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
Hi Duke,

@audiokinesis

Sorry, what i meant was, you raised some alternate hypothesis about what I have heard in the past and what the proper attribution is.  Sadly I can neither go back in time, and measure, nor would it be easy to go forward and create a controlled experiment, unless I had a good room sound simulator.

Best,

Erik
@erik_squires, likewise I thank you for the thoughtful engagement!  Much more satisfying than a squabble.  I'll try to avoid those in the future. 

"I don't see a reasonable model of room treatment where early reflections are not controlled, echoes removed, and reverberation is NOT naturally reduced." 

Nor do I! 

That's why, in my opinion, the preferred starting point is the loudspeaker, and specifically its radiation pattern.  Of course if the speaker sucks who cares what its radiation pattern is, so this is just ONE aspect that imo is worth paying attention to. 

Best wishes, 

Duke
That's why, in my opinion, the preferred starting point is the loudspeaker,

Well, if you want a loudspeaker that is not demanding of both amplifier and the room, this seems to be the logical, if not canonical solution.

Best,

E
I, as well as many others, like the sound of music in rooms...not all rooms (is a dumpster a room?), but many of the ones I've lived in with furniture, fireplaces, books, windows (Oh NO...WINDOWS!), etc.,  as they can make your hifi rig sound like life and music in the real world. If you insist on Room Treatment and are afraid your leather couch is too "reflecty" and doesn't sound like a piece of sheet rock covered with astro turf, listen with a hat festooned with gerbil pelts...that should do it for you. And note that our dear Eric struggles with one note...just one.
I'm never going to hear a megaspeaker in a good room am I?
Not unless you go into one.