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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
erik_squires
16,465 posts
 
Thats what nigel thinks but the other possibility is that the measurements are all wrong and so is his interpretation of them.


Please tell us everything you know about interpreting data badly, Kenjit. What you fail to understand is that my standard for bad data interpretation is very low, and you are among the best there is.  Not only do you interpret data badly, but just when the world thinks you might be onto something you contradict something you said five minutes before. I mean, wow. The ability you have to be in my grill while constantly changing your point of view is a feat of shameless mental aerobics that is a site to behold.
kenjit
1,771 posts
 
Most designers admit that the correlation between measurements and sound quality is tenuous. But Nigel you seem to think that the correlation is perfect. You correlate every tiny difference that people claim to hear with a simplified on axis response curve. Thats where you're mistaken. 
bkeske's avatar
bkeske
5,597 posts
 
As a 62 year old, in the past couple years I replaced my old ‘bright’ and ‘ear fatiguing’ speakers for Vandersteen 1C’s then almost immediately a pair of 2CE Sigs (have both still). Most say these Vandersteen’s are ‘dull‘, ‘warm’, and sound like they ‘have a blanket over them’. They sound good to me, and what I want my music to sound like vs the previous, especially in their tonal qualities. And, they have metal dome tweeters, so, go figure. I can listen to them for hours on end, and do.

if I purchase new speakers, I will want the same qualities as the Vandy’s but better and more of it. But if someone tells me a speaker is ‘bright’, I discount them right away; not to my taste.

I have to agree more with the above, newer music is compressed and recorded bright and ‘hot’, is often played back on ‘high tilted’ speakers, and is loved by most much younger than me. So, I doubt that is happening because audiophiles are old and their hearing is compromised, I doubt many listen to those types of recordings. I very rarely if ever do.
erik_squires
16,465 posts
 
I’m sorry, Kenjit, but you fail to understand that my standard for discussing fact based issues is very high. You make up so many I can’t possibly talk to you.

Remember you spent an entire thread arguing that science and engineering did not matter? Now you claim to have knowledge about what designers think or say. In fact, that's your whole shtick, making up things about speaker makers, designers and science.

No, no. Go play flat earth with your friends.
dave1980
70 posts
 
Millercarbon, love your posts but Klipsch in the Fortune 500?
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