There are no hifi speakers for metal

peterpan

New member
Oct 21, 2008
160
0
0
Last year i have listen to many speakers. Good speakers, but none of them are suitable for metal. For metal you need good bass (also not small woofers), warm midrange and sweet treble. Also dynamic and not too transparant. Those speakers are not more. Nowadays speakers are too transparant and with too hot treble. Vintage is the only solution.
 
Klipsch in general should be what you are looking for. Cerwin Vega too, klipsch better.
 
peterpan said:
Last year i have listen to many speakers. Good speakers, but none of them are suitable for metal. For metal you need good bass (also not small woofers), warm midrange and sweet treble. Also dynamic and not too transparant. Those speakers are not more. Nowadays speakers are too transparant and with too hot treble. Vintage is the only solution.

metal is like every other genre of music, no speaker company sells their product as a genre specific speaker.
 
find out what heavy metal bands use in their studios and see if their is a home version, companies like PMC do both.

*music2*
 
What speakers have you tried....and on the end of what amps (which are important as well)?

Which combination got cloesest to what you are looking for?
 
bigfish786 said:
peterpan said:
Last year i have listen to many speakers. Good speakers, but none of them are suitable for metal. For metal you need good bass (also not small woofers), warm midrange and sweet treble. Also dynamic and not too transparant. Those speakers are not more. Nowadays speakers are too transparant and with too

metal is like every other genre of music, no speaker company sells their product as a genre specific speaker.

+1
 
peterpan said:
Last year i have listen to many speakers. Good speakers, but none of them are suitable for metal. For metal you need good bass (also not small woofers), warm midrange and sweet treble. Also dynamic and not too transparant. Those speakers are not more. Nowadays speakers are too transparant and with too hot treble. Vintage is the only solution.
According to my definition of transparent - where it sounds as if the music is not coming from speakers but from actual musicians in your room - then the more transparent the better.

If you're talking about speakers that are marketed as transparent, when the reality is that they have a hump in the midrange of the frequency response to create the psycho-acoustic impression of transparancy then yes, I totally agree.

I totally agree about needing good quality big woofers and dynamic sounding speakers for metal.

Totally agree that the vast majority of modern speakers are too dynamically compressed and are too small.

Peterpan, you may find this interesting reading: https://www.audioasylum.com/cgi/vt.mpl?f=hug&m=178426

I agree with Claudej1; 8" or smaller woofers don't cut the mustard.
 
Vladimir said:
Can someone write few reference metal albums where hifi shows its strength and weakneses?

but my two first choice, go to albums that I know and have used consistently to see how new speakers sound and new component intergrate are Machine Head's - Burn My Eyes and Sepultura's - Roots. I'm not suggesting they're are reference standard but to me they are, my reference point.
 
Vladimir, what, like Nirvana Nevermind?

Or Iron Maiden Fear of the Dark?

On a poor system these albums can be headache inducing noise. On a good system you're listening to an accomplished set of songwriters and musicians making engrossing music with emotional impact.
 
lindsayt said:
Vladimir, what, like Nirvana Nevermind?

Or Iron Maiden Fear of the Dark?

On a poor system these albums can be headache inducing noise. On a good system you're listening to an accomplished set of songwriters and musicians making engrossing music with emotional impact.

Nirvana doesn't fall in the metal genre AFAIK.

I'm asking because I'd like to give them a listen on my speakers.
 
I think Nevermind by Nirvana is probably a good album to judge a heavy rock system.

It's not quite metal in the way slayer or sepultura are metal, but it's thick dense music that demands from a system. I actually don't enjoy Nevermind on Spotify at all, I love Spotify but find some heavy albums are lacking there
 
muljao said:
I think Nevermind by Nirvana is probably a good album to judge a heavy rock system.

It's not quite metal in the way slayer or sepultura are metal, but it's thick dense music that demands from a system. I actually don't enjoy Nevermind on Spotify at all, I love Spotify but find some heavy albums are lacking there

Grunge, Punk rock, Alternative rock

Genres vary so much by different decade. Both Kiss and Darkthrone fall under same genre.
 
peterpan said:
Last year i have listen to many speakers. Good speakers, but none of them are suitable for metal. For metal you need good bass (also not small woofers), warm midrange and sweet treble. Also dynamic and not too transparant. Those speakers are not more. Nowadays speakers are too transparant and with too hot treble. Vintage is the only solution.
With so many speakers out there, so many different approaches, and so many different 'flavours' with regards to tonal balance, I find it very hard to believe that there's not one speaker out there that does what you want.
 
peterpan said:
Last year i have listen to many speakers. Good speakers, but none of them are suitable for metal. For metal you need good bass (also not small woofers), warm midrange and sweet treble. Also dynamic and not too transparant. Those speakers are not more. Nowadays speakers are too transparant and with too hot treble. Vintage is the only solution.

Years ago, seem to remember WHFI testing Nad 356 with Quad L11s, and I think it had rave reviews for the balance of the combo. Not sure if the floorstanding version of the Quads are still available.

I've tried looking in my archive of WHFI mags, but most are in the attic.
 
davidf said:
peterpan said:
Last year i have listen to many speakers. Good speakers, but none of them are suitable for metal. For metal you need good bass (also not small woofers), warm midrange and sweet treble. Also dynamic and not too transparant. Those speakers are not more. Nowadays speakers are too transparant and with too hot treble. Vintage is the only solution.

With so many speakers out there, so many different approaches, and so many different 'flavours' with regards to tonal balance, I find it very hard to believe that there's not one speaker out there that does what you want.

Perhaps the utopian sound the OP is looking for doesn't exist.
 
Like the LuckyLion's suggestions.

I always use System of a Down "Mezmerize" as a reference. If a system is capable of reproducing it it'll handle any album and not just metal.
 
plastic penguin said:
Perhaps the utopian sound the OP is looking for doesn't exist.
Oh yes it does, but as the OP says, it's a lot easier to find at a real world price in vintage speakers than modern.

It's all about the bass and the dynamics.
 
Vladimir said:
Grunge, Punk rock, Alternative rock

Genres vary so much by different decade. Both Kiss and Darkthrone fall under same genre.
Is Grunge not a sub-genre of metal, both of which are sub-genres of rock - which my grandad would have called sub-genres of jazz?

Do these classifications matter?
 
onslaught album In search of sanity .... Track 1 Asylum on some speakers this track will distort a speaker

Gun's & Roses .... Use your illusion 2 ... Track 16 Coma .... same here can make a speaker distort with the bass driver

iced Earth...... plagues of Babylon ..... Track 1 .. plagues of Babylon

Metallica.... Black Album..... Track .... 12 ... The struggle within

For heavy Metal or thrash metal you need Floor standing speakers to get the best out of this type of music as stand mounted speakers just do not cut it with this kind of music .

the cabinet size matters as your need to push lots of air

driver size matters nice large drivers for good low down bass

and finally you need a good amplifier that will be boss over those speakers a specially with bass control .
 

TRENDING THREADS