Rock and roll speakers?

Ralph,

I agree with your comments. I have been a Maggie owner since 1983 and have used them for everything from jazz, folk and rock. When feed a proper diet and not pushed beyond their capabilities they have been thoroughly enjoyable regardless of genre.

The better question asked by a poster would be, "what speakers can I push really hard without fear of failure". At least that is often the way I read question like, "What is a good rock and roll speaker"?

Thus my usual reply, Klipsch, which play loud and hard and not easily damaged. Add a sub and you have a great head banging system. Their accuracy to the source is another story.

Ray I see you have Magnepan and Klipsch. That would seem to have all the bases covered pretty well. I had Maggies for years and listened to everything on them. I would not call them "rock and roll" speakers though. I just heard the latest and greatest Maggies again this past weekend and though impressive with most everything. I'm still not sure I would call them that. Reason being that to me at least you have to be able to feel rock and roll speakers on occasion as well as hear them. With most any speakers using non dynamic drivers, its usually all hear and little or no feel in most cases. Its a subtle distinction but an important one for a rock and roller though I think.

I don't know.....my modded IIIa's and dual subs really do a great job playing all music....but rock and roll to me means grateful dead, pink floyd, talking heads and the like. There's not much black sabath or van halen going on I'm my listen room. So, for that matter, my system is very satisfying. IMO, because the Maggies are more accurate and extended it plays rock better that the Klipsch with subs. But the Maggies are not as durable...fussy with set up and is more picky about amplification. So for head bangers I alway recommend Klipsch.

BTW...sometime I run the Klipsch as a center fill like system in tandem with the Maggies. A bit low in level but just enough to fill in the mids a provide a little more slam. Believe it or not it works really well.

Also, my system page needs to be updated. I'm running rogue M120's, Audible illusions m3a, thorens td 850/mitchell techno/origin live ultra motor/Benz glider. The heresy's are powered by a GTA SE40 (soniccaps plus upgrade) melos sha1.

I'll get around to updating my page.

In an ideal world all speakers would play all kinds of music equally well. In the real world, it's sometimes a bit different.
The usual musical demands of Metal and typical chamber music can be quite different, and the same can be said for other musical genres as well.
When compromises need to made due to budget and/or space limitations, there are different speakers made with different balances of sonic assets and deficits . As no speaker at any price has yet to achieve perfect balance in all regards, it not surprising that at the lower end, the balances might be, well, less balanced. To ignore these differences can lead to less satisfaction for different purchasers with different priorities.