Speakers Women Like

My live-in girlfriend at the time was head over heels for Focal and then we heard Vandersteen 5As and those are the ones I bought.  She loved them as much as I did/do.  "My girlfriend's not here any more but my Vandy's are". 

Vivid Giya 

Don,

I don't have invisible speakers and all the ladies who've listened love them.  Honestly I think lots has to do with the quality of the speakers. My audiophile friends don't love my speakers that much either, but music producing friends do. There's something going on about sound quality, women's hearing and audiophile trends.

In the case of size though, I'm with the women.  We all dream of palatial listening rooms, but little annoys me more than seeing guys put two giant speakers at the end of what looks like a shoe closet.  I mean, come on! Live within your means. :)  The only thing that annoys me more is Michael Fremer complaining about his room not having deep bass and not doing anything about it.  Boom. ;-)

Also, I rend in modest spaces.  Not tiny, but speakers for me are going to have to be small foot print, and small space speakers. If a speaker needs 5' on either side to sound good it's not going to be for me.

Best,


Erik

Not sure if this fits, but as a live sound mixer working mostly "folkie" and jazz shows, I've noticed that many successful professional female performers (as compared to novice musicians performing as opening acts) are much more concerned than most male performers about the technical aspects of getting the sound to conform to their standards…which I really enjoy because it's refreshing. Often I've had women call out specific frequency tweaks from the stage during sound check, and I've learned over the years to anticipate monitor settings that appeal to more female performers…yeah, I can learn things! (amazingly)…not all successful musicians are technically savvy enough to ever care much about this stuff, and that's fine with me, but I give props to performers who DO care as well as ones who leave it all up to me. It's interesting that musicians I end up working with multiple times do tend to leave things up to me eventually as they assume I know what I'm doing (ha…fooled 'em again).

I've been a music lover since I was a kid. Wrote my first song after getting a portable reel to reel tape player for Christmas when I was about 8 (but tore it apart soon afterward trying to find out how it worked).  As a teenager I installed a cassette deck in my Daddy's Caddy with the help of a fellow highschool friend (who years later ended up being my husband).  I spent my first tax refund on a Pioneer Stereo Cassette Recorder and kept it until it died after my 2nd son was born.  My husband was the first one to spend serious money for a stereo amp and turntable (he bought these before we had our first child and we still have them today-kids, amp and turntable).  Today I'm the more serious listener.  My speakers are Monitor Audio's (which I'd never claim to be the best but they sound awfully good to my ears).  One day I may trade them in for a pair of Thiel's or Focal Aria's. I don't like bright colored or odd shaped speakers. I've contemplated Maggies, but my room isn't big enough.  I recently bought a tall cylindrical SVS subwoofer after my HSU quit working. I can't imagine any music (not even classical) without tight, accurate, visceral bass.  My 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th pair of headphones were Sennheiser's (the last 2 pair 650 and 800).  I tried Audeze and Grado too but finally found my music soul mate, Hifiman HE-6.  Weirdo me, I listen without earpads and they sound fantastic!  I don't know any other people who care about the quality of music as much as I do. I listen to many different genre's (jazz, R&B, contemporary and traditional gospel, Celtic, Native American, classical, country, pop, rock, electronica, new age, trip hop, soundtracks, Gospel Rap, and I have an expansive Christmas collection that covers almost all these genre styles). Individualism and individual choices. I think that's what it all boils down to.