Most natural bookshelf or stand mount vocal reproducers.

What bookshelf or stand mount speakers other than the LS3/5a descendants do you consider the most natural sounding vocal reproducers ?

Long term exposure to any amount of “Listener Fatigue “ is a killer to be avoided at all cost.

 

Love my ProAc Tablette 10, they are seriously musical and pretty darn good at voices.

No listening fatigue here!

 

Another vote for ProAc: they just know how to do small loudspeakers well, from their days as Celef (I still fondly remember the old Celef Domestic), through the various iterations of Tablette, Response 1s and what have you every time I hear some they just sound right (and this includes some long term listening).

 

The ProAc Tablette 10 isn’t an LS3/5a descendant?

 

The Tablette (now on Mk10) kinda is: pretty similar size; heavily damped thin wall construction; infinite baffle.

The baby Responses not so much: different construction and lay out of drive units; rear ported design.

Then the Studio SM100 is different again...

And there are the larger stand mount Responses.

 

Don't know why anyone would want to limit there choices to that extreme.
I suppose i'm old school, listen to everything i can and choose the one i like best, name be damned.

 

Hard to beat the Stirling Broadcast SB-88. These didn't sell all that well due to a bunk review by Tone Audio. Luckily that resulted in good prices for the remaining U.S. stock. The only I've heard that's slightly better is their big brother Stirling LS3/6.

The 88s are versatile in that they can work well in a wide variety of room sizes.

Zero fatigue from these speakers, yet plenty of detail.

 

Opera Callas , named after the famous singer

Opera Loudspeakers

.

 

Budget? $150? $15,000? There are so many great standmount speakers available right now, that a budget limit might help narrow the wealth of suggestions.

In the CDN$3000 category, consider the B&W 705S2, Totem Acoustic Signature One, Sonus Faber Sonnetto 1 and about eight or ten others that all offer gorgeous detail and accuracy with underlying musicality that is just right and listenable for hours on end.

AT about CDN$5000, it gets even better. The CDN$10K (or rather $7.5K-$10K) is a whole other world, for the most part, and there are some incredibly good standmounts in that range including the stellar Harbeth Super HL5+, Martin Logan, Joseph Audio Pulsar and a few others. But the CDN$4K-$6K is where the magic is for the most part.

In the under CDN$1K range, things can be hit and miss, but there are some standmount gems there too.

Give us a budget so we can narrow things down.

 

I would suggest checking out something from Sonus faber. Definitely not fatiguing, but nice detail.

 

Meadowlark Audio Kestrels are a floor stand speaker with wonderful vocal presentation. A very easy speaker to live with long term. I had mine for at least ten years.

 

These are to be used in a small area bedroom A/V system. This system will be used for about 80% of the time so long term listenability is of prime importance.
I’m going to give the Elac Navis arb-51 a shot ‘cause at 3k it seems to fit the budget for this setup.

 

Many stand mounts are deigned to sound best out from any walls.So they don't really suit small rooms.Sonus Fabers I owned were best about a metre out from the front wall.Avoid rear ported speakers in that room.

 

The new Rogers Andy Whittle helped designed would be great or Audio Note’s Ks, Js or Es would also work.

 

wow, i forgot about those ... i had a pair for about 6 months a LONG time ago.

 

KEF Reference 1 is very natural sounding, with a mellow, non fatiguing sound

 

voxativ hagen if vocals are what you are after.....

Voxativ HAGEN

 

Dynaudio Confidence C1

 

I love my Harbeth P3ESR

 

If you like voices sometimes nothing comes close.....

 

I was seriously considering C7ES-3 speakers but their cost as well as the cost of the driving electronics would be more than I’d like to spend on a second system.

 

To buy new,

• Harbeth Monitor 30.2
• Proac Response D1 or D2
• B&W 805 D3
• Franco Serblin Accordo
• Wilson Benesch Precision P1.0
  
• Magico A1
• Crystal Cable Arabesque Minissimo Diamond

To buy used,

• Sonus Faber Guarneri Homage or Minima Amator
• Focal Micro Utopia Be
• ATC SCM 10 or 20

 

Room size and their positioning are vital for this model. ( Having owned a pair of ES2 for a good few years.)

 

I agree, but the OP specified that he did not want an LS3/5A of any kind.

 

If the Harbeth P3ESR is out of the question then I really like the ProAc Tablette 10 and PMC DB1 Gold.