Do you preferred Monitor / Neutral or Coloured / Warmer Speaker

[Witterings]

I am looking at upgrading some speakers and appreciate I'm only going to know which I prefer by actually listening to them both but I was just generally interested if most people had a leaning towards a precise, monitor type sound, or if you'd generally err towards something with some colour / a little bit warmer, finding the studio monitor sound a bit too clinical.

Flip side of the same coin is one's more likely to be a truer reflection so theoretically should be better but in the real world a mixing engineer adds some colour to a mix anyway so it's not a true and clean sound by the time it's a recording .... the instrument that most reflects this to me is drums which without being various effects being applied sound pretty harsh and horrible.

The 2 speakers I'm considering are Spendor A1's and PMC Prodigy 1's, the PMC's I think would generally work better in my room / placement but as I say it's more just to get a general consensus / opinions from other people as to what their preferences are and if there's any reasoning behind it.

Interested to people's thoughts and preferences.

 

[Gray]

Some describe coloured as musical.
Neutral is musical to me.
Cant stand rolled off treble and warmed up bass.

I've got PMC twenty21 (on the end of a Cyrus amp).
Seen the Prodigy 1 in at dealer - and thought it looked nicer than in photos 🤪
It was actually the Prodigy 5 floorstander that they had set up - and I had a brief listen (from a Naim amp).
That sounded a bit overblown in the bass to me....but possibly because I'm used to standmounts.
I reckon the Prodigy 1 will sound good.
(I really fancy a Prophecy 1, but not it's price).

 

[matthewpianist]

I had a pair of Spendor A1 a few years ago, with a Rega Elex-R. They need power behind them to come alive. When they do, they can sound very admirable, but not especially engaging in my experience. I had auditioned them before buying, against a pair of Linn Majik 109s, but I wish I had compared them to a wider variety of options, because I ended up losing money and wishing I hadn't bothered. That isn't to say they're bad speakers, because they are superbly engineered and some people love them, but they are marmite in being so clinical.

 

[daytona600]

Neutral / Flat speakers only if have you have a totally treated room
Sound is 75% your room not your speakers

Fantastic speakers in a poor room will sound terrible , Average speakers in a great room will sound Fanstatic

Modern Studio monitors can to tuned to your room with Software / DSP / Microphones

 

[The_Lecht_Rocks]

I’m listening to Esbjorn Svensson Trio just now on my Prodigy 5s and I do reckon they are the most beautiful sounding speaker in my wee snug. I love them and they are just so well bodied and musical with the EXA100 driving…

If however I was in maths big room listening to my TX9s I’d feel the same, but the signature is so different!

And in the small study the ATCs are utterly transparent!

It all depends on the room, the speaker interaction and the amplifier matching to the speakers.

I honestly think there’s no perfect or correct sound……

 

[Al ears]

Neutral. Cannot have some software telling you what's best for your room......

 

[PieterG]

The instinctive reply should be: neutral. After all, you want an accurate representation of what was recorded.

My idea - true or false - is that neutral speakers can be tuned to taste by applying minimal EQ. For my taste, in my untreated living room, i add some body and take away some sharpness in the higher frequencies. I'm fairly certain that the lean baseline reflects the character of the speakers, while the bright treble comes from reflections in the room.

Sometimes i question whether KEF is the best choice for the sound i prefer. But i'm happy with the modest EQ tweaking, and i keep the benefit of a good stereo image and staging from speakers that are not too fussy about positioning. My ears might prefer Dynaudio, but my wallet does not.

If you're a purist you might reject EQ and look for that perfect (elusive?) speaker that makes your setup sound exactly like you want, in the room where you listen. To people with that approach i say: make sure your room is perfect first.

I don't know the speakers you're considering. If i was auditioning in a demo room, i would prepare a playlist and some notes about what i do and do not want to hear in my new speakers.

 

[Gray]

If i was auditioning in a demo room, i would prepare a playlist and some notes about what i do and do not want to hear in my new speakers.

I took a USB stick of my test tracks to the last dealer demo - just to check that the speakers met a minimum standard, before moving on to a home loan.
(The home loan ruled them out).

 

[Rodolfo]

The reports and the adjectives are entertaining, yes, but generally, ultimately, they themselves do not matter to me: I'm fortunate to not be "questioning" regularly, instead to be so satisfied with my learned tastes, first. and then that my modest so-matched equipment can reproduce my media such that it makes me smile, in awe regularly, and so appreciative and thankful that I can still respond joyously to gifted artists, favorite artists, and good recordings, (plus live performances) because of my healthy ears, brain, and heart after all these decades.

 

[nopiano]

I never used to think about this. When I was a lad, the ‘monitors’ were BBC influenced, and that either meant Spendor BC1 or Rogers LS3/5a. With LPs and typical amps they seemed pretty lifeless and boring, and the Spendor boomed while the little Rogers bottomed out on warps!

Far better were powerful (for the day) Harman/kardon or Sansui amps with US sealed boxes by Acoustic Research.

Fast forward to 2017 when I last made a big decision on speakers I chose ATCs. The sheer clarity won me over, plus I loved the evident engineering and the fact they were made in Gloucestershire.

To most folk, the preceding Sonus fabers, and the subsequent ones I found are completely different. Sf tend to sound very ‘saturated’ and rich tonally, not that I think my ATCs are lean. Most of all, they both tell me what I want about the music. And both are good - to my ears - on piano and speech, two things that really matter to me.

To answer the question, there’s not much ‘reasoning’ but I did spend a lot of time listening. Hence I know what I’m seeking, and you have to be brave to walk away if you don’t find it!

(My 2017 experience was resurrected by our hosts at WHF when the forum was reinstated. I think the odd post is out of sequence, but the essentials are here.
https://forums.whathifi.com/threads/floorstanders-around-£3-000-a-tale-of-two-speakers.107213/ )