Critic's Corner Discuss a review. Provide constructive feedback. Talk to the industry.

---

[ Follow Ups ] [ Post Followup ] Thread: [ Display  All  Email ] [ Critic's Corner ]

---

[ Alert Moderator ]

---

RE: Stereophile reviewer thrown under the bus

Posted by MZisserson (A) on August 15, 2015 at 18:56:05

In Reply to: Stereophile reviewer thrown under the bus posted by Ladok on August 15, 2015 at 12:53:44:

In Floyd Toole's book "Sound Reproduction - Loudspeaker and Rooms" he mentions very early in the book a quote from some loudspeaker pioneers. Again, apologies for not having it handy however my library is currently packed away. It simply states:

"Not everything meaningful is measurable, and not everything measurable is meaningful"

A single aberration, high -q may not be audible. This was proven to me (which yourself is the only one you ever need convince of anything) when a loudspeaker which won an informal shoot-out actually had a 6dB dip, in the vicinity of 2.5Khz, except the -3dB F1 was 2421 and the -3dB f2 was 2680. It was undetectable by a group of audiophiles and loudspeaker designers alike. At the end of the day, choosing to keep the flaw in the frequency domain only to make up for it in phase coherency, off axis response, distortion, among other aspects of measurable loudspeaker fodder was a smart choice. Now: we can split this hair until it is microscopic, and perhaps a VERY large and prominent loudspeaker company should have had more attention to detail, but they did not in this case and any assumption good or bad as to why will remain just that.

We are a very VERY flawed species. We all like to think we hear far better than we actually do, and we are not subject to things like the availability bias. However I would question if JA heard what he did because he saw it measured, or once he saw the measurement he used it to explain what he heard and his memory got the best of him and filled in some blanks. It may not be either.

I trust JA's measurements. I trust John Marks' ears. However no medium is perfect and at some point, it's time to start listening to the music. We all started somewhere and frankly, the experience matters far more than perfection. At some point you have to stop and listen to the music without looking for flaws. When you do you will find yourself getting goosebumps more often as you are moved not by how bad a product is, rather the music you hear.

Loudspeakers are terrible - not yours of coarse - but in general. They are by far the highest distortion devices in most systems, they are terribly inefficient, and really: They are the bastard children of any system. They get blamed for a lot of flaws that are not their own, but also get credit not due when the electronics are polishing a turd. What makes them interesting to most is that they are the most tangible to the music you can get. Their premise is fairly understandable and switching one for another generated the largest change both visually and audibly.

Loudspeaker designers who appreciate the art (Addressed in Toole's book very early - chapter 2) as well as the science, respect both, and understand why they are really designing a loudspeaker have a great deal to balance. If that means leaving a hiccup to avoid flattus - well I can be glad they made the choice and will enjoy the music - which seems to be the case in the title match "JA Vs. JM : Wilson B. or die. JA was clearly from mars where JM was from Venus. Does not make either one of them "more righter" than the other. I will end with stating I had the pleasure of hearing the Square one and I, for one, found them very enjoyable with some of the best honest to goodness musical resolution and I have ever heard. While the bass they had was amazing in quality it lacked severely in extension and unfortunately a loudspeaker which cannot extend at least to the bottom of a 4 string bass has very little use for me and my musical tastes. Does not mean I think it was a bad speaker - quite the opposite and it should be considered no matter the musical taste if that is the size/range one is shopping in. This leaves fate ultimately being that of the individual where it belongs.

IMHO-YMMV

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

Parts Connexion

---

[ 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 ]

---