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Are your speakers designed for your listening taste and hearing ability?

It occurs to me that speaker manufacturer’s and designers in many cases design their speaker ( and its subsequent sound) to the expected ’typical’ buyer. IME, a lot of high end speakers are designed to appeal to the consumer who has a certain amount of ’hearing loss’ due to age! This might sound odd, but I think that there are a lot of a’philes who have reached a certain age and have now two things going for them..1) A large enough wallet that the expense of the speaker isn’t really the issue and 2) a certain amount of high frequency hearing loss. This circumstance leads to designers and manufacturer’s bringing out speakers that are a) bright, b) inaccurate in their high frequency reproduction and c) not accurate in their reproduction across the frequency spectrum ( some may be tipped up in the highs, as an example). My impression is that a certain technology catches on--like the metal dome ( beryllium or titanium, as an example) and the manufacturer sees a certain public acceptance of this technology from the --shall we say-- less abled in the high frequency hearing dept, and the rest is as they say...history. Your thoughts?
128x128daveyf
mlsstl
1,438 posts
 
  One flaw in the logic of bright speakers adjusting for hearing loss is that the hearing loss is still present when listening to real sounds in the real world. That means, if a speaker's reproduction is intentionally made bright, it will no longer sound like live music. One may like a brighter sound, but it is still an artificial adjustment.

  Second, is the brain is capable of doing a marvelous job of compensating for the signal its sent by the ears. I'm in my late 60s and have hearing loss above 12K along with tinnitus, yet music sounds just as wonderful to me now as when I was much younger. I hear a lot of live acoustic music and want the sound I hear at home to match that a closely as possible. I don't need a speaker to "correct" anything for me.
erik_squires
16,133 posts
 
IME, a lot of high end speakers are designed to appeal to the consumer who has a certain amount of ’hearing loss’ due to age

Yes. This has been my point about Stereophile speaker darlings for years. Maybe it’s changed, but for a while the speakers they loved were absolute ear drills to me. You can find the explanation in the FR. My other possible explanation is purely financial.

See my recent thread here on the Dali Rubicon 8:

https://forum.audiogon.com/discussions/dali-rubicon-8-the-listener-matters/post?postid=1873074



. My impression is that a certain technology catches on--like the metal dome ( beryllium or titanium, as an example) and the manufacturer sees a certain public acceptance of this technology from the --shall we say-- less abled in the high frequency hearing dept, and the rest is as they say...history. Your thoughts?

I don’t see this tied together the same way, because the FR of the tweeter in respect to the other drivers is under the control of the crossover designer, and not all metal tweeters sound the same, or remain uncompensated for. I think the branding (Be for instance) is what’s really mattering here. One interesting thing I found about Stereophile was their darling speakers had the same ragged response in the mid-treble. Nearly identical, regardless of tweeter type.

See my blog here:

https://speakermakersjourney.blogspot.com/2016/05/stereophile-reviews-data-doesnt-lie.html

But also, finally, I don’t care if a speaker is neutral or not in terms of product quality. We don't buy lab gear. Buy what you like. Listen to what makes you happy, but don’t come to me with a nasty FR and call it neutral.

Also see the posting from Toole about how impossible it is to actually create and listen to neutral speakers.
audition__audio
1,500 posts
 
The real problem is when a speaker does something really extraordinary and most if not all other speakers fail in this capacity can you pick out the aberrant but superior speaker? 
verdantaudio's avatar
verdantaudio
1,500 posts
 
I have found there are a lot of “screaming tweeters” on the market.  One writer and photographer from a publication literally said they were relieved when they walked in my room at AXPONA.  

I am am not sure that it is hearing loss that leads manufacturers tube speakers so forward.  The reality is, to get more perceived detail in the sound profile manufacturers turn the volume on the tweeter up a bit.  It is less the type of tweeter and more the tubes profile.  I have heard smooth and amazing beryllium tweeters and others that make me want to take an ice pick to my ears.  Same with silk domes.  

You can deliver some amazing “wow” moments that will sound detailed and jaw dropping with the right tracks and hide the brutal forwardness that may be exposed with the wrong.  It is critical that whenever you evaluate a speaker you hear your music on it.  
erik_squires
16,133 posts
 
I have found there are a lot of “screaming tweeters” on the market.

@verdantaudio Oh yeah there are.

The reality is, to get more perceived detail in the sound profile manufacturers turn the volume on the tweeter up a bit.


From some careful examination, this is definitely one way speaker makers stand out. The other way is to make the mid-treble ragged, accentuating narrow bands. When you go from other speakers to the ragged, you go "Oh wow, I’m hearing things I never heard before!" even with the overall balance not as bright. The B&W and Golden Ear comparison in my blog post is a great illustrator of this phenomenon.
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