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Re: I'm just not sure about one thing

"Nothing objective there"
Not so. It is an observation based on what one is hearing. This can be quite objective and reproducible. Not all complex reactions to what one observes can be easily described in language. This is why we use visual analogies becuase language is far better at explaining visual observations than auditory ones. This is probably because human vision is a more highly developed sense and thus more directly related to our survival.

"When one talks of FR with speakers one must really include dispersion as well."

I am always referring to room response...never simply on-axis response.

"I don't know about barking dogs. Don't usually hear them at concerts"

You miss the point. I doubt it is noise floor in the conventional sense. I have heard his system and there is no hiss or hum.

"And you never will as long as you continute with your 'black box' approach of simply swapping pieces"

I have no "black box" approach just by swapping pieces. I think about the why and then think about which pieces are most likely to affect that. This is also what my friends have done with regard to the wire. See the problem is that you invalidate observation and experiment as invalid tools for making a correct sounding hifi system and I tell you that it is essential to having a correct sounding system. You observe a phenomenon, change a thing, then observe again. Eventually, insight can be had without having to change all the time. This is experience from experiment and observation...something you seem hell bent on denying yourself. My friends and I are careful observers and not afraid to find the root cause.

"Do you mean that the barking dog can't be heard on other speakers?"

That is one possible implication. It is also possible that the other friend's system is lacking resolution elsewhere. If he swaps the wiring and finds the dog barking is still missing then obviously the problem was not simply the wiring, although replacing 20 year old copper wire that is probably not oxygen free and therefore corroded is not a bad idea.

"I am simply astonished by your assertion the FR has little to do with coloration! You put it down to distortion. In any case, the distortion of my speakers is quite low at normal listening levels."

That is not what I said. It does of course affect timbre of instruments but again it is easily correctable so who cares. I don't put it down to distortion in the sense you are thinking of distortion, ie. Harmonic distortion. By this measure, most modern speakers are quite low in level and harmonic order. I am talking about NON-harmonic distortions, cone self-noise, cabinet energy storage, port resonances, thermal compression, dynamic compression etc. etc. Paradigm doesn't specify these things and therefore you have no idea if your speakers are low in this kind of distortion or not. You seem very obtuse about these very important aspects of speaker design.

"There are a number of things I can think of that effect whether a speaker sounds harsh at high levels. Fletcher-Munson effects can do that, too, among other things. So we haven't gotten totally away from FR"

No one is suggesting that FR is not an issue. In fact it is probably momentary, ie. during peaks, FR imbalances that make things sound bright or dark. This issue though isn't the FR but what causes the FR to become imbalanced? This goes back then to compression and the like. FR is the symptom in this case not the cause. The speaker might measure flat at a constant level but heat up the woofer VC and how it behaves differently from the tweeter, which has a different thermal compression curve, not to mention a different amount of energy being put into it.

"A high resolution speaker will give you insight into which gear and cables are giving you the full information and which ones have audible problems. However; if the speaker is mucking things up too much then the ability is flawed."

Well, there we are into optical imagery again. "

How so? I see no optical imagery in that quote. Resolution is a general term not necessarily related to vision.

"I'm afraid that a 1 ohm speaker will help create problems with a lot of amplifiers which can't drive it."

Maybe so but we are talking about changing cables with the same amplifiers that ARE capable of driving it.

"I can't see that that makes it particularly revealing otherwise, or that it has much applicability to speakers designed more sensibly."

What about ultra low mass, low coloration, low distortion drivers with essentially NO thermal compression (only dynamic compression at high levels)? This means the speaker retains the same character over very wide dynamic range (particularly as you go down in level). This is what the Scintilla brings to the table along with a pretty smooth FR. The character is maintained even at very low drive levels...something most dynamic speakers fail miserably at (including paradigm). Normal suspension cone drivers have to much resistance to motion at low input levels (overcoming surrounds and spider mechanical resistances necessarily limits what input signal gets a motion out).

"I fail to see, for example, that the speakers are mucking things up just because less powerful amps can drive them."

You fail to see this because no one said this. I am generally an advocate for lower powered amps anyway. I see the fact that the Scintilla needs a high current amp as its one true weakness. Its why I like other, easier to drive Apogees better overall.

A speaker mucking things is not directly correlated to its ease of drive. Lowthers muck things up pretty badly in a lot of ways: poor FR, no bass, highly colored "paper" sound. However; they are highly efficient (100db watt), which means that they move a lot with very little input and thus do superb low level reproduction and within their limits are highly dynamic. They have the opposite problems of most conventional speakers that get the FR right and maybe have less coloration but are really undynamic sounding because they don't play soft well nor do they play loudly well.



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