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Speakers with Depth Layering abilities

It seems we all know speakers that provide depth; depth layering is a bit different. I don't notice that many speakers do that. They give depth, but you can't tell who's on first, and who's on second, so to speaker, just that there's a row of violinists in the front and a bass drum in the back, and all the other instruments are in between.
What are the best speakers have you heard that actually layer the rows of musicians front to back? Do any of the Hale Design speakers or the Alon speakers do this?

In TAS, back in issue 68, HP averred that the "IRS, the Magnepans, the quads, the Martin-Logans designs, and even, yes, the Avalons, the Thiels and the Mirages" provide a "...layered field of depth."

It would be nice to know which speakers, given all the money we spend on our electronics, give the audiophile thrills, not to be confused with the musical thrills of a performance. Even in the audio mags, TAS itself, as well as Stereophile, there's little notice of the speakers or other electronics ability to provide this.
So. Whatcha got? What other speakers do this?
gbmcleod
sternart
34 posts
 
My Genesis 201's in a tube based system do a fabulous job of soundstage depth & width.......multiple layers etc.
rives
953 posts
 
I tend to lean towards most planars--as did HP--for depth. These always seem to have more in terms of imaging and soundstage to me than their dynamic counterparts. I also find that tubes tend to have more depth and layering (until you get into the very expensive solid state--then I'm not so sure tubes have an edge).

What's interesting about my response is that both the planars and the tubes by definition have greater distortion. The tubes have harmonic distortion caused by the tubes themselves. The planars have phase distortion caused by their interation with the room (large amounts of energy on the back wave). I believe it is these distortions that give the perception of depth. As a side note: the Genesis 201 are dipolar as well--so they too have this distortion--and I'll bet they sound great with tubes!

Others may disagree with what I've found--it's odd in a way that inherently greater distortion yields better layering and depth of sound field. I do think the distortion being correlated distortion (not random noise) and thus is the reason for this added depth, but beyond that I don't have a very good explaination.

Just as a side note: all of my systems are dipolar (either ribon or electrostatic), one system is tube based.
bluenose
387 posts
 
My newform research play depth layering quite well on both vinyl and cd. That may be the ribbons as the system is solid state. Years ago I heard a pair of the original Snell J [2-way monitors] that were designed to play with tubes. The source was the rotel855, the intergrated tube amp was the sonic frontiers [50watts], the cd was Nanci Griffith,"One Fair Summer Evening", and the soundstage seemed to come from the sidewak in throught the basement wall into where we listened. What incredible depth.....that was special, and showed me what depth could be.....was it the tubes and the distortion? Well, it was big......and we loved it.
xpcf89
1 posts
 
Jmlab Electra 926 driven with a quality amplifier has a nice layering.
philjolet's avatar
philjolet
2,262 posts
 
Reynaud Trentes

I owned Maggie 1.6s for a few years and the Trentes are clearly better at revealing subtle audio cues in very fine gradations front to back, they go deeper with finer precision.
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