2. speakers
  3. 183355-20253

We should reject hard-to-drive speakers more often

Sorry I know this is a bit of a rant, but come on people!!

Too many audiophiles find speakers which are hard to drive and... stick with them!

We need to reject hard-to-drive speakers as being Hi-Fi. Too many of us want our speakers to be as demanding as we are with a glass of wine. "Oh, this speaker sounds great with any amplifier, but this one needs amps that weigh more than my car, so these speakers MUST sound better..."

Speakers which may be discerning of amplifier current delivery are not necessarily any good at all at playing actual music. 

That is all.

erik_squires
jl35
4,088 posts
 

we buy ESL speakers because we like how they sound, realizing we need the right amp...

secretguy
1,771 posts
 
mrdecibel

2,746 posts

 

@bdp24 I have no idea what was said by kenjit, as I pass him over when reading

You're a smart man.

 

invalid
1,251 posts
 

I don't think ESL's are the only loudspeakers that don't suffer from thermal compression, what about full range panel speakers like apogees?

atmasphere's avatar
atmasphere
11,977 posts
 

I don't think ESL's are the only loudspeakers that don't suffer from thermal compression, what about full range panel speakers like apogees?

Apogees have a voice coil and so thermal compression is possible.

phusis's avatar
phusis
1,228 posts
 

@atmasphere wrote:

The signal itself is the source of dynamic contrast. Loudspeakers only take away from that; if you value dynamic contrast, using a speaker that has the least thermal compression will bring you closer to your goal. In this light, ESLs have the least thermal compression owing to no voice coil at all; a close runner up is higher efficiency loudspeakers [...]

Which only gets you so far being ESL's have the lesser macro-dynamic range compared to horns/high efficiency designs, unless extremely (unrealistically?) large and rid of bass signals. Before thermal compression would ever become an issue with horns, other potential factors like horn material resonance and truncated horn size in the midbass horn in particular would be the primary concerns. While ESL's don't compress per se - and as such some of their implementations can have an advantage over low eff. direct radiating, dynamic driver designs - it's well known that when they limit out they do so abruptly, not least when applied full-range. 

More to discover