Speakers and amplifiers show audiophiles are confused.


An audiophile buys a pair of speakers for $50K or $100K then asks what amps make them sound best. That’s about as smart as marrying a girl without knowing her personality. What are the specs that will insure your expensive new speakers and amps will work optimality with each other? There’s got to be an app for that, well no there isn’t because there are too many variables and companies don’t present their specs in a standard ways. Why is it that speaker and amplifier manufactures don’t recommend specific amps for their speakers? Beyond power, impedance, and making your own crossovers how do you choose amplifiers to get all the potential out of your speakers?

128x128donavabdear

@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

Other than the Title speakers with the Bryson amps for $8k I'd say the JBL L100's were the best for the money.