively to rock, especially the cruder genres with a minimal number of chords. My suggestion is to forget the twee audiophile speakers and go for real monitors. I use a pair of JBL LSR 32s which have a 12" carbon fiber composite woofer, a kevlar 5" midrange, and a 1" titanium tweeter. They're something like 93 dB sensitivity, reasonably neutral, and will play loud enough to stun dogs at 50 yards. They have explosive dynamics that make most audiophile speakers sound broken and a visceral character that I find very realistic. JBL published a dynamic compression spec that claimed less than 1 dB non - linearity at 100 watts input. As a product aimed at the highly competitive pro market they were routinely discounted. I bought a B stock pair for $1200 from www.musiciansfriend.com and got 45 days home audition too - if I didn't like them I could return them for a full refund. The only downside is that the speakers are definitely not a piece of fine furniture. The cabinets are painted flat black and the front panel is some sort of molded composite that may be CF or fiberglass.

Green Mountain Callisto fans,did you previously own the Europa? How much more bass does the callisto provide. I'm constantly on the fence about whether or not my europa's rock enough for me. I've considered the close out Mirage OM-9 or Meadowlark E series as speakers that would increase my bass for a low cost.

I own the GMA Europas and on their own they have inadequate bass for rock music. For that matter every monitor I have ever heard has inadequate bass for rock.

I have my europas crossed with a REL strata sub at 45Hz and the overall effect is very seamless and very good. Rock .... no problem. Chamber music and jazz ... no problem.

I think for good rock reproduction you either need a sub under the monitors, or floor standing speakers.

The callisto is near identical in size and uses the same low frequency driver as the europa. I have no doubt it's a better speaker, but I just can't see it producing significantly more deep bass than the europa.