Speaker Technology over the last 10 years

Quote Trelia[I have to say that putting trust into something that is designed and built by humans is a recipe for failure] We do this all day long. I would say putting trust into something souly designed by computers is a recipe for failure. I can wing out a loudspeaker design without any computer help and it will sound great. If I only use a computer it will sound like sh-t. I designed my new home without a computer at all its passive solar passive geothermal and works wonderful. Humans designed for far more years than we did on computers. I do agree crossover designs complicated and most dont understand. Look at all the folks moding crossovers without electrical testing results,just saying this brand sounds better than that brand;) pretty much proves your point.

I would say putting trust into something souly designed by computers is a recipe for failure.

This makes sense to me. Consider, for example, Totem, which makes a big deal of how their speakers are designed and tuned by ear, how they don't use the facilities of the big, government-supported acoustical research labs in Canada. Totem speakers are highly regarded for their musicality.

On the other hand, I remember when I first started following high-end audio in the 1980's how TAS and other high-end publications scoffed at the writing of Julian Hirsch and others whose reviews prominently features graphs and response curves, as if those measurements really told you all you needed to know about the quality of a speaker.

Rebbi, at the Rocky Mountain Audio Fest, Stereophile had a amp seminar which consisted of showing how sensitive to the load an unnamed amp was relative to the Boulder amp. The measure was THD. Everyone was asking technical questions as to how Boulder had done this. I asked whether the designer of the unnamed amp thought THD was all that went into an amp. Everyone was aghast that I would ask this. I followup by saying why are we not listening to these amps? I left the room.