I'm never going to hear a megaspeaker in a good room am I?


Was thinking about something. There’s a thread about good $40K speakers which made me think that honestly despite hearing a lot of them at shows, I’ve never heard one in a decent environment. Now, perhaps we can argue:

If it doesn’t sound good anywhere, including a hotel room, is it really that good a speaker?


But let’s not go that route. But I am thinking to myself, in well treated rooms the best speakers I’ve heard were merely mid-range Wilsons and Magicos. I say "merely" because they were under $40k, not because of performance. The two best speakers I’ve heard, in medicore rooms were the SF Stradivari and Snell A/III, and top of the line Vandersteen.

All the $40K + speakers I’ve heard have been at shows, and either very badly treated rooms, or in halls so big the first reflection point was like a mountain echo. Am I ever going to get to listen to $40K+ speakers in great rooms anywhere again??

As a result, I’ve developed a severe bias against the performance of mega speakers, because I only ever hear them in terrible rooms and have not heard one I’d spend money for, and honestly that's unfair to them.

erik_squires
So if 99.9 % of us will never hear these speakers or see them in a good listening room, maybe Stereophile should stop reviewing them and let a magazine like Oligarchs Monthly.
I'm thinking "The only time share" I'd be interested in.

A room with say a few listening areas. that you could "TimeShare"

What do you think.. Bed and Breakfast. on site maybe..

North, South, East, West, location, or just ONE in the middle.

TOP TOP TOP of the line true stereo review, for YOU and whoever.

Folks want to sell their good, let the time share pay for everything EXEPT the actual equipment..the manufactures can put that up...To a point..

Room treatment, cabling and what else, can have dedicated rolling abilities, swap stuff easy..

This is a thought in progress, while I'm eating my bowl of beans...OK.

Don't mOurderize me... Three stooges term, Curly Joe...I think...

yuk yuk yuk...

Regards
@erik_squires what's the price-point where you would consider something a megaspeaker? You could try going to a dealer that has a good room, or contacting the manufacturer directly to ask if they might allow an audition in their room which has a fair chance of being a megaroom to match their megaspeaker, or see if there is an enthusiast who has both a megaspeaker and megaroom who would be willing to have you over.

I do think a poor room (super echoey, noisy environment, etc.) will make even the best speaker (using contemporary technology) sound poor simply because it will be difficult to discern the sound the same way it is difficult to understand what someone is trying to say to you in a poor environment. Indoor sports arenas being used for musical performances is a great example—even if you have Pavaroti or Netrebko singing in a place like that it will sound horrible.
Hi Neko,

I’m thinking $40K and has to ship in a crate, at least.

Magico does regular auditions for audiophiles in their listening room, which is fantastically, fanatically acoustically treate, but I’m pretty sure I’m banned now... << grin >> And I did hear the S1, but at $12K and a petite 2-way system I didn’t consider it "mega."