In Reply to: You've opened a marvelous worm can here... posted by Presto on May 30, 2010 at 19:41:16:
>So are these manufacturers purposely selling a "non-flat" speaker that sounds exciting and different and "detailed" without sounding shrill or excessively lean?<
Like every other component of an audio system speakers should be built according to the theorem “garbage in - garbage out”, which means without adding any further garbage. Your audio system shouldn’t be turning a Steinway into a Bösendorfer by applying changes to the spectrum as recorded. Toole has found in his tests that the listeners prefer loudspeakers with flat response. Flat response is the only correct manner if we talk hifi.
Why speaker manufacturers don’t try to get response as flat as possible, I don’t know. Such speakers are either voiced or incompetently designed. For me such speakers are not worth a second thought.
>I think, after seeing response graphs for Watt Puppies (speakers that were allegedly favorites for studio monitoring) which are ragged as a mountain range become revered speakers among the audiophile community. Perhaps the "right" peaks and dips in the audible bandwidth are pleasant sounding, such as the 2nd harmonic distortion euphoria of tube amps.<
No comment re: audiophile community and its references. To me the label “audiophile approval” is always a sign to stay away.
>If we add in the fact we all have different hearing curves and rooms and room materials, it almost makes no sense to even discuss preferences surrounding slight amplitude response variations IMHO.<
The same loudspeaker will sound differently in different rooms and in different positions in the same room. But that and different in-ear response is not the issue. A loudspeaker is not a musical instrument that should sound good, it’s a tool that should reproduce what’s on the recording 1:1, and that means flat response. YMMV, of course.
Klaus
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Follow Ups
- Opening worm cans is a specialty of mine! - KlausR. 21:56:32 05/31/10 (42)
- RE: Opening worm cans is a specialty of mine! - Tony Lauck 07:18:13 06/03/10 (39)
- RE: systems that measure flat at their listening position - KlausR. 00:55:19 06/04/10 (38)
- That's great... - E-Stat 12:12:16 06/05/10 (0)
- RE: systems that measure flat at their listening position - tomservo 16:35:55 06/04/10 (1)
- RE: systems that measure flat at their listening position - KlausR. 23:23:47 06/05/10 (0)
- RE: systems that measure flat at their listening position - Tony Lauck 06:40:14 06/04/10 (34)
- "measuring flat" is Klaus' intolerant straw man - Sordidman 16:18:02 06/04/10 (33)
- So having preferences different from yours constitutes "intolerance" and "blind arrogance?" (nt) - Pat D 16:05:45 06/05/10 (32)
- Nope, blind faith in poor measurements and denigrating experience does -t - Sordidman 10:54:25 06/07/10 (31)
- Measurements work for KlausR. What's your problem? - Pat D 16:46:00 06/07/10 (30)
- Misreading again? I said, nor implied nothing of the kind - Sordidman 10:45:25 06/08/10 (29)
- RE: erroneous conclusions - KlausR. 04:38:42 06/09/10 (26)
- ""which criteria happened to be non-subjective"" - Sordidman 16:55:14 06/09/10 (23)
- RE: ""which criteria happened to be non-subjective"" - Tony Lauck 08:37:28 06/10/10 (1)
- Design as you go; then make adjustments - Sordidman 09:40:58 06/10/10 (0)
- RE: Good sound is the goal, and it is entirely subjective. - KlausR. 21:55:21 06/09/10 (20)
- It's either a "fact" or it isn't - Sordidman 09:32:46 06/10/10 (19)
- There is no defintion for art, but audio definitely is not art! - KlausR. 22:04:28 06/10/10 (18)
- Not your decision: Art is whatever any artist says it is.... - Sordidman 09:40:23 06/11/10 (17)
- RE: That is clearly crap - KlausR. 13:38:08 06/12/10 (9)
- Case Closed? Not -- I doubt it will ever be closed. - Tony Lauck 10:39:18 06/13/10 (8)
- Meyer/Moran threads - KlausR. 08:19:20 06/14/10 (7)
- RE: Meyer/Moran threads - Tony Lauck 08:46:22 06/14/10 (6)
- RE: I don't know why you didn't find my posts - KlausR. 14:01:54 06/14/10 (5)
- RE: I don't know why you didn't find my posts - Tony Lauck 15:08:58 06/14/10 (4)
- RE: I have faith in Brad's personal integrity - KlausR. 02:47:48 06/15/10 (3)
- RE: I have faith in Brad's personal integrity - Tony Lauck 08:58:27 06/15/10 (2)
- Some (final) points - KlausR. 09:13:40 06/16/10 (1)
- RE: Some (final) points - Tony Lauck 09:41:45 06/16/10 (0)
- RE: Not your decision: Art is whatever any artist says it is.... - Tony Lauck 11:09:54 06/11/10 (6)
- Accuracy? - Sordidman 12:24:33 06/11/10 (5)
- RE: Accuracy? - Tony Lauck 13:16:58 06/11/10 (4)
- There's a lot of anger out there.......... - Sordidman 14:25:35 06/11/10 (3)
- RE: There's a lot of anger out there.......... - Tony Lauck 15:04:29 06/11/10 (2)
- RE: There's a lot of anger out there.......... - Sordidman 15:43:42 06/11/10 (1)
- RE: There's a lot of anger out there.......... - Tony Lauck 17:33:16 06/11/10 (0)
- RE: erroneous conclusions - Tony Lauck 07:42:27 06/09/10 (1)
- RE: Conflict - KlausR. 21:31:00 06/09/10 (0)
- You just illustrated what I said! (nt) - Pat D 14:47:31 06/08/10 (1)
- No, but Whatever: time to get off the schoolyard (nt) - Sordidman 16:02:20 06/08/10 (0)
- On flat response... - Presto 10:18:29 06/01/10 (1)
- Agreement on all points (nt) - KlausR. 07:34:29 06/02/10 (0)