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In Reply to: Kudos to Sound Stage! posted by DanHaan on April 24, 2007 at 07:58:19:
I have not heard the speaker, but Doug Schneider of Soundstage, who is a pretty good speaker reviewer, seems to think they are about the most neutral speaker he has ever heard.Now really, on the whole, the YG Acoustics Anat Reference Main Module Loudspeakers measured very well. The frequency response and dispersion measurements are superb, and they are the most significant. They are not obviously better than some speakers considerably less expensive, I must say. For example, there is the Ethera Vitae (a superb speaker) for about 1/5 of the cost:
http://www.soundstagemagazine.com/measurements/ethera_vitae/
With speakers that measure that well, people with normal hearing can expect that the sound quality to be excellent and to be worthy of auditioning. However, the measurements are not detailed enough to cover everything (and I wouldn't be able to interpret them if they were!), and as well, personal preference comes into play.
AI know very little about the perception of distortion, and I wish Soundstage explained the audible significance of distortion in more detail. At least some experts don't consider harmonic and intermodulation distortions in loudspeakers to be very important as a rule. Dr. Earl Geddes is one such, and a number here regard his work quite highly:
http://db.audioasylum.com/cgi/m.mpl?forum=speakers&n=224835&highlight=geddes&r=&session=
The harmonic distortion in the speaker, while not notably low, is certainly not very high, either. I wouldn't suggest discounting the speaker on the basis of its distortion measurements.
Perhaps someone more knowledgeable can comment on the speaker distortion issue.
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"Opposition brings concord. Out of discord comes the fairest harmony."
------Heraclitus of Ephesis (fl. 504-500 BC), trans. Wheelwright.
Follow Ups:
Enough blather about how they measure. What about how they sound? He doesn't claim to build the "best measuring loudspeakers, period".Besides, speakers that measure perfectly usually don't have much to offer in the way of subjective listening. Oops, there's that dirty word you hate so much......
Here is a company that proclaims its engineering approach to loudspeaker design. If you read the review and the interview with the designer you will understand that these are their main selling points. What Chuang was trying to say is that based on the measurement provided; it is clearly not the case. It has nothing to do with how the speakers sound. That will be totally subjective.
I haven't heard the speakers but I would expect from the NRC measurements that they would sound well balanced an neutral. Some respected researchers have found a strong correlation between speaker measurements and listener preferences (that's subjective listening, Ozzy) under controlled double blind conditions. A number of very well respected speaker manufacturers use that kind of research to help design their speakers. The Soundstage reviewer, Doug Schneider, thinks they sound great and you can read about his impressions in his review, if you wish, and you could even write him.Now, I have never understood this passion for wanting someone to tell you "how they sound." Can't you determine that for yourself? I certainly don't need someone (reviewers included) to tell me how they sound, and anyway, someone else's taste may not be the same as mine. I can do any listening for myself, and I do.
The NRC measurements, on the other hand, are quite objective for what they are. If you have some experience with them, they can tell you a lot about what to expect from a speaker--and some Canadian magazines used to use them for decades. Neither I nor anyone else can listen to all the speakers available, not even the likely ones, so whether you like it or not, many are screened out. I primarily use reviewer measurements as a screening tool, and there are lots of speakers that don't go on my audition list because of the measurements. When I do come across those not measuring well, they always turn out to be something I wouldn't want. One of my points was that the distortion measurements of the YG speaker would not cause me concern.
____________________________________________________
"Opposition brings concord. Out of discord comes the fairest harmony."
------Heraclitus of Ephesis (fl. 504-500 BC), trans. Wheelwright.
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