newbee -
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.
mahgister -
I want speakers that gives me the impression of a musical sound living presence, timbre+imaging...And "living" is not colored, nor neutral, it is a living interval between these 2....
dazzlingmd -
My current speakers are far more revealing and unforgiving, to where Gaucho sounds fantastic (better than through my old speakers) and All the World’s a Stage sounds dramatically worse in comparison. The speakers are better at revealing recording/mixing/pressing flaws, which is a double-edged sword, as it showcases the greatness of great recordings but also the issues with poor ones.
I’m not sure how reviewers use the term, but that’s how I’ve understood it.
As an employee for a very focused bespoke loudspeaker manufacturer (who’s actually not particularly wealthy, or high profile other than in his local circles) I know well a story of my employer who was approached by Australia’s Federal Government to build them a pair of speakers.
He delivered the pair of commissioned speakers, and a panel of reviewers reported back, the Sonus Faber Guarneri Homage were the only speakers at the time that could touch them (yes it was some years ago). Yes it could be argued that the Sonus Fabers were off the shelf, and my boss’s speakers were built to best whatever they could, and wasn’t a stock sale item. Like comparing a sports car to a street car someone has heavily modified, tuned for a specific task.
After reading the reports that the Sonus Fabers had something in the sound they projected that made them just sound right, my employer flew down to Canberra, borrowed the Guarneri Homages and listened, and changed his crossover, and listened again, and tweaked throughout the weekend.
He probably didn’t get much sleep, and was in a hotel room, so probably didn’t make friends with the rooms beside him either.
newbee - you’re clever, so anyway, he could hear the interaction with the room gain, and after working out what he was hearing, he called the tuning he uses PRC. He had learnt something from the Italian designer about room gain, and what is does to the overall sound.
mahgister - the voicing of the speaker for a particular sized environment is also a form of embedding, even without room treatment. It’s not just the measurement of the frequency response coming out of the loudspeaker, it’s an understanding of a good average fit for a general room size for the loudspeaker.
dazzlingmd - absolutely bang on. A truly revealing loudspeaker, or an unveiled loudspeaker will with a high degree of fidelity, does resolve what is being fed into it. Correctly designed there will be no restrictive points in delivering the appropriate frequencies and levels of energy to whatever electro mechanical device actually voices the reproduced music.
It is indeed a two edged sword, on a well toned, fit woman a catsuit looks astonishing, a catsuit is much less flattering on someone very much out of shape, where a less revealing outfit is far more flattering. The room, the electronics, the recording, is very much more pronounced and unveiled, by a highly resolving loudspeaker (whatever type it is) and it can be more or less flattering or very much not so.
As for what measurements matter, consideration to how all of the above interact with each other, that’s a lot of measurements that all matter simultaneously.
Yes, you can all consider me an opinionated geezer, I just seem to share a lot of opinions of others in here :-P
I learn a lot in here too.
