Speaker Asylum General speaker questions for audio and home theater.

---

[ Follow Ups ] [ Post Followup ] Thread: [ Display  All  Email ] [ Speaker Asylum ]

---

[ Alert Moderator ]

---

RE: Perhaps we are onto something?

Posted by Lou S (A) on November 24, 2014 at 07:50:43

In Reply to: RE: Perhaps we are onto something? posted by genungo on November 24, 2014 at 00:29:39:

Might being the operative word. I figure anyone who goes to the lengths that Mr. Vandersteen has to make modifications, or even repairs, nearly impossible is going to be less than excited about people doing modifications. Furthermore, this is about what I had expected due to the fact that he used a metal dome tweeter. I knew from the onset that this was a very likely out come.

The real problem was not having speakers to readily swap out to determine what was causal. I am not a crossover expert, but considering that capacitors have value tolerances, and are not perfect, a .1 uF bypass capacitor in that position is simply not going to significantly effect anything other than the sound.

As far as being on par with Vandersteen, no, I am not currently, though judging from his result, I would argue that not just I, but many, are POTENTIALLY better. Dennis Murphy for one I would argue is better, judging from the results of one his works, the Ellis Audio 1801's. His work is not commercially as successful, but Sony out sells Nelson Pass, so numbers do not necessarily correspond to quality. I can listen to Professor Murphy's design without fatigue due to missing information.

I would argue that Vandersteen is a better marketer than designer. He knows his niche and does not wander out of it. Just like KEF, some claim that KEF gave into the mainstream buyers and moved towards what many considered the inferior sound of JBL in order to sell more speakers, that is for greater commercial success, I would argue Vandersteen has surrendered detail to politeness so that his speakers sound "better" than others in far more systems.
I am a big free market guy, modified by the ethics of the founders of our free markets. So more power to him, but I am still going to call a spade a spade, and a muffled sounding speaker a muffled sounding speaker. That does not make it a bad speaker within it's niche, but outside of that niche for obvious reason(s) there will be some like myself who are not fans of their sound.

It is funny that when people try things and fall short how folks love to criticize. I think they use such little setbacks to reinforce their not being willing to push boundaries. I can respect that, safety by maintaining norms is visceral as at it's core it's a survival skill. OTOH, if some don't push, nothing ever changes. Even Vandersteen had to push to find his niche after all.

Anyway, say nay all you want, it's my prerogative to not be happy with status quo in the arena of audio. I can't actually criticize you though because in other areas I am just like you, just in other things. I don't try kicking my employer in the shin just to see if he'll cave on something! ;-) YMMV
Best Regards,

Lou

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

Atma-Sphere Music Systems, Inc.

---

[ Top of Page ] [ Contact Us ] [ Support/Wish List ] [ Copyright © 2024, Audio Asylum, all rights reserved ]

---

[ General ] [ Speakers ] [ Tubes ] [ Vinyl ] [ Digital ] [ Hi-Rez ] [ Video Asylum ] [ Cables ] [ Tweaks/DIY ] [ Music ] [ Films ]

---