Your Side by Side Experience With Best Vintage vs Newer Expensive Hi Tech Speakers


Has anyone here ever done a side by side comparison between Tannoy Autograph, Bozak Concert Hall Grand, EV Patrician, Jensen Imperial Triaxial, Goodmans, Stentorian, Western Electric, Altec A4, Jbl Everest/Hartsfield/Summit/Paragon/4435, Tannoy Westminsters, Klipschorns vs the Hundreds of Thousand even Million Dollar speakers of today like Totems, Sonus Farber, BW, Cabasse, Wilsons, Dmt, Infinity, Polk ...etc
vinny55

Hi Eddy

I don’t think your long winded at all. I don’t know why some of these posts are so short lol.

In my studio, and up in the tunable studio I designed at SUNY, I use to give a demo to my classes that went like this. I would take one of the rooms and tune it up. The musician (we did this with a lot of different instruments) would then go into the room and tune his or her instrument in that room. In another room a few feet away I had it out of tune. I would have the musician then walk into the out of tune room and their instrument would go out of tune. I even did this in the bigger studio/hall. I would go through and tune up one half of the room, leaving the other half out of tune. Then I would have a student tap on his drum (tuned of course) they would walk from one side of the room to the other and you would hear the drum go out of pitch as soon as they got into the out of tune space and then back in tune when they walked and played back into the tuned area. This particular demo was pretty wild cause in this big room it was only a matter of maybe a foot from tuned to out of tune.

Here’s another cool one.

When I was doing some work with Slum Village in the Sound Lounge, folks would come by and we would do some interviews. One day Bubby Webb and a few others did a cool demo, I think it was for VH1. They had Mel (great singer) sing on the regular floor just off the main stage area. While she was singing she stood up on one of my vocal platforms, and you could hear her voice instantly jump into her chest. She would get on and off that platform while singing. Needless to say the TV guy freaked out. He called it a trick, then we had him do the same thing.

What type of guitars do you have?

yep the Tunable Speakers are pretty cool

I did a show in Frankfurt years ago. Dave’s speakers were in the room next to me, it was when I first came out with the Chameleon. About half way through the show I decided to do something interesting. I got the same recording Wilson was playing, and I told a bunch of guys I could tune my speaker to sound like the Wilson’s. Of course that got folks going. So I went over and listened in their room for a while, and then came over to my room and tuned them up as close as I could. I sold 15 pair that day. It was so fun that I did the same thing in Denmark. Only this time had B&W in the room next to me. B&W didn’t like it I don’t think. The Wilson gang is always cool. Dave’s got style.

Michael Green

www.michaelgreenaudio.net

Very interesting Michael. It would be cool to experience this first hand, and you're absolutely right about Dave (and Daryl, and all the others at Wilson I've had the pleasure of speaking with) They are classy folks, and always "there" for the customer. Just like all the good people at Bryston up here in Canada. As for the guitars, just way too many to list, although my only acoustic is a Martin D-45


Cheers

Vinny sorry if I’m getting off topic a little.

Eddy, you asked

"I’m also curious about your drivers being tuned to the cabinet, AND the room. So, if a potential customer were to purchase your speakers, how do you determine the correct tuning methodology for that individuals room?"

mg

Well, it depends how deep into tuning that guy or gal wants to go. Some folks get some of my stuff and use it to tune with, and some will even go as far as have me build or design a Tunable Room for them. I’m doing two rooms right now. My method comes with all the tools a person needs to make their sound how ever they want (within reason). There are some incredibly different ears out there. I have a forum where I help them get to that place. For some it’s pretty easy and for others it’s tough going, until they get the hang of things. I also do a lot of systems where the listener has their favorite components and I try to help them get the system to work well together. It takes a lot of getting to know the person cause it’s not my sound we’re going after it’s theirs. There are reviews about this when I use to go around and do the reviewers. One cool one you can look up is one I did with Bob Hodas for Widescreen review. That was kind of fun because he was tuning with his computer and I was there with my toys.

If you go to my website you will see a lot more obviously. There are a lot of variables in recording and through the playback stage as you know. What I’ve tried to do is make a tunable product (products) that gives the listener enough flexibility as it takes, if not I will design something custom for them. It’s a cool gig. Deciding what is correct is a big question in this hobby because the typical system setup only plays about 10% of the recorded code. That leaves a lot of recording to open up. One of the first things folks will mention as they start tuning is how big the soundstage gets. I mean we’re talking in some cases of the stage tripling over night. Once I get that stage open I start working with the listener to help them focus things in to a comfortable place for them. Then after they’ve been tuning for a while I show them how to make adjustments from recording to recording. It’s really up to how far they want to go, and how much adjusting they want to do.

I ask about the guitars cause I love to visit with luthiers. I spend a lot of time with instrument builders.

Michael Green

www.michaelgreenaudio.net

Michael, I think you may have misunderstood my question.

You state: "I tune my drivers to my cabinet, and to whatever room they get used in"

If a customer want's your speakers, how is it possible to "tune" the drivers, as you state, to an unknown room?

Also, I'm not clear about what you are referencing in respect to "coding"


Cheers

@vinny55 you bring up an excellent point on the Scott amplifiers.

We’ve seen example after example over the years of well-meaning techs going through a vintage component, and replacing the carbon composition resistors with modern, stable, reliable, tighter tolerance parts leaving the owner feeling utterly disappointed with what they wind up with. Fortunately, so many have come to the realization that despite all their shortcomings, for the owner of a vintage piece, in order to maintain its original character it’s best to use the same sort of parts they were built with.

As for modern audiophile components, unlike the guitar world, unless someone truly aims for that sort of vintage sound and feel, I don’t see any reason one would consider carbon composition resistors.

I’m less dogmatic in terms of brands of each type of resistor, as they obviously vary to a far smaller degree than moving from type to type. There’s a truly excellent thread in the "Tech Talk" section on this topic, though it focuses on folks experience with the nth degree in chasing the best of the best, and until one reaches that high a plane, they don’t need to look beyond the mainstream products offered by the major sellers. However, you may find it curious that excellent film resistors from the likes of Vishay, Dale, CTC, etc. can cost a few cents where carbon composition resistors could cost a buck or three.

There are a few notable people attached to each product or manufacturer of vintage gear.  If I were you or your friend needing my vintage component gone over, I would seek out the forums dedicated to that particular product, as those individuals will surely show up there or get talked up by the devotees.  As an aside, if you feel at all comfortable working around these things, I encourage you to become your own tech.  That's the way you really maximize what you have, as you will become intimately knowledgeable about it by the combination of finding a group of people who also are on the journey with the component and eager to share their experiences and perspectives and lessons learned, and actually putting your head down and working through the piece yourself, not to mention also being the cheapest way