2. misc-audio
  3. 181549-17271

Custom Tuning Conspiracy

I have a theory that the reason custom tuned loudspeakers are not offered to the market place is because it would essentially destroy the whole speaker industry. If every audiophile had their speakers custom made for them, there would simply be no need for further speakers to be made, until the next generation of audiophiles came along which would take decades. 

If you think about it, most speakers are mass produced junk. They are made in vast quantities so that more profit can be made. 

Even the few companies that do offer so called custom speakers are not really customized. Companies such as Gr research and Fritz offer their range of speakers hoewever GR research tunes all their speakers flat by default and Fritz does not tune his speakers to his customers exact specifications. 

Wouldn't it be wonderful if there was a speaker company that made speakers according to your exact specifications? You would choose the material, shape, drivers, components, configuration, crossover slopes and frequency response. It would be made to measure. 

The people that mock this idea say that speakers dont need to be made to measure. This is nonsense. Every speaker on the market already sounds different from one another. Audiophiles then go on the merry go round and buy one speaker after another, each speaker never quite fulfilling their needs. How much time would be saved if the right speakers were made for you right from the start?

Not only would it save time it would save resources and energy. Every speaker model is produced in their thousands. Yet perhaps only a dozen people will eventually find that particular model suits their ears. So that means several hundred speakers have been made and will eventually end up in the junkyard. What a waste of time, energy and resources? 

Should there be more companies doing truly custom tuned speakers among the vast sea of mass produced junk producing companies?

kenjit
kenjit OP
1,771 posts
 

@erik_squires 

Is this the episode where Kenjit substantiates his claims with specific and actionable examples? 

Is this the one where he shows us what and how he got around the very problem he is railing about? Or is that next season?

I personally got around the problem by refusing to buy any more speakers and tuning my own. But most audiophiles will not have the ingenuity I have to do the same therefore there is a need for companies to do it for them. Just because I have pointed out a conspiracy within the speaker industry does not mean I should be the one to solve it. Why dont you solve it if you think you can? Also part of the problem is the audiophiles themselves. If we cant convince them that custom tuning is the way forward, things will never change. 

Incidentally, YOU are a bad example of how custom tuning should be done. You have gone to all the trouble to make your own speaker, yet you did not even bother to custom tune your crossovers you just tuned them flat as a pancake which defeats the whole purpose. So thankyou for joining the discussion, at just the right time. You are a perfectly bad example. 

kenjit OP
1,771 posts
 

The idea of custom speakers is a good one,

I must agree with you there. 

but one at this juncture is likely to remain a small niche.

Yes but I thought the audiophile community is already quite a small niche isnt it?

Over time as fully automated, computer generated flexible manufacturing evolve, then the financial viability of customized speakers will become more viable as a market segment. We are not there yet.

Yes perhaps you are right. Eventually I will be vindicated and I will have the last laugh.

gs5556
1,235 posts
 

The reason such a speaker company doesn’t exist is because there is no business plan or marketing for such a product. Or in plainspeak: it won’t make money.

The main reason it won’t is because the consumer does not know a Thiel-Small parameter from a roll-off slope. Another reason is you can fine tune your speaker (or any speaker) by already established market players. You can go to GIK Acoustics and buy room treatments. Or you can go to Schiit Audio and buy an equalizer with 6 bands of LC equalization. Both methods will do the exact same thing without having to spend tens of thousands of dollars on a one-off speaker that may be useless to you in another room or as your ears age.

The mousetrap not only has to be better, but it has to be affordable as well.

kenjit OP
1,771 posts
 

then the financial viability of customized speakers will become more viable as a market segment

Actually the financial viability is an excuse. High end speakers can already cost tens if not hundreds of thousands of dollars. So there is plenty of money already going into the pockets of the companies. I dont agree with you there is any issue with financial viability. Its more an issue with greed. We need to give audiophiles more for their money rather than pretend that it will cost even more money to provide better results.

kenjit OP
1,771 posts
 

@gs5556 

Obviously it wont be as proftable to do custom tuning as mass produced junk. So that just confirms the conspiracy doesnt it?

A consumer would not need to know their theil small parameters from their response curves. That would be part of the job of the company doing the tuning. The main thing is the end goal which is to ensure the speaker is tuned to the customers ears rather than the designers. I have said this many times but it keeps falling on deaf ears. 

Equalization and room treatment is going to be only a part of the process of custom tuning. We are talking about tuning the speaker itself here. Neither room correction or equalization is a subsitute for that. We need the cabinets to be tuned. Do you want MDF, Plywood, Aluminum, or a mixture? Do you want scanspeak revelators or Sb acoustics? Do you want first order time cohesive slopes or 4th order linkwitz riley? Perfect .707 QTC or bessel? QB3 or flat? Consumers need to be made aware of what choices are available so that they can then decide what they want or dont want.

More to discover