Go big, or go home!
Big speakers, are they really the best way to get great sound?
Yesterday, I had the opportunity to listen to some very large speakers that are considered to be at, or close to, the pinnacle in speaker design and ability. Needless to say, the speakers retail in the mid to high $300k range. These speakers, and I will not be naming them, were sourced by about $800k of upstream gear. Room size was about thirty by twenty, maybe a little larger.
To say the the overall sound was BIG would be accurate, but also I noticed something else, that I typically hear with big speaker systems. Generally, the speakers were right on edge of overloading the room, depending on music, the dreaded bass boom could be heard. But, the whole presentation was greater in impact than most any smaller speaker system, yet it was almost unlistenable for the long term.
The question I asked myself, is do we really want this type of presentation in our home audio systems? The speakers threw a pretty large soundstage, but also made things sound somewhat larger than life. I also thought that this type of speaker is akin to the large box dynamic speakers of yesteryear. For example, a set of large horns from Altec Lansing or similar was reminiscent of this sound. Makes me believe that if one has a big room, a similar sound can be obtained from most any large speaker system and at a fraction of the price.
I listen in a very small room, and by necessity in the near field, yet I think the overall intimacy of this type of listening experience is better for me, your thoughts?
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@lemonhaze I have multiple room acoustic treatments in my room, many of which you can see in my system photos, but you have to be able to recognize them.... Including the Real Trap Mondo Traps that you do not recognize. The subs were dialed in by me, as I totally trust my ears (albeit at some considerable difficulty and time). No one who has visited my room has ever complained about the SQ. In fact the last visitor, a well known a'phile writer and reviewer, was highly complimentary on the SQ and could not locate the subs at all ( which to my ears is what you want). Oh, and you are right..I do have a bass trap behind my seating position. It seems you to like to jump to conclusions about other people's systems... which leads me to my question for you, why is your system not posted somewhere on this forum?? |
And it's also why I've spoken to a Wilson Audio dealer who was read the riot act by Wilson Audio for selling customers the Wilson Audio Duette and subs rather than one of their exponentially priced floorstanding speakers... But... people don't buy Wilson Audio floorstanding speakers for "value" anyway... so they don't mind being the sucker, as long as they look good / feel good. |
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