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RE: Listened to a pair of JBL C-34's and amazed how little we have progressed in 60 years!!

Posted by Bold Eagle (A) on April 25, 2012 at 08:03:37

In Reply to: Listened to a pair of JBL C-34's and amazed how little we have progressed in 60 years!! posted by Baranyi on April 23, 2012 at 21:35:33:

I've said this before; but it probably bears repeating. In a sense, it's a little like the Egyptian pyramids. People had a hard time imagining how they built the pyramids without cranes and winches and modern equipment; so they invoke all kinds of nonsense about how they were built. They can't seem to imagine that the Egyptians of the time were as smart as we are and had well developed methods that did not need cranes and diesel engines.

So here we are in the 21st century with wonderful computer based tools and wonderful new materials, and we can't seem to understand how anybody could design good sounding speakers with the "primitive" tools and materials of the 50's and 60's.

Well, they were as smart as we are, good instrumentation microphones were available then, 15 and 30 IPS tapes were available as source material, the live reference was the same as today (Ok, they didn't have rap), and human hearing has not evolved noticeably in the last 50 years. Materials were not as advanced as today; but cellulose is still one of the better materials for speaker cones. The process was a lot slower without PC based software; but for the patient and painstaking designers; the results could be very good.

The criteria for placing the listener in row M in a concert hall has not changed. Although it seems that a lot of today's audiophiles want to be on stage or at least in row A.

Remember that AR was running Live Vs Recorded demos in the 60's and observers were not able to tell when the musicians stopped and the recording started using stock AR speakers. Yes, the tapes were specially prepared, and EQ was used; but a lot of the properties touted for modern speakers cannot be EQ'd into older ones, and that's especially true given the electronics technology of the 60's.

I will agree that tweeters are better than ever. However, it still remains for the designers to use them well in a system design. I also have issues with the use of woofer and midrange cones with exotic materials and little internal damping, as this leads to severe breakup modes and the necessity of higher order filters in the crossover and even the use of notch filters to control the breakup products. Done badly these complex filters will degrade the sound.

Jerry

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