Harshness in Midrange??? Any Help

If the problem is as you gentlemen stated, are the people at B&W so stupid that they would allow such a flaw to exist in their design? Or did they design this speaker with the "flaw" in mind? Or did they "discover" this flaw afterwards (which is quite stupid) but accepted it because it would be too expensive to correct it?

Chris

Chris,

Good question. I would have to say it is deliberate.

The boost between 4 and 5 Khz will add the "slap" on a kick drum. It will make the speaker sound more dertailed and speed up the bass.

You may have noticed B&W place the tweeter on top on many of their designs....I think ithis is obviously deliberate and as Duke points out the tweeter will radiate rearwards in its very lowest frequency range without a baffle...adding some atmospheric or ambient qualities to the sound.

In essence it will certainly differentiate B&W from others and that is often what it is about in speaker design.

I must emphasize this is not BAD ...it is a design choice....I am sure that most proud B&W owners choose these speakers for these special qualities. I hope you noted that I said this is a great speaker and long used by Alan Parsons - it kicks butt!!

Chris,

Different designers have different ideas about what matters and what doesn't. That's one of the things that makes speaker design so fascinating. It's not rocket science - there is no neat book of equations that tells you exactly what performance you must generate to lift the satellite to its orbit. Two speaker designers may not even agree on what the goal is, much less how best to reach it.

Unfortunately for the sake of enlightening discussion, B&W's designers have better things to do with their time than post on Audiogon. I, on the other hand, do not.

Duke

edit - Shadorne, yes I think a bit of equalization on the tweeter's side of the crossover to smooth out the power response would help.

I just reduced a harshness in vocals on my very cheap speakers (which otherwise sound great but shall remain nameless, for now) by pacing a square of open cell foam in front of the driver. Experiment with placement on the midrange or tweeter. Hey, it's free and it made a difference that was worthwhile. The speakers are now very listenable.

They are Radio Shack Minimus 11. HA!