Powered speakers show audiophiles are confused


17 of 23 speakers in my studio and home theater systems are internally powered. My studio system is all Genelec and sounds very accurate. I know the best new concert and studio speakers are internally powered there are great technical reasons to design a speaker and an amp synergistically, this concept is much more important to sound quality than the vibration systems we often buy. How can an audiophile justify a vibration system of any sort with this in mind.

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@kota1 ,

For an 85" TV, the recommended THX viewing distance is 9.5 feet. For an 8K set,  you need to be about 3 feet away to get the full advantage of the resolution. For a 4K set, you need to be about 5 feet. HD, about 11 feet. A 4K set makes sense to get the best resolution at realistic viewing distances. 8K for home really does not make sense.

It looks like 8K LED\LCD in Europe may be dead in the starting blocks at least in European sized sets. They won't pass efficiency requirements due to the high light loss from the reduced aperture. Don't remember, but expect at 85" you should still have a big aperture if everything scales, but maybe there are some limitations. The 8K, 85" SONY uses 50% more power than the 4K.

Not sure 8k video gives you other benefits aside from resolution like high resolution audio give you other benefits like sustained envelopes (a bell will ring longer).

 

@thespeakerdude You are right to say that a recording done with a dummy head has to be listened to on headphones, your job is to figure our why. All the directional information for a soundstage is in a binaural recording how come smart guys like you can't reproduce that on speakers with accurate time alignment, not from the speakers standpoint but from the brains standpoint. 35 years ago I went to and AES convention and one of the vendors was showing what they said was new technology in speaker object placement they said they had taped into what they called -head tones- to make it possible. Do you remember that at all it seemed to never really catch on but the demonstration was amazing we wore headphones and were given a haircut it really felt like we were all getting a hair cut simply through the sound. 

You can do it with speakers you just need your head in a clamp. Fails quite miserably at the human factors aspect of product design. Small movements off the centerline of your head destroy timing. No way around that except head tracking which there have been a few systems demonstrated. 

 

Lipshitz? proposed something with two additional speakers near your head on either side. 

 

Want to try something fun? Do you have open air headphones? Put headphones on, turn the main speakers off and run your subs up to 100-120hz.

 

 

@thespeakerdude thanks for the answer, I'm going to look into this more. I have probably 50 sets of headphones one must be open can't wait to do your test. 

@thespeakerdude Thank you for that great DPA article about surround sound formats, DPA is also one of the very best microphone companies anywhere. This article and the YouTube video with it highlights the futility of microphone stacks of any type. 

So we have to put on headphones every time we watch a movie, we could incorporate 3D and speakers in a standard headphone / glasses setup, Or we use our phones to set up a grid around our head that would allow lasers can send sound right in your ears, phones already grid your face, no problem. Next problem.