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It is becoming clear that even speaker manufacturers don't know the outside potential of their designs. They only work up the speakers with a set of components and cannot have a holistic understanding of the potential. Even dealers who make less systems don't know the outside parameters of performance. It's somewhat ignorant, then, to say one has maxed out the speaker's performance, because with consistency in system development a better sound WILL be forthcoming.

The comment is mine, after 13 years of reviewing and elevating performance of speakers. Though I am not going on record yet with extension of the thought, I suspect that it holds true also for components and cables.  :) 
douglas_schroeder
ieales's avatar
ieales
1,201 posts
 
Firstly, a lot of products are designed rather than engineered.

For example some loudspeakers have computer designed crossovers that take into account the dynamic and LRC parameters of the drivers. These designs are listener tweaked with multiple sets of electronics and cables. Others have 'cookbook' crossovers predicated only on the nominal driver R and receive minimal tweaking. Some of the these can be very good and achieve cult status simply because the designer got lucky.

OTOH, the engineered design could suffer from all manner of things beyond the engineers control: voice coil former, diaphragm, surround, capacitor, glue, gasket, laminate, etc. deterioration or a bad business model and simply fade away.

Some designs are so egregious as to be almost unlistenable but are still capable of resolving differences between preceding components and so, as they get better, the improvements are detected.

It is uncharitable to lay blame for one's inability to accurately predict the future
bondmanp
1,805 posts
 

Douglas - You make a good point. I have heard my own speakers demonstrated at shows and felt they didn’t sound nearly as good as they do in my own home with my front end gear. It’s all about synergy and set up. That said, I did have a pair of entry-level speakers from a well-known company. I owned them for nine years, and never really enjoyed them (I know: Why did I buy them? Because they were the best I could afford at the time.) I kept improving my source components, amplification components and wires. Yes there were some improvements, but in the end, I decided it would be cheaper to replace the speakers than end up with a $15,000 front end feeding a $1,000 pair of speakers. So, in a sense, the cost and effort of wringing out that speaker’s full potential was simply less appealing than the short cut of replacing the speakers, and ultimately saving time and money. I did so, and couldn’t be happier with the speakers I upgraded to. Eight years on, I have no desire to upgrade again.

I am sure you would agree that, properly set up, a top of the line pair of, let’s say, Focals, will out-perform a properly fed and set up pair of sub-$1000 Elacs, for example, no matter how much is spent on the electronics or how much effort goes into proper positioning and room treatments.

jayctoy's avatar
jayctoy
3,994 posts
 
Bondmanp +1, Doug I don’t think Luis from Omega is aware , how good is the rs8 , bought from him, The moment I got a Gumby Dac for his speakers, the Omega was transform from good , to amazingly superb...I agree with you...
tomcarr
1,490 posts
 
Excellent post douglas_schroeder!
douglas_schroeder OP
3,281 posts
 

Likely, many speakers which did not impress us initially could become quite desirable if we had the capacity to work with them, to alter the system several times. It's tough to get an absolute read on a speaker - or any other component - from one listen or one system. But, I can. ;)

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