In Reply to: RE: The lazy man's guide to critical listening: recline on a comfy couch, (anywhere) in the source room. posted by Brian Levy on January 28, 2015 at 06:57:32:
The notion that evaluating a speaker is possible by listening from another room has multiple flaws, because of too many variables.
Before the "test" proponents get their dander up, I'll say that if you like the way your system sounds from another room, that's great and have fun.
But putting it forward as a test for loudspeaker quality is misguided. There are too many variables in the process, which affect the subjective results. Among them:
The acoustics of the source room.
Shape of the source room.
Placement of the speakers in the source room.
Frequency response characteristics of the speakers.
Directivity of the speakers.
Size and placement of the opening to the coupled room.
Acoustics of the coupled room.
SPL of the system.
EQ of the system.
Some of these variables are outside of our control.
As an example of what I'm explaining, take the K-horns which Brian Levy mentioned. Vintage variations of Klipschorns have a couple of things in common: Harsh and hard midrange, irregular (not smooth) bass, and uneven dispersion vs. frequency. But once these poor attributes have had a chance to have the room's acoustic signature imposed upon them, much like a graphic EQ coupled with some time smear, I suppose they might sound ok from another room.
:)
This post is made possible by the generous support of people like you and our sponsors:
Follow Ups
- Fundamentally Flawed "Test" - Inmate51 10:12:31 01/28/15 (0)