Which speakers did you find bright, fatiguing or just disappointing in some way?


OK, controversial subject but it needs asked. I'm curious for your experiences, mainly in your home, not a dealer and esp. not a show demo
greg7
I have owned a pair of Klipsch RP-5000 and I have auditioned the Forte IIIs. I found them both to be hard to listen to for long periods of time. The La Scalas I auditioned had a nice airy sound to them, but the sound stage and imaging were lacking. Many people say that Focals are bright. I have not found this to be true. I can listen to my Aria 936s all day and they never annoy. I power them with a Hegel H390 and use a Audiolab 6000CDT transport played through the Hegel DAC.
Speakers I have owned:
Infinity Kappa 7    Klipsch RP-5000     KLH Kendall      Focal Aria 936
Focal Aria. Lacquer finish had orange peel to it. Detail in speakers were great, but the range of the speaker didn't seem to come together. A lack of unity between frequency. 
I recently home auditioned the highly lauded KEF LS50 Meta with McIntosh solid state and hybrid amplification. They were listenable but didn’t wow me. They lacked high-end presence and the sound was just kinda boring. Perhaps because I’m used to them, but I much preferred my old DefTech SM-450s in my smallish room.
@bdgregory 

I heard what I heard, and have no reason to make it up. Not sure why you think my claim dubious.


I didn't suggest that you made up the claim. I simply found it odd, given both my experience, and the relative lack of similar opinions from other owners whose feedback I have read.
How can someone can passed a judgement on any speakers in an uncontrolled and untreated room?

This the the proof almost no one lived through an acoustic room transformation...

A too warmish, too low centered speakers cannot be elevated to the "lark ascending highs" for sure; in this case if they are perhaps not bad but really are not so good speakers....

But a too harsh, too cold and too detailed speakers with fatiguing highs is most of the times the results of an undercontrolled or undertreated room...I already detected many times horrible unnnatural harsh sound coming from the costlier speakers it seems...No way that was the room unbeknownst to the listener boasting about them....

It is easy to put a fatiguing speaker on the other end of the spectrum if it is not a design defect....Most very costly speakers are not defect design....For sure little box speakers with no bass are fatiguing without redemption... But Focal speakers need a room for example we cannot fault the design....

Then most really should put their critic with more caution....

"Taste" is the audio word signifying most of the times i dont know what i speak about...



A natural timbre instrumental sound coming from some speakers are always what musicians and true audiophiles wanted and it has nothing to do with "taste".... It is always a relatively "objective-subjective" experience with the musicians in an orchestra and more of a consensus among them and an habit than a particular "taste"....It is a "learned" experience all along their musical life.... Not a taste....