Speakers for Guitar Players?

messimarja

I'm a guitar player getting into audio.

I like listening to hard rock and heavy metal. Typically I would prefer to be playing it and have an actually guitar stack, bass stack, and drum set in the room.

Most of the higher end audio I've listened to loses the detail on the guitars. There seems to be a trend of very extended high end that is just too tight and brittle for metal and not really natural to what I'm used to hearing. The bass needs to sound like a growly piano. Fast, tight bass.

Vocals tend to sound really good on most current hi-fi stuff. And also reverb for some reason tends to come out (again the whispiness of the extended high end). I can hear the money in expensive subs. They tend to be good.

How can I get the crunchy, mid-heavy guitars on a rig that costs less than my amplifiers?

Idea for hi-fi system: Multitrack arrangement where raw guitar and bass tracks get re-amped through actual guitar or bass enclosure(s). Drums and cymbals are reproduced by individual speakers or enclosures optimized to each sound and located spatially like a real drum set or mic system (overheads, kick, snare, toms, hi-hat, ride). Vocals reproduced by stereo pair of conventional hi-fi speakers. It could be built for the same cost as many high-end systems. The difficulty would be obtaining the appropriate multi-track recordings. I think there's an ap where they're remastering classic rock records in a multitrack format for the user to mix... same thing only on big speaks.

Tony M

Get you a pair of classic Klipsch speakers. Start with Heresy's and go up if you can afford it. I think they will serve your purpose.
The KG4's are great but if you want to crank it real loud, go to Heresys and bigger. Stiff accordian suspensions on their woofers give them that sound your looking for.

newrival

I'm a guitar player and although i dont like the same thing for audio playback, i think i know what you mean.
I'm guessing you'd like to reproduce the raw sound of a concert or live metal. One way to approach it is to think how it's reproduced live. Highly resonant guitar cabs through a mic into pro equipment then out pro drivers and horn loaded. These are also quite resonant.You want high power handling with next to no break up. Klipsch are the obvious ones to me that stand out. high efficiency, high output. recently I met a guy really into metal and he had NHT T6's w/powered sub stands with VT series surrounds and 2 NHT 2x12 subs. it was a crazy dynamic system. We watched a live Muse concert and it was crazy good.

Id check out either of those.

rebuy

Since you like that type of sound, why not get some Peavey's or maybe some Kustom speakers, something like that.
They can sound pretty good.

Dawgfish

First off I got to say I'm not a guitar player. I am a drummer however and being in various bands over the years I do have an ear for what drums, bass, guitar, keyboards, etc. actually sound like live. I think the others are pointing you in the right direction with the vintage Klipsch speakers, since many stacks out there are horn loaded. The horns however are going to give you those very extended highs you were not looking for, especially when paired with certain solid state amps. All is not lost, I think what is going to give you the sound you want is some vintage Klipsch speakers paired with some tube amps and/or preamps. Depending on the amp and type of tubes you run with them, this will tame down the highs, while providing that rich, full mid-range you are looking for. You can try different tubes to get the sound you are looking for (I recommend Mullard or Amperex tubes as a starting point to get you that lush mid-range, while taming the highs somewhat). The only negative drawback to some tube amps is the bass may not be as quick and hard hitting as some of their solid state counterparts (this is generalization and not always true, generally you have to pay a little more to get a good tube amp that has a quick, hard hitting, and detailed low end). In this case add a good sub or spend a little more for a better balanced tube amp and/or pre, or run a tube pre and solid state amp combo. This should get you in the ball-park.

tonyb

tony millard wrote: »

Get you a pair of classic Klipsch speakers. Start with Heresy's and go up if you can afford it. I think they will serve your purpose.
The KG4's are great but if you want to crank it real loud, go to Heresys and bigger. Stiff accordian suspensions on their woofers give them that sound your looking for.

Yep, I like the KG 5.5's or the Epic c4's. Pro gear and add some tubes along the path should get ya there. If your looking for concert sound on the cheap, real cheap, good luck on that. The KG4 OR 5.5'S is your best bet as I've seen them both under 500 bucks. Won't do much better than that.

tonyb

Here's a set of KG 5.5's with a KV 3 center for a pawltry 475.

http://chicago.craigslist.org/wcl/ele/2617471132.html

Joe08867

I am a Drummer and totally understand what your looking for. The sound you want is the reason I got into audio. And also the reason I have owned 4 different Klipsch speakers.

I will be the fourth vote for Klipsch on this one. I had Klipsch speakers for years because they made the music sound like the actual instrument not some studio reproduced version of the instrument.

I will give a second vote for Heresy's and add Cornwall's for that real guitar sound. Heresy's should run you from 4-500 and the Cornwalls would be 5-600.