What qualities do you crave most out of your speakers?

Nice wood grain!:scratch2:

Before I turn my stereo on and listen to it I first have to walk into the room and look at it so first and foremost my speakers need to appeal to my sight, I need to like the looks of them. As GangTwanger said in his first post, I also prefer the look of a nice piece of furniture. I also like an aggressive looking speaker which would be how I describe the horn based systems, aggressive! They look like they are ready to do business and that's what I am expecting them to do. I have a few sets I like mostly from one vendor but others and from different countries. All my main speakers are large and in appearance ready to go the distance. I am aware that there are plenty of large junk speakers, that is because size does matter and people get tied up in bigger is better. Most of the time in audio I have fond that to be truer when speaking about complete well rounded musical reproduction. My test music is for reproducing violin, piano, acoustical guitar and female vocals so I guess midrange and highs are my priorities overall not requiring a thumping over compensating bass but a bass that is real and that sounds proper and well balanced with the rest of the music.

I like a wide sound stage and accurate tonal reproduction. I haven't experienced the pinpoint imaging thing yet, either due to my untreated listening spaces, my limited speaker experiences or my aging ears. But I need to hear and, somewhat, feel the bass when it is appropriate. Muddy bass is a dealbreaker for me, as are screeching highs.

I have a small listening space and don't usually listen above 80db, so I sometimes employ the loudness button to scratch my audio itch.

very realistic sound with good transient detail; no peakiness in the mids; high freq response above 16kHz, lows that sound like real instruments with no boominess and low distortion response to below 40Hz or not too much roll-off to 30Hz; something I can fit into my space that don't look like some neo-modern artwork that could be in a museum

Is that asking for too much?

It depends on what kind of music I'm listening to!

Blues and rock just sound better with horns, I want it loud like a live show and most venues use horns. The bass should be loud and heavy and the high mids, 2k-4kHz, should be forward.

But for classical, bluegrass or other acoustic music I want it clear with lots of separation between and pin point location of the instruments, and a full range, very flat response.

For jazz, and vocalists, I want realism. I know exactly what a human sounds like, I hate it when vocals sound like computerized robots.

The main thing I want is the illusion that there is only one speaker, that feeling that "the walls just fade away" as someone already said. I want to forget about the equipment and be transported, by the music, to that place of eternal "now".

The most important aspect for me is an immersive soundstage. I think a speaker should simply make you forget where you currently sit and blast away all of the walls with an all enveloping ocean of sound. I think that the top end should be detailed, but should not be fatiguing. If the speaker provides me with an immersive experience, I'll happily excuse some flaws here and there in terms of accuracy.

Given those circumstances, it's no surprise my last three speaker grabs have been Martin Logan's, ESS AMT Monitors, and Magnepans.