And I should, a bit counterintuitively, be looking at low sensitivity speakers?
Not to focus your search on these exclusively,
but at minimum do not exclude them, which given the amp you do have, you might have been doing. Like I said if you prefer the speakers to be a bit lazy-sounding in the sense that if this was headphones you still think an HD600 sounds too much like an RS-1 in terms of how forward if not somewhat "frantic" the percussion is, it will depend partially on how your amp distorts. In which case, if it does distort towards sounding lazy, then pushing it to audible distortion will help. Note that this is not something one can judge by specs alone, but you have to go out and try the amp on the speakers.
As for speakers, have you tried Dali?
...together with not putting my speakers on the stands might solve the problems I had with the speakers I listened to?
I'm not sure why you're zeroing in on the stands, all they do is provide a proper platform for the speaker to operate on, and you're basically calling doing a good job a problem. That's like telling a Navy their ships need to have a design flaw otherwise they are not a real navy.
And besides, there are other factors to consider here apart from having a base that resists vibrations. If you've listened to speakers before that sounded like what you preferred and they weren't on stands...
1. The speakers might actually really sound that way, and it just so happened that as far as vibrations are concerned, whatever they were sitting on didn't have much of that kind of problem.
2. Your preferred "soft and flabby" bass could be due to
reflections, which are reduced by stands as these allow for positioning the speakers farther from the walls. Having the speakers on some kind of shelf attached to the wall enhances these reflections.
3. The distance between your seat and the speakers could be different as well. Try moving the chair further back, or move the stands closer to the wall and away from your seat.
Maybe. Difficult to tell exactly what you are looking for. Not sure what "soft and flabby" means. Not a normal audio description.
Not in the headphone context since the lack of imaging depth means boost in the low end can more easily turn out getting called "boomy." Basically what he wants is mellow bass (double bass, not double pedals) to the point of slow, but a little bit loud, without sounding like it's popping out towards where the vocalist is.
Not that the alternate description isn't used in speaker forums, but what is more commonly used in the headphone context is "soft attack, loooooooong decay." He gave out context clues though regarding the opposite aspects that he did not like.
Now then, I don't know if it's the stands or amps (always had them put in direct) or what else, but I've found all speakers to have a tight, strong, rigid, energetic sound, especially in the low end. I'm looking for something mellow, soft, flabby and I'm not even sure how much I need to spend to get what I want, though I probably have to up the ante (was originally looking to spend within 400 euros).
No. Lower sensitivity just means the speakers won't be as loud with the same amplifier power.
I suggested that to him in the sense that he use a relatively lower power tube amp and then push it further into audible distortion with a less efficient speaker. Assuming the kind of distortion that develops out of an amp is the kind he likes, then having that amp sweat on less efficient speakers will have the sound he wants. By contrast if the speakers are more sensitive then pushing the amp into audible distortion levels will mean the final sound output is much louder, which can mean neighbors complaining, and then there's how the brain and ears tend to hear a louder volume such that the percussion is louder/more audible.
