Home Speaker Asylum

General speaker questions for audio and home theater.

Re: AN speakers: "let it be said that they are much larger speakers using a bigger woofer and corner loading'

Well Yeah and the AN E is not perfect - you makes your trades. If for example you want to chuck out all sense of "live" sound for dynamic ineptness like many standmounts and any sense of powerful dynamic bass then yes you can seek perfectly flat frequency response - but none of the Harman Toole Totem Paradigm are perfectly flat. Like anything - to get the more marketable graphs something else gets traded. And what many of these others trade is so vast that it isn't worth it.

The only way to really determine if one can tell what is doing a good job is by listening to the speakers in question in the same room. Frequency response is one aspect. Horizontal dispersion is funny but then having heard them - you can sit anywhere you wish and the sound does not fall apart like say the free standing designs of a B&W or Paradigm.

But of course this simply goes nowhere because a person who buys into the Paradigm Studio 20 kind of thing and has not directly compared the AN's is going to look for the graphs to prove whatever point he is trying to prove. Not really sure since there is no evidence of "preference of audible superiority" in the graphs - even Stereophile's editor doing the measurements states that (and he has read the Harman marketing blather).

And even if we ran a double blind level matched preference based test with 100 of the world's most accomplished classically trained musicians and even if 90 of them chose the AN or 90 of them chose the Totem that would still leave the remaining 10 who chose the other. And sure if we go by probable likely-hoods (which is a joke) then we might assume by reading such tests that we would be in the 90 camp -- but then again we may not be and then it's science by probablity which isn't very useful).

The question for me is simple - one sounds like realistic live music and one sounds a lot more like some woofers in a box, boxy sounding, thin, and it is not "perfectly flat" either, and has an upper treble issue that is audible in a bad way. How many dealers carry Audio Note and Totem? Soundhounds - how does each sell when compared to eachother? And Soundhounds carries Sim Audio which supposedly is the right amp choice going by this thread. Yeah But you Patd may still choose the Totem -- in fact you have read the graph first so your mind is made up before you walk in. And looking at the list of the speakers you have heard and think are the best I think I get it.


I have met some people in my life that if their friend tells them that Joe is a a big jerk that they will take their friend's word for it and Joe will be a jerk in their eyes too. And their friend probably provided "evidence" of why Joe is a jerk to boot - only maybe it was their friend all along that had the problem and the the "evidence" wasn't infallible.

The reason I suggest the AN E or J is because when the speaker is placed in the corner the biggest differences are in the midrange not the bass. The Bass is deepened yes of course but supposedly no affects will occur in the lower midrange up -- but the midrange is affected for the better. And of course bass is an issue for the original poster - will the AN E have enough SLAM maybe not so he would need a much larger loudspeaker - but if we're talking standmounts the J or E has more.

The J in fact I would be quite comfortable running up against the Wilson Sophia or N802 in terms of bass depth. The other two will play louder though but then they cost 4 times as much and have more problems.


This post is made possible by the generous support of people like you and our sponsors:
  Western Glow Tube Service  


Follow Ups Full Thread
Follow Ups
  • Re: AN speakers: "let it be said that they are much larger speakers using a bigger woofer and corner loading' - RGA 16:21:40 05/09/07 (0)

FAQ

Post a Message!

Forgot Password?
Moniker (Username):
Password (Optional):
  Remember my Moniker & Password  (What's this?)    Eat Me
E-Mail (Optional):
Subject:
Message:   (Posts are subject to Content Rules)
Optional Link URL:
Optional Link Title:
Optional Image URL:
Upload Image:
E-mail Replies:  Automagically notify you when someone responds.