When my oldest son was in high school, he played drums in the high school band. I drove into the driveway, and I could hear the drum line practicing. I was wondering why they were in MY backyard, why couldn't they do that at school? I went around the side of the house, and there was my son and one of his buddies. They had pushed my big PA speakers out into the back yard, strung out cable back inside to the stereo system (I have my stuff all modified to take 1/4" phone plugs). They had it cranked up, live level. They were pushing maybe 5-10 wts, according to the meters on my amp. They were listening to a demo tape of a drum feature, and wanted to get the "live" effect. Well, it fooled me. So, my PA spkrs passed the drum test for me!

I listen to percussion, and not electronic technopop, but real percussion for judging speakers. With good speakers, you hear not just the cymbal, but the tap of the stick on the cymbal, too.

And in general, highly efficient speakers, particularly horns, pass the realism test for me.

Oh, guys, real string basses (double bass) do not have real smooth response. Some notes pop out, some you can barely hear... this is due to resonances of the bass's wood body, and also room resonances where it was recorded. Smaller rooms are more pronounced in this effect. Doesn't mean anything in this discussion, just an off the wall observation. When you listen to a jazz group, don't think your speakers are doing funnies.

There is a Paul Winter recording... they warn you on the liner notes that an African drum on the intro of the first track has a rattle, that they want to reassure you it is the drum as recorded, not a rattle in your speakers... LOL! And just today, another musician was over here with a recording he made... and he and his wife said at the same time, "that drum IS there!" They could not hear a certain drum on their home system, but it was clearly audible on mine. And all this time he thought he had not mic'd it properly.

My point is, percussion is the toughest to reproduce correctly, not just low notes.