Why Do Audio Engineers Use Different Speakers?

There are audio engineers who believe that audio cables make a huge difference just as there are audiophiles who share the same conviction.

Phil Traynor, the guitar engineer and main gear guy for David Gilmour, likes Van Den Hul cable, and has even rewired the ATC's on Astoria using this cable. He used around 23 Km of Van den Hul. Pink Floyd has used this "Astoria" studio for recording as did David on lhis last album and so have many others.

Here is a link to Pink Floyd studio

gentlemen:

i visited a recording studio in brooklyn, ny, several years ago. i witnessed a recording , and listened to the recording being played through monitor speakers.

the result: irritation without representation. i would not want to own one. i am not convinced of its flat frequency response. possibly the problem wa the rest of the components, or the recording itself.

I use Altec 604-8G studio monitors (1975) with a pair of McIntosh tube monos and to me they reproduce music very well. Very realistic to my ears. I guess that is why there are so many manufacturers of speakers. I believe a great deal of the music from the 50-70s were mastered using Altec 604. Since most of the music I enjoy is from that era, they just sound right to me. I can and do listen for hours.

I am no speaker expert, far from it actually. But I do know what sounds good to me and falls within my budget.

David Gilmour also uses Shunyata as do many other studios.

=> your friend is wrong about this point.

One question that comes to mind in this discussion is that if the engineer uses such different equipment/speakers (relative to an audiophile) & optimizes the sound based on very different speakers...then is it dumb luck (most likely not) that a recording sounds great on audiophile setups?

I'm in RDE in a different industry...in my world the base references you use for an optimization makes the optimal end-result somewhat unique. I.e. if I apply the optimal end result conditions to another base reference the new end result is less than optimal. I would espect the same to be true in the studio-monitor mix vs audiophile playback case. No?