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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?
daveyf
daveyf's avatar
daveyf OP
3,086 posts
 
@larry5729  Nice post. Agree 100%. The most important thing when shopping for speakers is to have a home trial...if at all possible, IMHO. The speaker has to have synergy not just with your upstream gear, but also your room. 
I also agree that dialing in two subs is very tricky...and quite time consuming. The way you describe the set up is about how I ended up as well, although I have dialed my subs back even more than 40%...they are about 25% up on the volume dial....but then I also have a very small room.
ianrodger
164 posts
 
Interesting OP and replies.
IME when you factor in the source equipment chain, room acoustics and media recording quality, all speakers can/will sound different.
I have never been happier with my system than now, simply after having moved it into a different room which is smaller, more regularly shaped, has a concrete floor and came with curtains covering the sliding glass doors.

The previous much larger multi-purpose listening room had wooden floors, a raked ceiling, uncovered glass bi-fold doors for the view and compromised corners but was where I had to be due to family reasons. Kids moving out freed up what used to be the rumpus room.
Now I find the soundstage more credible, the treble is less harsh and the bass improved dramatically.
Speakers are vintage Klipschorns.
duckworp's avatar
duckworp
262 posts
 
@daveyf I think you may have young ears.  As you get older you do lose the upper frequencies, but until you get very old (80+) you will, on average, have all the main frequencies for music in tact bar the odd splashy cymbal. 
But what a lot of over 50s start to get is a greater sensitivity to upper frequencies, sounds around 2khz and up.  So older ears often do not like bright sounding speakers. They hurt us. 
asvjerry's avatar
asvjerry
5,104 posts
 
@duckworp, then I will consider myself relatively lucky. *S*  At 68+, I have 'rolled off' a bit but still have a taste for the 'brighter side' of speakers...
I do 'roll up' the 'top end' with EQ, but still keeping the space basically 'flat'.  As much as practical with that in mind, but not creating a 'top' slope that heads for the clouds.  I'm happy about all this, since my 'take' on the 'hobby' includes DIY.....a lot.
But that''s my situation....*G*  Fortunately, most music doesn't include hf that etches glass..yet... ;)
wasclywabbit
14 posts
 
I'm 65+ and recently did some upgrades. No question my hearing ain't what it used to be and it occurred to this is last system I'll want or need. Speakers first. Bose Acoustimass SE 5s to Difinitve Technology Mythos Gem XL's and a DT ProSub 800. The other was finding a vintage Tannoy Micro with a Stanton 681EE. Can I hear the difference? You bet! It's almost like my hearing's improved. I'm going to weight in here on the notion that we stop hearing the difference between mediocre and outstanding. It's a lot of BS and I'm here to bear witness.
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