My taste in speakers is unchanged from age 25 to 60+.
Bet you still like the same beer too. :-)
Are your speakers designed for your listening taste and hearing ability?
It occurs to me that speaker manufacturer’s and designers in many cases design their speaker ( and its subsequent sound) to the expected ’typical’ buyer. IME, a lot of high end speakers are designed to appeal to the consumer who has a certain amount of ’hearing loss’ due to age! This might sound odd, but I think that there are a lot of a’philes who have reached a certain age and have now two things going for them..1) A large enough wallet that the expense of the speaker isn’t really the issue and 2) a certain amount of high frequency hearing loss. This circumstance leads to designers and manufacturer’s bringing out speakers that are a) bright, b) inaccurate in their high frequency reproduction and c) not accurate in their reproduction across the frequency spectrum ( some may be tipped up in the highs, as an example). My impression is that a certain technology catches on--like the metal dome ( beryllium or titanium, as an example) and the manufacturer sees a certain public acceptance of this technology from the --shall we say-- less abled in the high frequency hearing dept, and the rest is as they say...history. Your thoughts?
Showing 6 responses by erik_squires
I’m sorry, Kenjit, but you fail to understand that my standard for discussing fact based issues is very high. You make up so many I can’t possibly talk to you. Remember you spent an entire thread arguing that science and engineering did not matter? Now you claim to have knowledge about what designers think or say. In fact, that's your whole shtick, making up things about speaker makers, designers and science. No, no. Go play flat earth with your friends. |
Thats what nigel thinks but the other possibility is that the measurements are all wrong and so is his interpretation of them. Please tell us everything you know about interpreting data badly, Kenjit. What you fail to understand is that my standard for bad data interpretation is very low, and you are among the best there is. Not only do you interpret data badly, but just when the world thinks you might be onto something you contradict something you said five minutes before. I mean, wow. The ability you have to be in my grill while constantly changing your point of view is a feat of shameless mental aerobics that is a site to behold. |
I have found there are a lot of “screaming tweeters” on the market. @verdantaudio Oh yeah there are. The reality is, to get more perceived detail in the sound profile manufacturers turn the volume on the tweeter up a bit. From some careful examination, this is definitely one way speaker makers stand out. The other way is to make the mid-treble ragged, accentuating narrow bands. When you go from other speakers to the ragged, you go "Oh wow, I’m hearing things I never heard before!" even with the overall balance not as bright. The B&W and Golden Ear comparison in my blog post is a great illustrator of this phenomenon. |
IME, a lot of high end speakers are designed to appeal to the consumer who has a certain amount of ’hearing loss’ due to age Yes. This has been my point about Stereophile speaker darlings for years. Maybe it’s changed, but for a while the speakers they loved were absolute ear drills to me. You can find the explanation in the FR. My other possible explanation is purely financial. See my recent thread here on the Dali Rubicon 8: https://forum.audiogon.com/discussions/dali-rubicon-8-the-listener-matters/post?postid=1873074
I don’t see this tied together the same way, because the FR of the tweeter in respect to the other drivers is under the control of the crossover designer, and not all metal tweeters sound the same, or remain uncompensated for. I think the branding (Be for instance) is what’s really mattering here. One interesting thing I found about Stereophile was their darling speakers had the same ragged response in the mid-treble. Nearly identical, regardless of tweeter type. See my blog here: https://speakermakersjourney.blogspot.com/2016/05/stereophile-reviews-data-doesnt-lie.html But also, finally, I don’t care if a speaker is neutral or not in terms of product quality. We don't buy lab gear. Buy what you like. Listen to what makes you happy, but don’t come to me with a nasty FR and call it neutral. Also see the posting from Toole about how impossible it is to actually create and listen to neutral speakers. |