2. speakers
  3. 1336785767

Analytical or Musical Which way to go?

The debate rages on. What are we to do? Designing a spealer that measures wellin all areas shoulkd be the goal manufacturer.
As allways limtiations abound. Time and again I read designers yo say the design the speaker to measure as best they can. But it just does not sound like music.

The question is of course is: what happens when the speaker sounds dull and lifeless.

Then enters a second speaker that sounds like real music but does not have optimum mesurements?

Many of course would argue, stop right there. If it does not measure well it can't sound good.

I pose the question then how can a spekeer that sounds lifeless be acurrate?

Would that pose yhis question. Does live music sound dull and lifeless?
If not how can we ever be be satisified with such a spseker no matter how well it measures?
gregadd
phusis's avatar
phusis
1,211 posts
 
05-18-12: Charles1dad
No one denies there are good sounding speakers that also measure well. The question is why do some speaker measure well yet sound poor.Why are there good sounding speakers that measure poorly. The debate lingers.

The crux to me predominantly seems to be questioning in the first place how good sounding speakers can measure poorly. I can understand the engineering perspective in this; however, it exposes the movement of the technical/theoretical side of things having become the benchmark of making speakers at the expense of actually listening with a (live) reference, and that the "listener," undeterred by sonic evidence, still chooses the adherence to theory. In a more general sense it may point at how people are being drawn away from nature; from what is actually natural.
mrmitch
359 posts
 
Wolf-garcia, sorry you felt I was knocking an age group of which I'm a part (62 yrs. old). That wasn't my intention at all, it was just ONE example of why measurements aren't the end-all be-all. Seems a bit odd that many speaker designers voice their speakers by listening rather than adhering to a set of measurements, doesn't it?
audiofreak32's avatar
audiofreak32
281 posts
 
Any speaker I have heard that is analytical is too sharp for my ears. My ears are too sensitive to high frequency. I can hear things in a room that almost nobody else around me can hear... my wife, friends, etc. A slight humm or buzz, etc. This is why I own Sonus Faber.
wolf_garcia
6,708 posts
 
Mrmitch...I did not think you were knocking my age group, I just used your comments as an opportunity to rant, and for that I thank you.

Measurements for speaker design are important to see where a design is headed, but ANY speaker designer has to LISTEN to the damn things or they're idiots. If this listening results in adjustments to a final product that consumers feel isn't "musical" or "something I think sounds good", then so what? Consume elsewhere. I've had gear that was well regarded by the audio community and I thought it blew chunks, so to speak. That gear will not be used in my abode, and was abondoned, replaced by gear with which I abide for my abode. To sum up, abandon that which you abhor, and admonish absolute adherence to that which you deem abominable.
gregadd OP
574 posts
 
Unless you are a DIY yourself guy you are dependent on products supplied by manufacturers. Ultimately it is they who decide what you have to choose from.

The advent of large corporations put us in difficult position. Who are the arbiters of what we hear and the standard by which we judge it? When the baby-boomers die off what will the standard be?
More to discover