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My pet peeve: "revealing" speakers

The one word that bugs me the most in all of the audiophile world is "revealing." 

It's plenty descriptive but it's also biased.  What I mean is that speakers that are revealing are also usually quite colored. They don't unveil a recording, they focus your attention by suppressing some tones and enhancing others. The reviewer who suddenly discovers hearing things he has never heard before and now goes through his entire library has fallen for this trap hook line and sinker.

This is not always true, as some speakers are revealing by ignoring the room.  They can remain tonally neutral but give you a headphone like experience.  I'm not talking about them.  I'm talking about the others.  I  wish we had a better word for it.

Mind you, I believe you should buy speakers based on your personal preferences.  Revealing, warm, neutral, whatever.  I'm just saying this word is deceptive, as if there were no down side when there is. 

Best,

Erik
erik_squires
newbee
4,767 posts
 
IMO the easiest way to get ’revealing’ components, including speakers, is to reduce output in the lower mid range which effectively reveals more information in the mid range, or in many instances increasing the output in the upper mid range/lower highs which gives the appearance of better, more extended highs. Both of these can create a sense of increased soundstage, especially depth of image.

Lots of folks chase this sound endlessly it seems. The problem really occurs when folks buy components, including sources, similarly tweaked and they find it bright, strident etc. Then they commence looking for solutions in tweaks and room treatments ignoring the reality of the a principal source of the problem, they ignored the overriding solution, that of establishing system synergy and set up.

This is not new news but something I think many folks here have experienced, or are about to figure out. Or not and go broke. :-) It’s not just about a single component or speakers contribution.
mozartfan
2,143 posts
 
PS: My second pet peeve are reviewers who hear "revealing" and very colored speakers and call them "neutral" when they are clearly not.

There is a   $500K(give or take $100K) Jadis set up for sale on Audiogon, 
You could take that $500K system and pair it with colored speakers and have a  colored distorted sound. 
So yes a  colored speaker is just that, distortion. 
newbee
4,767 posts
 
Mozartfan, Please take a moment if you will and describe for us exactly how you would find a speaker truly neutral to the source? What would you recommend others do to that same end?
erik_squires OP
16,119 posts
 
@newbee :

That's definitely a very popular method, and honestly this is a great solution for listening at low volumes.  The current line of Dali and some Dynaudio go this route.  Some create this by having a low impedance in the same area you described.

The other way is more subtle, to introduce peaks and valleys in the tweeter.

I'm not criticizing these speakers per se, buy what you like.

Best,

E
phd
1,319 posts
 
Good speakers are a major investment so why would anyone buy a pair of speakers solely based on the manufacturers claim that they are revealing? Certainly there is more that contribute to a speaker's overall sound. It could be that the word revealing is over-used and is not the end game.

In addition who would buy speakers without hearing them first hand in your own listening room? This comes down to using your ears which are the best instruments for evaluating any component.
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