Speaker Pricing and Reviews

On one hand,can you blame a speaker mfg.for making something that will sound good to the end user?? 
On the other hand,should they charge $100k for those speakers??
  It appears that some speaker mfg's have hired audiologists instead of engineers. 

No, not at all, but it's a lot cheaper to buy a nanoDIGI to alter the FR for $170to match your hearing loss than to buy a speaker for tens of thousands of dollars. :)

It's also not nearly neutral, so don't sell it to me as such.

Best,

Erik

Hi Erik. Frankly I do not believe those articles, especially the hearing aid BS. Besides, this is the reason the stereophile review is simply one of many other professional and non-professional reviews. Are hearing aids involved in every case? 

gdhal,

What I don't believe is that a speaker as non-neutral as the B&W 802's or Golden Ears are being touted as the best available.

As other critics have written, my ears hurt from listening to treble boosted that much. So, either the speakers are making the reviewers feel like they have the ears of a teenager, or something else is going on.

I also don't believe the Golden Ear curve just happens to match perfectly with the B&W curves. It's not possible with such completely different technologies. I'm not the most knowledgable speaker maker out there, but you'd have a tough time convincing me this was all coincidental.

So, I don't have proof, but I also don't think they are being objective.  At best, what I would say is that if B&W managed to convince so many that their speakers were a neutral reference (objectively, they are not) then maybe they set the standard that is being measured by.  They set the fashion if you will, and reviewers, knowingly or not, are basing their tastes on that.

Best,


Erik

I wanted to post something else. I make really neutral measuring and low distortion speakers. I don't sell any but my designs are free and on my blog. One thing I've noticed, is that music lovers love my speakers, and when they listen they want to try out all sorts of different music. Card carrying audiophiles do not. I wonder if this isn't the audiophiles becoming acclimated to a type of sound?

Also, one thing I can tell you  is that reviewers often fall for "discerning" speakers. I've analyzed crossovers from a couple of famous brands, and guess what? They deliberately have very low impedance around the midbass to bass region. In on case, clipping off the offending circuit produces zero frequency changes, but raises the minimum impedance by about an ohm and a half.

So, my point? It's that altering speakers to make them appeal to audiophiles is a very different thing than making speakers which are the best sounding. :)

Best,


Erik