Do Physicists Or Musicians Design Better Speakers?

Evita,

I would agree that we're only speaking in theoretical absolutes, and would also say that the question itself begs an intelligent answer, but what the hell, its a slow day! :-)

"...fulfillment upon the design, musicality, or some combination of the two." I'm not sure what this means.

IMHO audio(philedom) is all about making equipment that succeeds at being able to replicate the sound of a 'live event' as determined by the recording engineer, in ones home.

The 'live event' is always determined by the recording engineer. For example, in the case of large orchestral programs, will it sound as if it were heard from row A, or Row H (etc) in the center (natural sound as it represents what you would hear as an audience member such as more hall resonance, deeper bass perhaps, more blending of instruments, flatter soundstage; or, will sound as if you were on it be the podium (great soundstaging effect); or, god forbid, there will be so much multimiking that it sounds like its coming from everywhere with each instrumented spotlighted. Ugh! He will also determine how much compression is needed because the dynamic's might well exceed the users equipment, and the list goes on.

The point is that none of the considerations of the recording engineer have anything to do with experience gained by virtue of being a musician, with the exception of his experience listening to live instruments gives him a leg up on being able to more closely replicate the sound of a live instrument, or performing group, in a recording.

None of the experience of a recording engineer, nor experience as a musician, is necessary for one to construct the equipment necessary to play recordings in the home. All one needs is the technical electrical expertise and craftsmanship necessary to make the devises and the 'good ears' to recognize when they have reached their goals. If they have reached their goals and you have the ability to set up the equipment to operate at its optimum, the only 'musicality' involved is in the pits or grooves. JMHO.

The 'live event' is always determined by the recording engineer.

With the input of the musicians, and this person is usually a musician him/herself. My husband played professionally for over ten years. I've seen the process at work.

It depends on what one considers "better".

From one group's perspective, the purpose of a speaker is to reproduce the signal it receives as accurately as possible. I would think that a physicist would be better qualified than a musician to take on this task.

The there is the group who believe that a speaker must be "voiced" in order to sound "good". A musician might be more likely to design a speaker that suits this group's needs.

the subtle nuances and overtones of certain acoustical instruments are hard to replicate correctly

a musician with a fine tuned ear can hear these things and know when a speaker doesn't measure up

but I find a lot of musicians literally hear the note and focus more on the musical note (was that g or a flat) than the tonal qualities

a lot of musicians have crap audiophile systems

personally I'd want a physics major who really loves music designing things

a musician friend of mine who taught me a great deal about jazz back in art school 25 yrs. ago, had a really cheapo stereo system with "crazy eddie" speakers - believe it or not.. really bad speakers.. his table was'nt too bad, a B&O. Whenever I suggested getting better speakers or amp, he replied to the effect that as long as he was getting just a basic reproduction he did not care to improve upon that.. frankly all the musicians I've known since then have mostly had the same opinion.. their stereo's are basic and they don't care for better.