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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
 

@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.

dill
2,534 posts
 

"Eventually I will be vindicated and I will have the last laugh."

- Ok, consider yourself vindicated, enjoy your last laugh, now go away.

nonoise's avatar
nonoise
10,887 posts
 

All the best,
Nonoise

mceljo
1,357 posts
 

@kenjit - Assuming that such a company did exist, here's a couple of questions:

(1) How would the customer specify their personal design requirements?

(2) Would it be an in-home process to account for the rest of the systems and room acoustics?

(3) Do you believe that a perfectly customized speaker would always and forever be the perfect speaker for the customer?

Audiophiles often prefer different speakers for different styles of music, so I'm not sure that any single speaker could be ultimately fulfilling.  I think the best case scenario is a set of beloved speakers which isn't that different from what audiophiles often have now.

 

raysmtb1's avatar
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raysmtb1
800 posts
 

I can’t believe that this conversation is actually going on. For the past three years I’ve been working on a project that tries to address some of the things that the OP has brought up. Although we’re far from 100% custom we do try to give the customer more options. It’s called blueprintacoustic.com. I’m looking to send out some sample speakers for people to review. If you have an interest please PM me. Thank you Ray

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