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Speaker Asylum General speaker questions for audio and home theater. |
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Speaker Asylum General speaker questions for audio and home theater. |
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In Reply to: Re: Yet again the buzzword to help poor speakers ... posted by 3db on October 12, 2005 at 13:02:18:
Just listen to ONE speaker play -- that wuill give you an idea of how it does timbre and tone.I'm not saying image and soundstage have no importance - quite the contrary -- and the writer of the article notes it too -- it just isn't the most important thing and more to the point when music is being reproduced PRPOPERLY one should not even notice soundstaging cues (except for the obvious Saxophone comes in from the left but it's not wow cool there is the sax it's just wow that sounds like a Sax).
I may be in the minority when it comes to those you list but Rolls Bently and Ferrari in the minority compared to the Ford Focus and CD and SACD and Vinyl will soon if not already will be in the minority to MP3. I used to get into big endless threads about one of the brands on your list being better than another -- yet a few years later I never touch the arguemnt because now I realise both pretty much sound exactly the same save a little frequency tilt here and there which to me now is like who cares flip a coin.
When you do notice these imaging and soundstaging cues diominating the experience like many of those speakers (it is because your brain wants to listen to that instead - IMO). I have heard many of thsoe speakers over more than a decade and I know why so very many people end up endlessly upgrading one for the other or something designed from the same cookie cutting method.
As for laid back - like I said before a speaker can be both laid-back and etchy sounding. Laid back is a dip in the treble frequency giving the treble and or vocal band a slightly distant perspective -- bright is the sonic character of the tweeter - it can be bright and still down 3db. Though I have been accused of mixing up the words etchy grainy and bright as I pretty much use all three to mean the same thing which is irritating and fatiguing.
And of course, to be fair, there are way better metal tweeters than others. The only one I have really liked was in the JM labs Mezza Utopia -- but it took a $25k Cad speaker to do it - but it didn't make me have the metal sounding sensation. Plenty of soft domes can sound bright as well to be fair and sometimes they sound even harsher when they get nasty.
I also like the Energy Veritas 2.8 which is metal but as much as I liked the speaker's sense of scale and power and air it's biggest shortcoming was the treble -- they sacrifice timbre and tone for Air - and presumably the reason they choose metal drivers. Of course Air is another one of those - I never say it at a live event - "Check out that Air between the trombone and the bass player." Gee Whiz bang effects traded for true musical cues.
I brought home a Bryston for my Wharfedales and it created a ton of air and transformed the speakers from the slugs they were with the receiver I had been using. So I'm not entirely against all these pyrotechnics either so long as it brings other improvements not a trade in.
Again it makes no difference to me if someone wants to sit in their chair trying to figure out where the violin is in relation to the cello and in relation to the oboe -- I'm too busy being captivated by the music to give a damn. It helps that my speakers are in the corners too because the soundstage is able to let me know where the instruments are if I really bother to analytically listen then yes the persussion is center left the bass is farther right vocal in the center trio of female singers left double bass center right trumpet further right. Big deal -- do people really sit around and care about any of this?
And I liked the basic Project player more than my NAD in stock form - this based on short listening to be fair to NAD but the Pro-ject was more alive sounding -- while the NAD seems a little polite. I posted on the Vinyl forum for suggestions for a new cart as well. The budget is too limited for a new TT. Ahh well we make do.
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Follow Ups
- Here's a test on tonality... - RGA 20:12:03 10/13/05 (0)
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