full-scale orchestral music—best test of speakers’ potential?


Here’s a general observation made after visiting many rooms and listening to many loudspeakers at CAF: full-scale orchestral music, i.e. recordings of large symphony orchestras, provide the most demanding test of a speaker’s abilities.  I’d argue this for two reasons.

1. Audio systems attempt to create a simulacrum of an acoustic event in your living room.  That original event may have occurred in a tiny jazz club or a huge arena, and everything in between.  That is to say, the space in which it occurred may be very similar in size to your listening room, or it may be very different.  Given the size, on stage, of a full orchestra, and given the size of the auditoriums where they play, it’s very challenging for a system to reproduce the impression of that size in your living room—none are perfect, but some are better than others in providing the right kinds of cues.

2. Another variable here is that the music played may have been acoustic or electronically amplified.  Recordings of acoustic instruments and voice remove one extra step in the long chain of reproduction: we know pretty much what a violin should sound like, but what should a certain Gibson guitar through a certain Peavey amp sound like?

Massed violins playing fortissimo are the most stringent test of a speaker’s treble range.  In room after room, I heard rock, pop, jazz, blues, folk, etc. etc. reproduced really very beautifully, but often when an orchestral piece came on, it could sound harsh, steely, astringent, nails on chalkboard.  The fault of the recording, you say.  But a few speakers (I’m not naming names, to avoid that kind of argument), didn’t do that, and sailed through the test.

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The number of variables that go into a sysyem are auch that I do not care if symphonic music is the hardest test as I have other listening preferences. 

For me, having Eva Cassidy sound like she is singing in my room is sufficient.  And the same with some of the Jazz I listen to.

I have listened to the Allman Bros Band “Live at the Fillmore” at least 4,000 times and know every nuance and know what it should sound like, given the many syatems I have heard it on.

The point being, if it sounds good on your system such that you are content, what other music sounds like is irrelevant.

Yes, there is always better gear, but at what price?  Marginal cost versus marginal gain, and most of us have a financial constraint.

@Ihasaguy In other words, you're willing to settle for good enough, rather than great.

My point remains, that if you optimize your system for full-scale orchestral, it's a pretty sure bet that your Eva Cassidy or Allman Bros. will sound great too. 

IMO it is the source that lets the sound become separate.  So the speaker while is has something to do with it, if the source cannot separate the instruments, then the speaker won't do a great job.

@Ihasaguy,

Just wanted to know if you play the guitar since you mentioned the Allman Brothers Live at the Filmore.
Happy Listening.