Best Loudspeakers for Rich Timbre?

@inna

Like I said, Inna, you are free to spend your money as you wish. But I will say this: every time I get a yearning for a tone control, an improvement elsewhere makes it unnecessary.

For example, when I went to vacuum and air gap capacitors, a whole lot of tizz simply vanished.

Thiel Audio.

This is a ridiculous post. There is no such thing as a speaker that is good at reproducing timbre.

Timbre is a result of all of the components capturing the essence of the instrument and reproducing that signal as accurately as possible.

The entire reproduction chain is responsible for a system's complete sound. So the amp, preamp, cables, source components, room, loudspeakers, cabling etc will all come into play.

If your system isn't reproducing instruments natrually you have to look at how each piece is working together. 

Yes there are "rich" souninding speakers but that is not necessarily going to reproduce all instruments naturally. Same things with brighter or more detailed loudspeakers, which may sound incredibily real reproducing high frequency sounds, but may not sound as wooden for midrange frequencies as the "richer" sounding loudspeakers.

So the reason why timbre is so difficult is that all systems are colored and true accuracy accross all freqencies is very hard to accheive.

Dave and Troy
Audio Doctor NJ

Thank You: @shadorne  and @audiotroy 

audiotroy,

This is a ridiculous post. There is no such thing as a speaker that is good at reproducing timbre.

Sure there is.


All sorts of speakers can be better or worse at reproducing accurate, or realistic instrumental timbre. If you play a good recording (in this sense meant to maintain the natural sound of the instrument) then there are all sorts of distortions and frequency deviations by which a speaker can screw up the timbre. That’s obvious isn’t it? Regardless of the fact other components can screw up the sound as well, that’s true of speakers.

Yes there are "rich" sounding speakers but that is not necessarily going to reproduce all instruments naturally.

Yup. I think everyone acknowledges that.


But then even the most accurate speaker isn’t going to reproduce all instruments naturally, because there is so much variation in recording quality and styles. So you don’t win that way either, if you listen to a broad range of recordings as most people do.


So this problem can reasonably motivate someone to look for a speaker that produces a certain characteristic one likes with much of what one listens to.


For instance, one of the aspects of reproduced sound through most systems is, I find, a diminution of body and presence of voices and instruments. So that might be an aspect of sound I want to "get back" with the speaker I choose, within the limitations of budget, size room constraints, etc. (If you have the money and room size, well then no doubt the type of limitations I’m talking about can be transcended, but many of us are dealing with compromises).


To use the example I’ve given of the Devore speakers: They manage, to my ears, to reproduce sound with a generally fuller sense of body than the other speakers I’ve heard in that price range/size. It sounds "more real and natural" in that respect to me. I don’t know for sure that it’s a coloration or simply an aspect of sound reproduction better produced by the design, but even if it’s an added coloration, it’s one that enhances a broad spectrum of recordings to a more believable satisfying presentation than some other well regarded speakers I’ve heard. (This is of course just my own perception and taste, not some objective claim that Devore speakers are "better" - I'm just bringing them in as an example).


Would such a coloration actually impede in some other areas or recordings, making for instance some elements timbrally "too rich?"
Sure, most likely. But that’s a trade off, just like a really accurate system will often have you experiencing the trade off of thin recordings giving you unnatural, synthetic sounding instruments and voices.


But in any case, there is nothing wrong at all with discussing the contribution of one type of component - speakers - and *their particular effect in the chain* even if as we all know it’s one part of the chain.