I guess you’re talking about the Bridgewater Hall. I know it well as I used to work in Manchester. The Vaughan Wiilams concert I referred above was in the Bridgewater.
I don’t agree about not listening to symphonies at home, though. It’s just a different way of connecting with the music, but an equally valid musical experience, at least if you give it the same attention as at a concert.
Roger
I have a Decca classical 78 which must’ve been recorded at Kingsway. The first time I played it I could clearly hear a very familiar noise in the background, took me a while to realise it was a tube train.
Presumably back in the day they didn’t think anyone would hear it on typical 78 replay equipment.
ML’s have active dynamic bass drivers with hundreds of watts on tap, so are great with noisy musicians!
Just a quick thank you to all who offered views and suggestions. Much appreciated. I may in fact stick to the speakers I currently have given room size and the need of some of the suggested alternatives to be far from the wall. Perhaps I should go to the concert hall more often, as one of the earlier responses suggested…
To be fair, most of the recommendations here are simply recommending their own speakers.
To produce symphonic scale and weight you need an extremely well designed full range loudspeaker with very low dynamic compression.
Most of the speakers made today are designed with complex crossovers mainly aimed at extending bass response (because of the small boxes) at the expense of sensitivity and absolutely choke the response of the drivers. This only adds to dynamic compression and the distortion that is easily audible during massive dynamic peaks. Furthermore most designs that claim to have proper low bass simply do not even come close to the weight and slam produced in an orchestral crescendo. Many have never even heard a speaker do this properly.
I’m afraid there really is no replacement for displacement. You will need to look at the top offerings from B&W, PMC, ATC etc. There are even better than those models but their price points are completely insane. Adding a couple of corner loaded subs will also help but won’t do anything for upper frequency compression and they will need to be very carefully dialed in.
When you hear a speaker that can move air effortlessly from top to bottom then you realize that the majority of designs are really quite limited. They can still be very musical and engaging but you can easily hear their limitations when playing full range, uncompressed (relatively speaking as all recording have some compression applied) recordings.
As always, the room is critical, both in terms of size and flexibility of placement. If the room is wrong then getting full range dynamic sound with proper sound staging is very challenging (ie. impossible).
No! Really? 
Hopefully only those with experience of them successfully reproducing the wide dynamic and frequency range of “big symphonies”…
Yes, regardless of how much we all rate our own speakers, they are indeed compromised. That being said, there are probably some of these compromised designs that make symphonies enjoyable in the home if not wholly realistic (or even at all close).
I am not a great classical appreciator myself (way too complex for my simple mind) but I can listen to some and enjoy them a lot - or at least a few of the movements - some are obviously more accessible than others.
A particular favourite, of which I can listen to it all, is Dvorak’s New world symphony (Berlin Philharmonic, Herbert Von Karajan from 2012). Obviously has to be played loud and is very enjoyable even with my Kudos 606.
I have only been to one classical live performance which was in the Birmingham Symphony hall in 2019. The performance was Brahms Symphony No.2 but I do not recall the orchestra name or conductor. Prior to the performance I listened to a few versions on Qobuz to try and familiarise myself with the piece. The live performance was incredible whereby every detail of every instrument was clearly discernible (visual aspect helps a lot) whether quiet or loud.
The dynamics were amazing - truly loud at times but never harsh in any way.
Needless to say, when playing the symphony again on my at the time NDX2/SN3/Kudos 606 there was no comparison!
The music is so much better now that my 606s are fed by a full 300 system but will obviously never come anywhere close to that live performance.
I guess my point is that while not able to recreate the performance in the home, it is still possible to enjoy it providing the system is low noise and reasonable with dynamics.
Having the listening environment (and serious cash) for some close to no compromise speakers must sound amazing.
Minor detail: Karajan officially recorded the 9th twice, in 1964 and 1985. He passed away in 1989. But more importantly I readily accept the recordings to sound great on the big Kudos.
Secondhand can make the cash far less serious!
I agree with the first but about displacement, but regarding the second bit, can I suggest DIY? There’s some really good speakers out there that can be built for far less than the ones mentioned will set you back. Even when employing someone to build them for you. Look for example at Troels Gravesen for a known designer. (Full disclosure: I’ve built a pair of his)
Having said that, you will of course be taking a bit of punt as they’ll be hard to audition beforehand.
Thanks @EJS . My knowledge is poor but the download from HD tracks a few years ago stated 2012.
This is the cover if anyone is interested.
Certainly true though I personally cannot do second hand.
Yes I suspect that many of the systems listed in this thread sound quite superb with classical as well as other genres of music.
I’m only commenting on the specific question of a playback system capable of reproducing the full bandwidth dynamics of some of the best classical recordings.
I’ve only heard a handful of systems that were capable of doing this. Not coincidently most were active in design and/or utilized twin midrange drivers (the benefits of decreased midrange driver excursion cannot be overstated). The most obvious feature of those systems is the complete lack of strain during dynamic peaks.
I’m often surprised at how insensitive many audiophiles are to the dynamic compression and distortion their systems produce. I suspect many of them unconsciously gravitate to styles of music that don’t bring out the compression and intermodulation “confusion” that complex dynamic music can result in.
Once you hear full scale classical on a capable system it is really quite breathtaking.
DIY is certainly an option although I’ve heard many of those systems including rather heroic projects and none sounded satisfactory to me. Most were actually quite horrendous. Some were kits based on established designs.
Building a DIY system is actually quite complicated especially if it involves a multi-way design and passive crossover. Active would be more interesting but then again there are so many variables and once you’ve entered the rabbit hole…
I think that Karajan recorded Dvorak’s New World Symphony many more than two times.
I have found that Karajan’s best recordings tend to be from around the early Sixties, in the years immediately after he took over as chief conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic.
That said, my own recommendation for this symphony would be for Rafael Kubelik guest conducting the Berliners, a DG recording from the 1960s (with the PanAm building in NYC on the LP cover).
I can recommend Troels Gravesen. His designs are well respected. When driver manufacturer ScanSpeak needed a speaker to showcase their new top of the line drivers, it’s him they asked to build and design a speaker to be used at shows like Munich.
That particular kit will set you back 12k+ just for the drivers and crossover parts, but he has many more, for any decent budget.
I would agree that nothing will beat hearing a large orchestra in a good auditorium. I used to be a fairly regular opera goer - Covent Garden and ENO. However, I found that unless you a had a good seat say 10 to 15 rows back from the middle of the orchestra pit the sound would not be ideal. Recently, we were high up and to the left in the very high balcony at the Coliseum and the sound though pleasant was not as good as listening at home. After my initial opera experiences I decided it was better to pay double and go half as many times!
So I really enjoy listening to my compromised home system as it is not that bad compared to a lot of seats in many auditoriums.
Just as with Hifi, the room matters with live music as well!
Yes don’t tell me. Listening to Van Morrison at the Albert Hall was underwhelming.
