Which would you consider in this price range for a 40sqm room with decent acoustics (GIK absorption panels, diffusers to be added soon). 90% of the music is classic/progressive rock, country, pop and mixes between them (Dire Straits, Pink Floyd, Fleetwood Mac, Tom Petty, Dylan, Cash, Marillion, Styx ...). Current system consists of Aurender N10 + Emm DAC2X V2 + Pass Xp-10 + Pass X250.5 + Usher Be10. After the speakers, the digital gear will also be upgraded.
Best speakers 100-250K for classic rock
- Thread starter fuscobal
- Start date
You need to take RTA of your room now to know the approximate of how the room and treatment are coupling with the speakers.
Know how your room is before getting speakers. get a UMIK-2
You need to set the smoothening to 1/24 so you get near accurate presentation for your bass region. But even looking at the heavily smoothed graph you sent, you have a big null in the sub bass of about 13dB
You are going to buy expensive speakers and play compressed rock drums through digital? Might as well get old Tannoy, they will be good either way. 100 - 150k fits in analog plus records upgrade.
Rock and Drum videos thread
No classical on this thread. Videos of systems playing rock and Drum
www.whatsbestforum.com
Fuscobal the best speakers for classic rock are 99K only , so not in your search parameters unfortunately 
Get a vintage pair of JBL L100's and save a lot of money! The speakers in the add.
Rob
Rob
I don't really have any experience with $100K+ speakers, but am hoping rather than just telling the OP he is wrong, the forum will step up and offer him some relevant suggestions. I don't know. Just a thought
What about the Stenheim Reference Ultime Two, from about $180,000 to $200,000, depending. I think these speakers play 70's and 80's rock like it should be played. There is a looseness and responsiveness to these speakers that really does the music you like well, IMO. But you will need to upgrade your electronics to get the most out of these speakers.
I must say I'm a bit dissapointed to see many consider classic rock-pop-country made between 60's and 80's an inferior music. I am not the type to use the "proper" music that is considered audiophile in order to evaluate or justify the equipment, I like to listen to my favourite musing and extract the emotions out of it using the best equipment I can afford. These speakers will be bought used for about half the list price mentioned. I was looking at something like > Rockport Lyra, Von Schweikert Ultra 7, Magico M6, Wilson Alexx V (don't quite like the aesthetics of this one) ...
OP: I personally love listening to the classic rock you list. But, I consume more jazz and classical music and have set up my systems accordingly for those genres.
May i ask your musical priorities? While you might think that speakers in your targeted price range will be good on all subjective and objective criteria - that’s not necessarily true.
Some are better than others at dynamics. Some are more full range. Some will be voiced more like a live venue (which will intentionally be sloped to roll off the highest frequencies (say 8k+ depending on venue and engineer)
Depending on your priorities - you might not want a highly accurate speaker because even though the music maybe great, the recordings - for the most part - are less so. Highly accurate and resolving speakers might highlight those flaws in ways you don’t expect.
So, having some understanding of what you’re mostly looking for will help with recommendations.
May i ask your musical priorities? While you might think that speakers in your targeted price range will be good on all subjective and objective criteria - that’s not necessarily true.
Some are better than others at dynamics. Some are more full range. Some will be voiced more like a live venue (which will intentionally be sloped to roll off the highest frequencies (say 8k+ depending on venue and engineer)
Depending on your priorities - you might not want a highly accurate speaker because even though the music maybe great, the recordings - for the most part - are less so. Highly accurate and resolving speakers might highlight those flaws in ways you don’t expect.
So, having some understanding of what you’re mostly looking for will help with recommendations.
My unpopular opinion: Rock & Metal from 1999-Present is better than 60's-80's Classic Rock & Metal.
Boomer here. Grew up listening to a lot of prog rock and mainstream rock (Pink Floyd, Frank Zappa, Gentle Giant, Moody Blues ...), alternative rock, soft rock, hard rock, California rock/pop. Listened to it all. All the way thru the 90's. Honestly got a little bored with it.
Discovered Nu Metal earlier this century (Korn, Godsmack, SOAD, Chevelle, Slipknot ...) and later tuned into Metalcore (Bring Me The Horizon, Of Mice & Men, Motionless in White, I Prevail, Falling in Reverse ...).
So many great metal bands coming out of Northern Europe, Australia, and US, and metal sub-genres continue to evolve - Prog Metal, Black Metal, Symphonic Metal, Speed Metal ...
I can't really listen to Classic Rock / Pop from the 60's-80's anymore. It does nothing for me. Anyway, just my unpopular opinion
Boomer here. Grew up listening to a lot of prog rock and mainstream rock (Pink Floyd, Frank Zappa, Gentle Giant, Moody Blues ...), alternative rock, soft rock, hard rock, California rock/pop. Listened to it all. All the way thru the 90's. Honestly got a little bored with it.
Discovered Nu Metal earlier this century (Korn, Godsmack, SOAD, Chevelle, Slipknot ...) and later tuned into Metalcore (Bring Me The Horizon, Of Mice & Men, Motionless in White, I Prevail, Falling in Reverse ...).
So many great metal bands coming out of Northern Europe, Australia, and US, and metal sub-genres continue to evolve - Prog Metal, Black Metal, Symphonic Metal, Speed Metal ...
I can't really listen to Classic Rock / Pop from the 60's-80's anymore. It does nothing for me. Anyway, just my unpopular opinion
Anyone throwing shade at your music tendencies doesn't like fun I guess. I listen to music that moves me not what someone states is recorded well. So you're not alone in that
LMAO, you have a very commitment speaker in the Be10's, are you trying to impress someone by wanting to upgrade towards a qtr mil speaker ? In that price range unless you have a competent audio salon to go to and listen or better yet an in home audition, taking internet advice from strangers is silly. As for your musical taste, sorry, couldn't care less............
No one said it is inferior music. Digital recordings of that music are inferior. There is a reason led zep, black sabbath, Hendrix etc and many old blues original LPs are expensive and a gold rush to find. A speaker can’t enhance a poor recording, you need to get a good rock recording in a good speaker that can show the energy and bass
What will sound better, a CD of Fleetwood Mac on $350K speakers or a pristine LP on $75K speakers? The answer is the CD on $350K speakers.
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