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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
 
Gregadd -

Sorry, my post above is likely out of your context and "flavored" with my own presumptions. It makes it seem as if you are somehow in "trouble" with your questions, which I have no right to assume nor was it my true intention. I guess I simply wanted to instill the feeling of being less at odds with prevailing theories on speaker design and marketing, and cue up the more personal approach to, and trust in sound and music itself; get rid of marketing retorics and price hierarchy, and see their jobs as befitting themselves. Something like that..
gregadd OP
574 posts
 
Phusis - I get your point.

I read spec/measurements. I read reviews. My ears are the final arbiter. As they must be. The question of course is what is my /standard/reference. I hope it's live music.
atmasphere's avatar
atmasphere
11,843 posts
 
How can you debate 'taste' preferences? It does make for a lively discussion, but as I first heard from my Dad...'There is no accounting for tastes'. But again, it does make for a fun discussion.

Its true that there is no accounting for taste. But taste has nothing to do with human hearing/perceptual rules, which are common to all humans. IOW if you have two speakers and one adheres to human perceptual rules much better than the other one, even in a blind test humans will be able to pick it out.

They may not all like the same music though :)
drew_eckhardt
394 posts
 
>05-24-12: Josh358
>I'd draw a distinction, though, between picture-perfect response and accuracy with real-world material. If, say, pop recordings are hyped in the highs, as many are, you're likely to want a speaker that compensates for that.

You want neutral speakers plus a tone or tilt control which compensates for the bad recordings so that better recordings are not compromised.
josh358
286 posts
 
Drew, I agree. However, many audiophiles dislike tone controls. This I think is a shame because while they shouldn't be, recordings are all over the place, with some so hot that they're virtually unlistenable on a good system.

From a speaker manufacturer's perspective, the speaker has to sound good *as is,* because that's how it's demoed and that's how most people will judge it. Some manufacturers go for flat, some go for a downtilt, most have poor dispersion in the highs and, unfortunately, most records are mixed to speakers that have poor dispersion in the highs. Now that digital EQ is readily available, I don't think it much matters. Polar response is more important, because that can't be fixed with equalization.
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