Speakers and amplifiers show audiophiles are confused.

@donavabdear wrote:

so I spoke to Dave an engineer from Bryson unfortunately they didn’t have their powered systems here so we talked about powered speakers and active crossovers he fully agreed that’s how high end systems should be designed. He interestedly said their system was more expensive to build and design the said the crossovers were $4k and many people thought that was to much

Makes you wonder, in the greater scheme of things, why people would quibble about a @4k expense for an active crossover; likely the least expensive component of the bunch, and one that - as an actively configured setup - is wholly indispensable, absolutely vital to and at the heart of what determines the sound. So, what’s the alternative - being happy about the revealed $4k price of a Duelund-equipped passive crossover instead (I’m sure many would choose to brag about that rather than take issue with it)? It’s like complaining about a component, the all-important speaker processor not least, because it doesn’t hold any gadget value (or otherwise escapes understanding of its mere function), while in reality it’s the one component that co-shares in shaping the whole of the sound in a place in the audio chain much more suitable compared to the output side of the amp. In all fairness I believe an active crossover could be even cheaper while maintaining sound quality here, but that’s hardly the general incentive behind the whining of DSP pricing. It’s missing the bigger picture, that’s what it is.

.. I got the impression that he didn’t have high hopes for the future. He knew how it should go just as you and I would agree but that philosophy doesn’t seem to be so popular now.

Bryston shouldn’t bow to the anti-trend of active, but rather go all-in and show them why active needs more attention. Coming down to it though one can’t blame the manufacturer for being pessimistic about the future of this approach, when the response that meets them is one of overall indifference.

@phusis obviously you are an above average audiophile. I came back from AXPONA amazed at the BS that was knee deep. The engineers were legit but the sales people (with a few great exceptions) were generally all making the mistake that the speakers were somehow in charge or could fix the studio mix. Strangest thing, it was funny that I was with an engineer who had mixed and owned studios for 50 years last week and he had the opposite view his first thought was "you never fix it in the mix" meaning the sound is made in the recording not the mix and it would be absurd to think the speakers had anything to do with the sound of the recording. From a professional perspective the end user sound system is simply a looking glass into the studio, this may be why there are so few musician and audio engineer audiophiles. 
 

Your arguments are exactly right and it astounds me that more people don't understand what you are saying and what Bryson is trying to do. Fighting a religion is never very rewarding. 

@donavabdear

I was walking buy and remembered the sound from studios I heard 30 years ago in the studios and so I walked in and sure enough it was JBL speakers they were made just like old ones were, but at about 1/8th the price.

I like it! I have JBL’s in the man cave, the Studio 2 series and I wouldn’t change it out for anything, no matter how much $$$. Do you remember what series you listened to? They have a line of "classic"/retro speakers and a new active model just came out. You can find JBL’s at discounts frequently. The Studio 5 series were designed by Greg Timbers based on compression drivers. The Studio 2 series was the first series to use the trickle down tech from the M2 flagship. If I were shopping for towers I would take the 590’s in a snap, such a great price at half off:

https://www.jbl.com/loudspeakers/STUDIO+590.html

and the 550P sub, just ridiculous. I feel like buying two of them and upgrading my room to 4 subs just in principle at this price:

https://www.jbl.com/home-audio/SUB+550P.html?cgid=home-audio

Hi @kota1 The speakers were the L100s they had another pair in the room that were a little smaller but both sounded great and had that compression driver tone that only JBL has it was great! After listening to literally hundreds of speakers you get a very clear average even among the uber expensive speakers the JBLs were a breath of fresh air, sounding different may not be so good but the sound of those was wonderful and didn’t have that horrible nasal sound that to small of a midrange driver gives, JBL has always been cutting edge in research and acoustics it showed.

You know I went to the show to listen to the Sonus Faber Aidas and they were set up with the best of everything probably the 2nd most expensive setup of the show at about 1.3M the next door over was the Wilsons Alexx V and the Wilson Alexia V, the Alexia V had tube amps and they sounded the best the Alexx Vs had more sheer ripping low end but the Alexa Vs at half the price were more musical. Amazing how much difference amps make teemed up with the right speaker.

I know there are more expensive speakers but when you have something you like so much like JBL it would be a lateral move, not really an upgrade. The L100 are about $2000 a pair and I have seen them on sale for less. I know my 230’s are amp sensitive as they REALLY open up when fed quality power. If I were going to get a new pair I would want these active speakers that are based on their studio monitors. I know you can spend a lot more money but I just don’t feel the need to when you can get all this for $2200, Remember, you can run them wired or wireless and its more than speakers, its a system:

https://www.audioadvice.com/jbl-4305p-powered-bookshelf-speakers-pair