Powered speakers show audiophiles are confused

The Bryston Active Mini-T’s aren’t any where near six figures and this is for the entire system and the size makes them ideal for a MCH setup.:

The speakers boast a nearly perfect neutral sonic perspective and this, along with the aforementioned incredible revealing attribute serves to place a well recorded small assemble slightly in front of the system, thus producing a striking ”live” illusion, but without any of the hardness and in-your-face elements, often experienced in systems that project the sound forward.

I found that there is little, if any, way to improve the performance.

http://innerearmag.com/reviews/speakers/Audio_Observer_Bryston_Active_System.shtml

@mastering92 You're right ugly is not the right word, and you're right in your description and importance of the brand. I've spent millions on pro sound equipment and lived in LA doing the highest pressure productions on the planet. Now I'm retired and live in Idaho in a beautiful home next to a lake. I'm not watching movies or music for technical gaffs or evaluation I just want to enjoy. I've got an atoms mixing system that I'm about to do some projects on. That system is utility the speakers aren't beautiful (Genelec "the ones" ) but it sound really good and surprises me every time I turn it on.

@kota1 I haven't listened to the video yet I will and thank you. You are a never ending fountain of information. But this picture above is really bad, any speaker in that room will sound bad without exception, you couldn't make a good recording in that room you also can't listen well in that room. Looks more like a commercial set up without cables in a right angle echo chamber. Bryston is a good company this picture is embarrassing for them.

I've literally shot movie and TV productions in rooms that looked like this and told the producers if you let xxxxx actor walk in this room they will be insulted because you can't hear anything and the recording will be awful, this is what happens when a young art director doesn't think it through.

@kota1 On the video did you catch how they didn't listen to symmetrical speakers in the PMC / Capitol video. I haven't come to any conclusions yet but working with object based information means you are creating images between the speakers, so if you are in a completely symmetrical listening position the images can't have much depth. Consistently the best Atmos mixes I've heard and seen on ProTools meters have been mixes that sound good in stereo and the other speakers add depth in back, with some little silly instrument gimmicks that are used on side speakers just because they can. Movies are much further ahead in surround mixing than music because your brain understands the images coming at above and around you where in music everything is backwards if you are hearing the band from the side and behind. discipline is the winning and boring answer, setting up surround music mixes is disturbing to your brain because you are never in an understood environment. Eventually surround music may become a genera unto its self and become just fun but people won't have real connection to the music unless some standards are made fairly soon.

but working with object based information means you are creating images between the speakers

You do that in 2 channel stereo too, like a phantom center channel, a soundstage that extends beyond the plane of the speakers.

so if you are in a completely symmetrical listening position the images can’t have much depth

In my room the wall and ceiling seem like speakers, the room is pressurized, and images are content dependent. I posted that amapiano music for a reason. When you upmix it you get imaging that you have never heard in stereo. It is the second mix of the three I posted and you need to listen to about 30 minutes or so. Use the 7.1.4 genelec setup at up between 70-80 db upmixed in dolby surround and see. Movies are completley different depending on the content. Listen to or watch Mad Max, same volume level or higher and you will see how the audio objects follow those cars. Use the genelecs as that is a perfectly matched system as long as you have the speakers positioned per atmos specs.

Movies are much further ahead in surround mixing

This is why you use upmixers. I’m not limited by a bad atmos mix when I can switch to auro 3d, or the DTS upmixer. You can use these for movies or music. All of that amapiano music I listen to upmixed. Today I listened to Kind of Blue in the atmos mix. Unless someone told you it was atmos you wouldn’t know, the engineers kept the musicians in front of you, they didn’t mix heavy handed. Then you get a guy like Moby and his mixes are boincing around everywhere. So if you don’t like a mix that is what upmixers are for.

setting up surround music mixes is disturbing to your brain because

No, remember, YOUR brain is not average, it has been trained to focus on channel based or you got fired, I don’t know how much experience you have in immersive. I agree its early days but I have found great content and mediocre content. I upmix bad content for my "palate".

From a review of Kind of Blue:

When a high-res stereo version of “So What” was played for comparison, the sound seemed flat and “locked” to the front speakers, with little sense of height or depth.

PMC and Capitol Records worked with the Miles Davis estate to secure the three mono master tapes used to create the new recordings. (Both Davis’ son Erin and nephew and drummer, Vince Wilburn, were in attendance at the demo.) The playback system in Munich mirrored the original setup in Capitol Studios where the remixes were created: 3 PMC Fenestria towers up front for LCRs, 10 PMC Wafer on-wall speakers for surrounds, another 6 Wafers used as overheads, all of it driven by Bryston electronics.

Eventually surround music may become a genera unto its self and become just fun but people won’t have real connection to the music unless some standards are made fairly soon.

Do you know what John Storyck said about this? He said immersive music will surpass movies because all you need is headphones, not a video monitor.