daveyt: My room is rather small to most audiophile standards at 12'x13'. Also, my room isn't perfectly shaped either except for that end of the room where the speakers sit. The back half of my room is about a foot narrower than the front half of the room. However, I still get incredible overall results and breathtaking bass response in my room with my larger pair of Revel Salon 2 speakers (not sure how large of a speaker you're thinking of. However, the Revel Salon 2s are large enough for this exercise). The Revel Salon 2 speakers are magnificent speakers and can still compete very favorably with todays current best offerings. The key to why my speakers are such a big-time success in my room? The Bass (and tweeters) sections are adjustable. I don't run the speakers with the bass in the "Normal" position, which is full bore. I run my speakers in the "Contour" mode, which is design to enable my speakers to be placed a smaller rooms, closer to the front wall, and still deliver astonishing bass response. I discovered this about the Revel Salon speakers way back in the early 2000s, when I had a pair on Salon 1 speakers in a similarly sized room and I was able to achieve magnificent bass response in that room as well. This is my retirement home, and as long as I'm here, the Revel Salon 2 speakers will remain!!! Unless at some point in my already advanced years, I decide that true full range bass is no longer a priority for me. But, that is highly unlikely. With the Revel Salon 2 speakers, in my smallish room, I'm truly living the high end audio, audiophile "Dream" in my room. Happing listening.
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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@kennymacc Your room is definitely on the small size, like mine. OTOH, I don't think that your Revel's qualify as large speakers. They are, at least to me, mid size. When I am talking of large speakers, I am thinking of the likes of Wilson Alexx's, Chronosonic's, top Focal's, YG Sonja's with bass cabinets etc., These speakers are much larger and in a room your size would probably not work. I recently heard the new Borresen X3's, which I thought to be superb. Problem is that they would never work in my room, simply too large. Yet, for a more typical room, say 15' X 18', they would be ideal. In your room, they would work, BUT you would not be able to hear what they are truly capable of. I suspect your Salon 2's would also work better in a larger space. |
I don't agree that the natural sound to me is unnatural to some others since we hear natural sounds (voices, winds, dog barking, car tire and engine sounds, water flowing, etc.) everywhere. Alex/Wavetouch |
I am curious what do you think is "the best audio sound system in the world" (you heard or believe)? Please list few. Could you let me know videos or articles? Alex/Wavetouch |
I dont know milhorn secret sauce for speakers but he is right on this ... Musicality is a natural experience not an artificial or biased taste ...Psycho-acoustics science and experience rules audio not specific relative individual tastes ... The fact that some human prefer to eat their victim living or /and dead has nothing to do with french or chinese refined culinary chemistry ...And the excellence of french or chinese culinary is grounded in perspectival educated cultural choices in chemistry grounded in the humam metabolism not in ungrounded idyosyncrasique arbitrary tastes ...Only sellers and marketers think that ... Then "natural" soundfield is not arbitrary but conditioned by acoustics and psycho-acoustics concepts and conditions not by price tags ...
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