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?
@daveyf +1 totally agree. And some bookshelf speakers can image like nobodies business. Mine do, particularly well. I’m running my Usher Be-718’s full range with no sub and that’s all I’ve experienced so far but I can only imagine how much bigger the sound’s gonna be when I add a sub. |
No absolutely not ,very good quality stand mounts dissapear better as well as image in many cases , justhave quality stands and feet and a good pair of quality powered subwoofers depending too on budget that will allow you the flexibility to adjust ,I have theSVS SB 4000s and it has a great app and you can down load a sub app-and buy a $100 usb Microphone and really dial-in the room with the REW App, if you want it perfect ,or pay someone to set your bass up, which too would save a lot of money andyou can buy a wireless kit as another option.
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Below videos are my audio system consists 5.25" 2 way speakers. Do you hear such a strained and less natural? My room is 22' x 14' x 8'. Alex/Wavetouch My Rival - Steely Dan, Wavetouch audio live recording Lidia Borda - Cuando silba el viento, Wavetouch audio live recording Self Control (Laura Branigan) - Wavetouch audio live recording |
Alex, while I agree that @phusis point about small speakers sounding small. strained and much less natural in a variety of listening spaces is a very wide and somewhat incorrect statement, I do think we have to be fair to him. Your speakers, and really all speakers with a 5.25" bass driver cannot really push huge amounts of air. As such, when a bass wave that would drop down into the 20Hz range is needed to be played back, well it is MIA. The listener will not feel anything like the punch or air that a much larger driver in a much larger speaker can deliver. From this perspective, phusis’s point about Physics becomes a factor, which there is no getting around. This is why I add subwoofers to my small stand mounts. IME, in a small room, the subwoofer is just as crucial. In fact more than one subwoofer is crucial. Now, that subwoofer has to be tailored to the room size and type of main speaker, so again phusis’ point about not caring about tailoring your speaker size to your room, is IMO totally incorrect. |
@audioman58 makes a good point. So it depends on what you consider great sound. If imaging and disappearance is more important to you than coherence and presence then small stand mounts are likely to sound greater to you. Of course the higher you go up the investment levels the more you get both.
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