When a Reviewer "likes" something

Sitting in one of many disparate seats with thousands of figgity humans listening to an orchestra, weirdly, will always be nothing like being at home with your little hifi. Who knew? And does anybody adjust their senses when at home, or do you merely sit there unsatisfied that the oboes sound somehow different when not being bounced off the bald pate of the fat guy in the seat in front of you? I'm amazed that anybody can get obsessed with "references" when those ideals of tone and scale are all over the map. I saw the Sleeping Beauty ballet in Boston last weekend from the 3rd row and the orchestra sounded beautiful and played perfectly...then yesterday I cranked up an LP of the same music (Philly by Ormandy) and was blown away again by an utterly different sounding majesty...just with no dancers and more elbow room. Reviewers have their ideals stuck in their heads, not your head, and as long as they write well and publish some cool pics and specs, I'll read it. Now I have to get back to that young hippy chick in my hot tub...she's getting "pruny."

Dear Lewm: +++++ " The choice of amplifier should be determined by only one thing - the choice of speaker. The better the two elements are matched, the closer the resulting artificially recreated sound will be to reality.... " +++++

right, agree on that. Now. IMHO the main subject there is that ++++ " The better the two elements are matched,.. " +++

what means IMHO that " matched ", simple: electrical matched, that's all. The first electrical parameter to have to be matched is the electrical speaker impedance curve against the amplifier output impedance. After that the speaker current asked against what the amplifier can supply it and go on on other factors in between.

Unfortunatelly no one of us have the capacity " to listen directly to amplifiers and preamplifiers without the need for a speaker " and normally tube technology can't handle can't match the specific electrical speaker needs.

That now/today I use SS electronics is only not because I love SS or because I hate tube technology but because SS is IMHO the only true alternative to match the speaker electrical needs.

Lewm, my speific music targets impede the use of tube technology at amplifier level. Today the best match to any speaker electrical needs is the SS alternative.

That facts has nothing to do with what I like or what I don't like, it is as simple as: 2+2.

Lewm, I'm not stupid and certainly you neither. You are a wise persons and IMHO there are no true real facts where you can argue that tube technology is better than SS to work with real speakers. If I were you maybe I give up on this tube topic because you have no serious scientific foundation to follow trying to support it when there is no way to support it.

This is not whom has the reason and I can tell you that whom has the reason and the winner is: the Physics's Laws.

++++ " will take that into account and not be brainwashed " ++++

the Physics's Laws does not permit to any one ( including you and me. ) to brainwash to any one. So we all are protected against that brainwash.

Now, ++++ " the question was about audio reviewers for the mainstream magazines. What do you think of them? " ++++++

I already posted: almost all of them are and promote corruption because they hide critical audio information or gives us misinformation. That electrical speaker/amplifier match is a clear example about when they don't go in deep on that critical subject.

Regards and enjoy the music,
R.

I think we should go private with this argument, if you wish. It has nothing to do with the topic.

I can't resist one point: speakers in general have evolved to match solid state amplifiers. Does that mean necessarily that we are left with the best possible speakers? No. However, I would not argue for a moment that high power solid state amplifiers are best suited to drive low impedance, low efficiency, multi-driver speakers which are dominant in the high end marketplace. Most of those speakers suck, IMO. (Yes, that's MHO.)

I can no longer enjoy music...Raul ruined it for me.

Lew and Raul, I greatly respect both of your opinions and knowledge. But Raul made a couple of points that jive with a technical issue that I am presently sorting through. As you can see from my system description, I own Paradigm Signature 8 speakers and drive them with an ARC tube amp which puts outs 120 wpc.

Raul is correct in saying that matching an amp with a particular speaker is an electrical issue. Lew, I'm sure you read Ralph Karsten's White Paper that explains the so-called Voltage and Power Paradigms. As I am learning, some speakers have impedance curves and phase angles that make them tube friendly. However, other speakers were designed and voiced to be driven by solid state amps, not tube amps. And many of these speakers may not be so tube friendly.

I appreciate that there are a lot of other factors at play when matching amps and speakers. But some tube amps will simply have a hard time driving speakers with wild impedance curves and reactive phase angles, especially in the low frequency range.

Perhaps an even more important point. If a speakers was designed and voiced with the expectation that it would be driven by a SS amp, even if a tube amp has the umph to drive the low end, the speaker's acoustic signature may change the whole presentation. Hence it is possible that a speaker that is spec'ed to be ruler flat if driven by a SS amp, may not perform the same if driven by a tube amp.

In my case, my Paradigm S8s are the "back of the room darlings" of many a reviewer, including Mark Mickelson. See his article in the May, 2010 edition of TAB. The S8s were voted by another mag to be the best speaker on the market in 2011. Isn't that great?? [sic]

But here's the darker side to the story. After reading Ralph's White Paper and doing a lot more research, it became apparent that my speakers are NOT so tube friendly. Ooops. The impedance curves and reactive phase angles made me dizzy.

I spoke with Paradigm's technical folks and they said that the S8s were designed and voiced to be driven by a high power/high current amp. Oh sh*t!! Ralph's White Paper would describe such an amp as a Voltage Paradigm amp, or more commonly known as a typical SS amp.

Aside from issues pertaining to my ARC tube amp's ability to tackle my speaker's low end, I suspect that its acoustic presentation is different than described in Paradigm's literature.

This issue, or at least facets of it, has been raised in numerous Forum OPs. But here's my gripe and it's a big one. I think it's incumbent on the manufacturers to expressly state whether their speakers were designed to be driven by a tube amp or a SS amp, or perhaps both. Similarly, I think it's incumbent on the reviewers to alert their readership of the same point.

While one can argue about the virtues or deficiencies of tube versus SS, if the electrical match with the speaker is way off, the argument is simply academic.

So now, I'm trying to tweak my rig to get the type of performance that I expected to get after reading company literature and all the reviewer articles that are posted on the company's web site. Right now, I'm playing with the output tranny taps and also contacted Tom Tutay to custom design a low pass filter that will be inserted between my line stage and amp. The objective is to try an tame my speakers.

My bottom line advice to my fellow members is do your homework if buying new speakers or a new amp. Electrical matching is the FIRST question to be asked and answered. Try to obtain impedance and phase angle graphs. If the impedance curves and phase angles are moderate, the speaker may be tube amp and SS amp friendly. Also, call the speaker company's tech people and ask what type of amp the designers had in mind to drive the speaker.

That's about all for now. I'm sure my post will generate a lot of negative push back, but this is where I am holding now until someone cogently explains otherwise.

Cheers.