Well, maybe surprised. I've never seen a response curve rise at the top end. But there's a point to be made of what spl a speaker actually begins to flatten out it's response to published spec.
Aging and Treble and Income?
I'm in my late 50s; been listening to, and playing, music for most of my life. I still occasionally haunt the salons, but these days not to buy new gear; more just curiosity about developments in our wonderful hobby. These days I just buy music; records, CDs and the odd download.
I was listening to a very expensive system recently, a combination of an excellent digital front end, feeding an exotic tube array of components, and outputting via a beautifully constructed set of English high-end speakers.
A very impressive sound to say the least. Not like real music though: very very good hi-fi, but not real.
One of the obvious oddities was the frequency response above maybe 4k. Just incorrect. Very clear, very emphasised and incisive, no doubt, but not right.
And it occured to me that this isn't unusual. And then a set of questions came to me. For the purposes of this debate I will exclude the 128k iPod generation - their tastes in listening are their own, and as much driven by budget as space constraint as anything else. I prefer to concentrate on the generation that has increased leisure and disposable income. It's a sad fact that this generation is plagued by the inevitability of progressive hearing loss, most often accompanied by diminished ability to hear higher frequencies. But it's this generation that can afford the 'best' equipment.
My question is simply this: is it not possible (or highly likely) that the higher-end industry is driven by the need to appeal to those whose hearing is degrading? In other words, is there a leaning towards the building-in of a compensatory frequency emphasis in much of what is on the shelves? My question is simplistic, and the industry may indeed be governed by the relentless pursuit of accuracy and musicality, but so much that I have hear is, I find, very difficult to listen to as it is so far from what I believe to be reality. Perhaps there has always been an emphasis in making our sytems sound "exciting" as opposed to "honest": I can understand the pleasure in this pursuit, as it's the delight in technology itself and I see nothing very wrong in that. But, all this emphasised treble....I just wonder if anyone out there in cyberspace agrees with me?
I was listening to a very expensive system recently, a combination of an excellent digital front end, feeding an exotic tube array of components, and outputting via a beautifully constructed set of English high-end speakers.
A very impressive sound to say the least. Not like real music though: very very good hi-fi, but not real.
One of the obvious oddities was the frequency response above maybe 4k. Just incorrect. Very clear, very emphasised and incisive, no doubt, but not right.
And it occured to me that this isn't unusual. And then a set of questions came to me. For the purposes of this debate I will exclude the 128k iPod generation - their tastes in listening are their own, and as much driven by budget as space constraint as anything else. I prefer to concentrate on the generation that has increased leisure and disposable income. It's a sad fact that this generation is plagued by the inevitability of progressive hearing loss, most often accompanied by diminished ability to hear higher frequencies. But it's this generation that can afford the 'best' equipment.
My question is simply this: is it not possible (or highly likely) that the higher-end industry is driven by the need to appeal to those whose hearing is degrading? In other words, is there a leaning towards the building-in of a compensatory frequency emphasis in much of what is on the shelves? My question is simplistic, and the industry may indeed be governed by the relentless pursuit of accuracy and musicality, but so much that I have hear is, I find, very difficult to listen to as it is so far from what I believe to be reality. Perhaps there has always been an emphasis in making our sytems sound "exciting" as opposed to "honest": I can understand the pleasure in this pursuit, as it's the delight in technology itself and I see nothing very wrong in that. But, all this emphasised treble....I just wonder if anyone out there in cyberspace agrees with me?
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- 72 posts total
I think the way to judge a speaker, any speaker, is to listen to classical live in a great venue (without amplification of course) and see how close you get. It's amazing how beautiful the top end of the spectrum is with live. Perhaps this changes with how far back you are but even a few rows deep in the audience the presentation is completely out of your face. (I could go crazy here with the idea of "imaging," what image?) Many modern recording place the microphones on stage and sometimes on top of the instrument. Add the EQ of the engineer and top heavy design of some speakers and it's no wonder the presentation in one's living room sounds artificial and bright. Oddly enough the old 1960s RCA and Decca got it right. I won't claim I get real life sound in my living room with these warhorse LPs but they are far more accurate and closer to my experience at the symphony. Now if only New Orleans and other Jazz cities would return to all acoustic live shows rather than "rock and roll" level amplified stage shows. |
Albert - I hear what you're saying about hall perspective, but sometimes the 10th-row sound doesn't translate that well to recordings. I think when you have a live band to look at, it compensates for the lack of detail, but audio alone appears to require a closer perspective to sound satisfying. At least to me. But I definitely agree with you that there is too much close miking and over-emphasis by engineers. If you don't have it, check out the old Umbrella Direct to Disk of the Toronto Chamber Orchestra. I'm normally not a fan of D2D, but I think they got this one right. http://www.ebay.com/itm/UMBRELLA-Direct-Disc-AUDIOPHILE-LP-Mozart-TORONTO-Chamber-EMB-DD6-Boyd-Neel-/150959116507?_trksid=p2047675.m1850&_trkparms=aid%3D222002%26algo%3DSIC.FIT%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D13535%26meid%3D3917537278889068243%26pid%3D100011%26prg%3D1080%26rk%3D5%26sd%3D110975976823%26 |
- 72 posts total