speakers for classical music

Ozawa's Rite (with the CSO no less -- no my friend I'm not seeking out CSO releases to torture you with) is well reviewed and out on XRCD.

Dave

I use the Rite of Spring that was recorded by Kenneth Wilkenson for the RCA/Reader's Digest's box set 'Music of the World's Great Composers. It is a spirited performance and the sonics are spectacular but natural. I've often demoed it at shows.

For quite a bit less than the ATCs, I think one would do better with a set of speakers from Audiokinesis. We had a set in recently and they were spectacular and well as reasonably priced.

I tend to steer clear of using classical music to evaluate as a system busting tool, classical cd's are usually very well recorded and all are extremely listenable. For me its better to use cd's that are a bit edgy with jangly guitars and lots of splashing cymbals'. Then again massed strings or massed voices are usually good enough to separate the wheat from the chaff. Happy listening all!

I like to test with a variety of music, but complex classical is the hardest thing I've found for most systems. When you've all the strings going, the brass playing at it's most brilliant and the percussion pounding away, many systems lose track of the character of each instrument and instead present a homogenized, loud, stressful mess. It's amazing how many things can be going on at once and yet a good system allows you to track each element.

I start easy, usually with female vocal and then trumpet, listening for timbre and the richness of the harmonics. Next I've got a few pieces of pop with synth and othewise very low bass that puts off a few speakers. Big, brilliant big band is next and finally a really bombastic classical piece. Cleanse the ears with a soft vocal or massed strings.

Dave

One recording that seems to have nearly everything is Das Reingold on Decca, conducted by Solti. If you have an original pressing, side 6 is nothing short of spectacular- nearly everything a stereo could be evaluated on: delicacy, bandwidth, impact, dynamic range, ability to hold together at volume, depth, soundstage width, detail, human voices, singularly and together, all ranges... its all there.

This recording puts most speaker/amp combinations right flat on their face nearly right away, if you are unwilling to change the volume as it plays. This is where the efficiency of the speaker, plus its ability to play high spls at the same time (BTW the two are quite different!) can play such a dramatic role.