Powered speakers show audiophiles are confused

Well I can't say I ever heard that music in clubs back in the "old day".  Old school often seems to be what younger people think older people listened to, not what we actually did :-)   I liked that first mix by Takanome. The amapiano mix by DJRobbiez was not my style, too laid back. Not judging, just not what gets me going.

Unrelated to our topic, but clubs seem to be finally rediscovering the importance of good sound, not just loud. You could see a shift about 10 years ago. Back in the mid-late 80's, top DJ clubs would spend a fortune on their sound systems, not just going for loud, but going for really good sound, no matter where you were in the club.  As the 80's turned into the 90's, it stopped being about songs, and was just about the beat. Didn't need to have a good sound system, just needed lots of bass. As the 2000s shifted into the 2010s, that started to change again.

@donavabdear , every once in a while I get to hob knob with people with a lot more money than I have.  On the Aida speakers, I think you will love the rear firing speakers on some music, and hate it on others, and may dislike it when listening to surround material. Wild guess here, it may frustrate you that you cannot easily turn it off with a remote. Seems to be a knob adjust. As a professional who often will know how something "should sound", you may be more critical about an artificial presentation.

@kota1 Cables, if they are so important leave them out and go with powered speakers. What I don’t understand about cables are 2 things one is digital cables they carry signals that are 1s and 0s the wonderful thing about digital is that it’s very easy to handshake between a 1 or a 0 as opposed to an analog signal which needs to handshake in a completely variable way which is much more difficult. AC cables do not reservoir power and then let it out in a particular way, well capacitors do that not AC cables. How do AC cables help in-between molex and a fuse. This question is a little like if you put a fire hose in-between two garden hoses is it going to achieve a better quality squirt. AC wire in the house is usually Romex then moves to a wall connector then to your $10k AC cable then to the back of your amp then to a skinny fuse then more connectors then to perhaps a trace on a PC board or wires that go to a heavy metal transformer where the AC is changes again. Speakers cables are the same, I’ve never heard how inserting a very short and expensive piece of wire will help the signal when on either side of the wire is of much lower quality, how can inserting a cable change the output on the other end? What I meant when I said I want an amusement park I want my system to be memorable and special experience. Definitely not electronic dance music, I like many different kinds of music but opera and dance music is last no the list for me. Jazz is on top and luckily it maybe the easiest for speakers to play and the most well recorded genera of music.

@thespeakerdude I don’t think I answered you Yes I do want to use the new speakers in the 2 channel and in the home theater system. I sent my BHK preamp back to PS Audio today hope they can get rid of the noise. I hooked up my amps to the Lyngdorf processor and it was simply not as good.

OK with our view of powered speaker having obvious advantages one of which is a more simple signal flow, how can I justify a preamp making a system sound so much better, my BHK preamp (hybrid tube) really makes the output sound like it has a little bit of beautiful reverb on it, it simply sounds more pleasing and beautiful. But the signal path going through a preamp is often unnecessary and adds complexity, how can it make the overall sound better?

@donavabdear 

What I don’t understand about cables... 

Will never be learned in a chat room. You have all that education, pick a vendor that seems you can relate to, and start auditioning. Stick with what you use in the studio, they can't be that bad. Go back to the thread on Add-Power and post a question for @cohsystms , you will be happy you did.

@donavabdear , you know you should not make me say this, but I will. You need to set the Lyngdorf to perfectly flat, volume match it to the BHK pre, and then compare them with someone else's help so you can't tell which is which ... but you can't do that cause the BHK is noisy so you will always know which is which. I only have the Stereophile test report to go on here. You can tell from the frequency response graphs that there are some frequency based compression artifacts. The frequency response changes when the volume is max. Distortion is a bit high. Stereophiles tests are pretty basic so I can only guess on much. Enough distortion is most evident caused by bass, but revealed in upper bass and lower mid-range. That could be warmth, or it could just sounds louder, even volume matched in the mid range. Still not going to rule out that it is because you know it is there.

Don't use the saying better sound. You mean the sound you liked, at least at the moment you were doing the test, and with the music you were listening too.

Maybe it is just the noise :-)

@thespeakerdude What do you know about Audio Research equipment? Because powered speakers and even synergistic design philosophies aren't available at a the level I want, seems like Audio Research has a really good reputation.

I honestly think audiophiles don't want to mix and match so much audio equipment if a company came along that made closed systems they could do very well especially at the start, this is why so many have said Steinway systems are the best in the world and they are in the $150k to $550k range not really as much as the best systems. After the first few systems came out the rabbit would be out of the bad and all the research for the manufactures would go out the window. I don't know the answer but I'm being forced to just buy the best I can and hope I don't buy a stinker like the Stella.

One more question for you Speakerdude what do companies do with their research speakers, I'm in love with a new AMG GT that is a prototype by Mercedes it will never be produced, but what about speakers where do they go when the manufactures say well this prototype sounds to good and it's to expensive, and how can I buy them?