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Speaker appearance verses musicality.

Every one of the hi end speakers has a great finish on the outside. Some like a car finish others like fine furniture stains. There are some beautiful speakers out there but at what cost to the quality of sound? To approach the very best attainable sound shouldnt the speakers be covered with acoustic dampning material? Maybe so you could take it off in pieces to tailor your sound. DJ speakers and car subwoofers are covered. One reason maybe it wont show scratches like wood. Has anyone ever tried enveloping their whole speaker except for the drivers? I have a top firing speaker with 3 drivers on top and I cut out some auto acoustic damping material for the top and it smoothed out the sound along with a pair of Grado earphone replacement pads attacthed to my front firing tweeters. I attached them with double sided tape. Looks nice except my front grill wont fit. The top grill fits. Clarity of bells and cymbels was enhanced. Here is my point. Or question. Has anyone wrapped their whole speaker in acoustic carpeting or foam. OK I know it might sound ridiculus. But shouldnt room tuning start with the speakers? How much impact would a dampened speaker have? Ive only tried a little of the way. Anybody done their whole speaker and what results did they get? Not many people would chance ruining their finish or resale price. I guess it would be room dependent on how much you would get out of it. Oh, that tweeter tweek was in Stereophile several months ago. The writer puts foam around his tweeters and he said manufactures are reluctant to do so because of attractiveness. He believed in that tweek. I do know Signet speakers had foam cut out like a star around their tweeters. B&W places their tweeter on top away from the encloser! Mike
128x128blueranger
dcrugby
96 posts
 
just be sure you keep the box that the foam came in, your wife will need packing materials when she moves out.

or you could send me the box, my wife mainly hates cables, and those boxes aren't really big enough for most of her things.

seriously, though, i know some speakers are insulated like that internally. green mountain used to put felt (or something like it) around many of their drivers, if i'm not mistaken.

then there are speakers like gallo and vandersteen (ones like the 2c) that take different paths to trying to eliminate resonance...
unsound
7,329 posts
 
Glad you brought this up. I've been wondering about the same thing for years. If I ever (doubtful) build my own speakers, I think this is the approach I'll take. I think it would be a lot easier, less expensive and sound better.
trelja
3,223 posts
 
Shadorne, "My guess is that, for the most part, appearance is at least 50% of the buyer's decision. This hobby is not purely about sound quality."

It's obviously still very early in the year, but in my opinion, this will win the "Audiogon Understatement Of The Year Award" for 2011.
rhljazz
1,255 posts
 
I'm not concerned with WAF, but an ugly speaker is a problem for me since I don't listen in a dark room.

I don't like speakers that look like a chiminero, a stack of assorted boxes, an alien creature, etc.

I see no reason why a speaker can't look and sound good at the same time, albeit sometimes at a higher price.

Some speakers like the lower priced Vandersteen are not ugly, just not fancy and I could still live with something honest like that (personally prefer more style).
mapman's avatar
mapman
22,308 posts
 
You pay for both appearance/build quality as well as sound quality.

How much of each matters to each individual and how much they are willing to pay for it is a personal decision along with the rest.
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