Best Loudspeakers for Rich Timbre?

cd318,

Yes I think we get what each other is talking about.

I haven’t spent a lot of time with much of the Tannoy line, with the exception of the Tannoy Dimension TD10, which my pal had for a while.They definitely had the "warm woody" thing going for timbre, string sections sound especially warm and gorgeous. (The big Tannoy Churchill speakers I heard long ago also struck me the same way IIRC).

The problem with such a coloration for me is not going too far. I’ve had a few speakers that had that woody, warm timbre that made me instantly like them - I’m thinking at the moment of the long forgotten Audio Physic Libras, and a couple Meadowlark Audio speakers I had. The issue I had was over the long haul it was just a little too much coloration, making the sound a bit too predictable, even if comfy.


The Thiel speakers I own now (I had the 3.7s and now have the 2.7s) are more neutral in that regard, definitely doing organic timbres like wood and voices really well, but not obviously overlaying everything with that flavor. So they feel like a more satisfying speaker for a longer haul to me.

It’s hard for me to know if the Devores would prove to be more like the previous speakers I mentioned and grow tiring, or not. My impressions from auditioning the Devores is that they strike a really nice balance between the richness I like in the midrange/upper bass while sounding quite neutral and open beyond that.

But...there are so many speakers out there!

(The most realistic piano sound I can remember hearing was through the Kef Blades at an audio show. Blew me away!)

@prof  some very well thought out posts previous.
While I recommend Tannoy frequently to folks with this kind of question, I myself am one of those who had a pair for numerous years but then moved on. Basically for the reasons you cited earlier, you start to notice a warm colouration in all pieces of music that is being imposed by the speaker. It does sound lovely with lotta music though.  while I like the sound of the Devore it strikes me as one of those types of speakers. I could be wrong, I haven't spent a ton of time in front of them. 

“There is no such thing as a speaker that is good at reproducing timbre”

This comment is a bit misleading.   A speaker is nothing more than a combination of assembled parts. The parts themselves are good or less good at delivering accurate or true timbre. Capacitors vary greatly in this ability. Ditto for resistors and inductors. Wire also plays a role in timbre. What about those drivers, magnets, the cabinet design etc.... Now bringing all of these parts together is truly both an art and science when trying to deliver pure timbre. Timbre is found right down to the individual part in addition to how they all interact together.

That being said we still listen to systems.....not speakers. Timbre will, in the end, be a result of the complete system including the room and speaker placement.

Differences between caps you can measure? Sure, if the capacitors are of different values. But what if they are the same value and the same tolerance but sound different? What then?

Pop quiz: are (non polarized) capacitors directional? You know, since the wire is directional.