No mention of the Tannoy DC8T yet? (I, admittedly, have not heard them, but the predecessor D500 model is one of my favorite loudspeakers of its size.) $5600 MSRP, beautiful cabinets, properly controlled midrange directivity, and heritage second to none. While I must admit wondering if the modern iteration of the KEF Uni-Q, with the Tangerine waveguide and new surround, doesn't best the venerable Tannoy Dual Concentric in the 5"-8" driver range*, in addition to a much more presentable cabinet the DC8T has ports rather than passive radiators. That is an advantage in mains because ports can be plugged and the speakers run full-range, overlapping with subwoofers to provide more pressure sources in the modal region.
*One can't say beyond that, of course, because there's no 10" or 12" Uni-Q. I stop at 12 because in an A-B comparison I've found the Tannoy System 15 DMT II to be considerably rougher in the lower mids/upper treble than the System 12 DMT II. Suggesting to me that the 12" size is a happy maximum for home use.
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Maybe Grant is right on, take a hard long look at the JBL Synthesis PRO 6332 monitors... just maybe that might be flat and dynamic enough, ***
Despite throwing the Tannoy DC8T into the ring, the JBL LSR32/LS6332 (I think only cosmetic differences between the two) would be my answer, too. I've heard the LSR32 and they are simply fantastic-sounding speakers. (Even better with the ports plugged, though one needs a decent multisub system under them then.)
The JBL monitors are voiced very similarly to the flagship Revels and have similarly even coverage over a wide angle, only they're IMO at a smarter point on the efficiency-vs.-bass extension continuum, being more efficient and smaller.
If I were to ever replace my reference mains (Tannoy System 12 DMT II guts in Nathan Funk-built ultra-low-diffraction closed boxes) with something similar in size I would likely audition these JBL's and a set of
Danley Sound Labs SM96's to see which pattern works better in that room. Not that such a swap is likely; my next mains are more likely to be considerably downsized, most likely bespoke speakers using the Uni-Q from the Q900 in cabinets that look like plus-sized KEF HTS3001SE's. But that's a few years off, if I decide to do it at all.)
They're obviously considerably cheaper than the big Revels, but that's not really a fair point. Some of that is likely due to the target market, but a large part of is because their cabinets are much simpler and they use cheaper materials and finish.
SO, for 6k USD my answer would be a set of those, with the remaining ~$3k spent on the bespoke cabinets from Nathan Funk or a similarly talented artisan to fit into one's existing room aesthetic.
If aesthetics are less important, and fidelity is everything, then instead of making the LSR's pretty I would instead three subs and relevant bass processing.
-FuzzMeasure Pro 3 ($150) + Art Dual Pre ($50), Dayton EMM6 ($40),
OR, if one is OSX-deprived, Waslo Omnimic, $250 from Parts Express.
-miniDSP with Advanced 4-way plugin, $160 shipped
-Three subs of choice. One option, of course, would be to get cabinets to match one's new mains from the same artisan. Subwoofers are extremely easy to assemble. But I'm going to arbitrarily constrain the choice to currently-existing commercial products. To keep them looking the same, I'm going to go with one brand. That is, of course, totally unnecessary. The brand I picked is SVS, though others will do as well. For the main sub, one could look at the PB12-Plus. For the auxiliary subs, a pair of their Peerless XXLS12-based SB12NSD will be hard to top at $1360 shipped. (The main sub could be any number of things, but I know of no better current subwoofer value than the XXLS12-based SVS's.)
I think ribbons sound better because they have a much lower mass and also a more linear impedance and extended bandwidth.
I've personally yet to hear a ribbon that sounded like music. They all sound edgy and amusical to me, only marginally superior to domes flush-mounted on 180deg waveguides ("flat baffles"), which sound universally horrid.
(True, I never have heard the Raals, but have heard LCY, Raven, Expolinear, Aurum Cantus, Apogee, and Fountek, as well as the Eton AMT and planers by HiVi/Expolinear, BG, and Eminent Technology.)
Not to mention the vertical-axis problems endemic to line sources. Then again, I can actually hear to 18kHz or higher..
FWIW, the finest treble I've heard came from the Acapella Violon 2000's plasma-ion horn. Other tweeters I've loved include the Philips [edit - or is it the Philips-based Romanian one?] spiral planar Genesis used to use, the BMS 4590 in a 90x60 horn, Tannoys with the Tulip phase plug, and KEFs with the Tangerine phase plug.
Vandersteen Model 7's. They are simply stunning; the best I've heard.
I heard the old Vandy Model 5 in the same room as the old Tannoy D700 (10" Dual Concentric, 10" helper woofer, DMT cabinet with a beautiful cherry finish) once. It was amazing to me how poor the Vandy sounded in comparison, even though the room was designed around them.
I am still trying to figure out what is wrong with this KEF R900 speaker.
Does anyone like/dislike its features/design and/or specifications?
Nothing to dislike, except for the lack of attention to diffraction control in the cabinet.
One thing to consider is that some people will prefer (or to look at it another way, some rooms will benefit from) the
Q900, for two reasons:
(1) its larger Uni-Q will hold pattern control lower.
(2) its larger Uni-Q may move less, and thus be a better waveguide. (Or maybe not, given that the R900's Uni-Q is presumably high-passed.)
I don't know where I personally stand on that.
For a long time I've been in the lower pattern control = better camp.
Lately I've been listening to low-diffraction speakers with wider coverage (KEF's 4.5" UniQ with Tangerine phase plug) and I dig that they image outside of the speakers' outside edges. My big Tannoys don't, nor do other speakers with pattern control down lower that I've heard. My advice is to listen to a speaker with pattern control well into the midrange, and listen to a speaker with wider but still well-controlled coverage, such as the JBL LSR32/6332, Revel flagship, or even the little KEF KHT3005SE eggs, which are astoundingly good within the inherent dynamic limits of a tiny driver in a small cabinet. I suspect preference will vary based on room configuration and "liveness."
Take a guess how much this Speaker costs per Pair?
Does its FR Plot look bad, ok, good, or great?
Insufficient data. One single axial point tells us almost nothing. One needs to see detailed polars, or at least a decent spatially-averaged sound power measurement.
