What if a high end speaker measures really badly?
You know, it's true that I feel listening is more important than measurements and that it's generally difficult to really tie together measurements with pleasure. Below 0.05% THD do I care? No I do not. I really don't care. The number tells me nothing about whether I'd like the amp more or not anymore.
In this one memorable review for the Alta Audio Adam speaker, I really felt shivers go up my spine when I looked at the measurements, especially at ~$20kUSD. This looks like an absolute hot mess. Does it sound this bad though? I certainly don't have the $20K to test that out myself. What do you all think?
@audiokinesis Ahhh! Thank you, I missed that in the article. That explains why they posted the inner design of the 2-way as well. |
A speaker can sound very good yet have a significant dip (or more than one). Generally that dip is at the bottom and most people check for that by playing songs heavy in bass. But a dip at a different frequency might not be caught until you play that one song that has an important note at that frequency and you say "what happened to that chord?" Then you know something is missing and can’t enjoy the speakers any more. I do like to see a graph or a published number. Here are the numbers from my speakers: 20 – 20000 [Hz] ±3 [dB] Looking at the graph for this speaker, it looks like the numbers would be 20-20,000 hz, +4/-8 dB. I think that would raise some eyebrows. Jerry PS Everyone says "listen to these before you buy. My point is you may not catch these dips in a 15 minute audition. |
@bruce19 True, but the problem here is that, if anything, the graph was not smoothed enough! 🤣 Are you suggesting maybe this speaker is far worse than it seems? My point is, we know at least that those deep valleys are not due to over-smoothing. |
In high-end industry crowded by unaware and uneducated rich kids of baby boomers you can take different approaches. 1) Design Measure Build and Measure again then present and advertise 2) Build Present and Advertise -- provide unmeasured good looking parameters. Measuring per specific room is important. That gives a consumer an idea if these speakers will match his/her room.
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Yes, exactly. With a little experience, and a lot of misspent money/youth you’ll realize how extra-sexy speakers which reveal sounds you’ve never heard before, won’t actually last long in your listening room. Oddly, where these speakers do measure well is in the horizontal dispersion. I’d expect they have an excellent and wide sweet spot, though not a very tall one. |
