2. speakers
  3. 160326-17271

Are my standards too high?

Dear Gang,

I have heard a number of box speakers and only the cream of the crop are just about tolerable. In other words there is nothing out there that can truly impress me regardless of price. 

The KEF LS50 is a state of the art world class loudspeaker. It has won multiple awards and is used by John himself. A few years ago I decided to go and listen to a pair to see what the fuss was about. They were not setup perfectly but there was no bass. All i could hear was typical uneven ported bass response. The highs were a bit bright and off axis response was uneven. Horrible. I then got a chance to hear the kef Ref ones which were supposed to be the finest speaker that could be made by mankind. They failed to impress me. No bass at all. Then i heard the blades and finally i heard proper bass below 40hz. But the blades were not perfect either. And given their cost they should have been perfect. They didnt sound very refined. Imaging was a bit average. 

Gang, I have come to the realization that either most speakers out there are a hoax (overpriced and overrated) OR my standards are simply so high that the worlds finest 'peaker engineers cannot produce anything that can satisfy my perfect standards. 

The only answer to this riddle is to train audiophiles to understand that the speakers currently on the market are substandard goods.We need to also attract better quality minds to the world of speaker design and weed out the people that dont know what theyre doing. There are obviously some people who are better at doing things than others. Am I right? If we can get rid of the worst speaker designers out there and replace them with superior designers, then we will end up with much better speakers on the market for us to enjoy. Its a win win
kenjit
tuberculin
81 posts
 
Speaking of trolls, where is @millercarbon?
atmasphere's avatar
atmasphere
11,787 posts
 
Folks, last time the OP did this, his entire thread was removed. That was a good thing. Since he is clearly trolling, all you have to do is report this activity to the moderators. The 'Report this' text appears at the bottom right of any post including the OP; hover the mouse there and click on it, then select 'other' and in the text box explain that the opening post is trolling. If we all do that maybe this thread will go away.
cd318
2,636 posts
 
@bluemoodriver,

"Whatever - you do really think that you can buy a speaker which will make your bedroom sound like that?"

"Audio at home is an illusion, but at least it is one where you get shape your delusions."


That’s a hugely relevant point since hardly anyone talks about the limitations (or expectations) of audio playback. The usual mantra is that every new product is wonderful, much better than the previous one. All you need to do is to keep on upgrading, blah, blah, blah..

I think some folks will inevitably drift into serious audio from the world of Walmart / Bluetooth systems etc without any real idea of what is or is not actually possible.

Their initial expectations may or may not meet with disappointment many years and many dollars later upon discovering what is actually possible by domestic audio, at any price.

So to entirely avoid this dilemma it’s a great idea to listen to what are considered the best systems currently available and see if they work for you.

If they don’t, then although it’s not impossible, it’s unlikely that anything else will either.

At least the OP has managed to listen to both the KEF LS50s and the Blades and whilst his opinions might be shared by some, others might feel different, ie they are both awesome designs pushing the sonic envelope at their price points.

Giving the OP the benefit of the doubt, it could simply be that his views are a reflection of the difference between comparing against an absolute sonic ideal or merely comparing against the existing competition.

It’s quite clear by now that he’s dissatisfied with most of what is currently available. Maybe, just maybe he really does believe he is on some evangelical mission to raise the prevalent sonic standards of domestic audio playback?

If so, then long may he continue.
More to discover