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Big speakers, are they really the best way to get great sound?

Yesterday, I had the opportunity to listen to some very large speakers that are considered to be at, or close to, the pinnacle in speaker design and ability. Needless to say, the speakers retail in the mid to high $300k range. These speakers, and I will not be naming them, were sourced by about $800k of upstream gear. Room size was about thirty by twenty, maybe a little larger.
To say the the overall sound was BIG would be accurate, but also I noticed something else, that I typically hear with big speaker systems. Generally, the speakers were right on edge of overloading the room, depending on music, the dreaded bass boom could be heard. But, the whole presentation was greater in impact than most any smaller speaker system, yet it was almost unlistenable for the long term.

The question I asked myself, is do we really want this type of presentation in our home audio systems? The speakers threw a pretty large soundstage, but also made things sound somewhat larger than life. I also thought that this type of speaker is akin to the large box dynamic speakers of yesteryear. For example, a set of large horns from Altec Lansing or similar was reminiscent of this sound. Makes me believe that if one has a big room, a similar sound can be obtained from most any large speaker system and at a fraction of the price.

I listen in a very small room, and by necessity in the near field, yet I think the overall intimacy of this type of listening experience is better for me, your thoughts?

128x128daveyf
mahgister's avatar
mahgister
13,192 posts
 

Near field listening is generally spent with smaller speakers ...

I redesigned the porthole of my small speakers to go 50 hertz and when room acoustic is well done all is good at least for me ... Then it is not nearfield listening that matter but always acoustics , a box speaker is a resonator waiting to be tuned as much as any room wait to be tuned ... ......

But even with good room acoustic a small speakers set will not go 20 hertz clean for that we need a grid of subwoofers or at least one well coupled  and this is costlier 😊... I dont need that anyway ...music shine for me  ... My dream is very good S.Q. for peanuts ...

The only thing i need i hope this year , is what you have : the BACCH filters for my top headphone  ...

Near field matters but it isn’t an all or nothing proposition. It has pretty much no effect on bass

 

 

scottwheel
184 posts
 

Near field listening isn’t exclusive to small speakers. Depends more on the drivers and how they interact than the size of their he speakers. 

mahgister's avatar
mahgister
13,192 posts
 

For sure , i was using my Mission Cyrus in near listening and they were not small ...

But generally near listening is more frequent with small speakers ...

my point in my post was nevermind the room , nevermind the speakers size, acoustics matter first and last for me even in near listening field  ...

my posts were only an approval of yours by my own experience ... 😊

Near field listening isn’t exclusive to small speakers. Depends more on the drivers and how they interact than the size of their he speakers.

 

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nitewulf
425 posts
 

Ah, I see what you mean by large. No, I don’t think speakers of that scale are good for in home listening, great at clubs or bars that skew audiophile or large theaters. But indoors I still think largish speakers are better: more efficient, bigger woofers are deep and more dynamic.

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