2. speakers
  3. 147054-24

Whats the deal?

Why do people, myself included, place so much emphasis on build quality and appearance over sound?  It’s so strange that I’ll do just about anything to make my system sound better apart from using tone controls or buying / enjoying speakers that don’t use high quality drivers, cabs and crossovers.  It’s like I have an audiophile checklist of dos and don’ts

A good example would be the fact that I have bought and listened to many different models of Paradigm speakers and the only ones that I loved were the Signature 2 V.2.  I have loved the way  many other Paradigm speakers that I owned looked or were built but when it comes to sound they were all too bright.  Sure they image well and have good dynamics but I see so many posts about paradigm that have a similar tones (no pun intended).

Why oh why do we spend all kinds of $ trying to make speakers that we don’t like sound like speakers that we do like.
Wouldn’t it just be easier to buy new speakers as opposed to new amp, source, wires, room acoustic treatments trying to put band aids on speakers that we don’t like?

Kind of reminds me of marriages where the Wife is a total jerk yet the Husband will stay with her forever because she’s beautiful.  
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Showing 3 responses by erik_squires

erik_squires
5,268 posts
 
If you listen to music, you should use tone controls when you need to.

If you listen to gear, avoid them.

What I mean is, using tone controls can help you enjoy more music from a wider era. Using a good loudness switch can help you enjoy music at more times of the day when you are not necessarily sitting for a performance. Nice to see a number of top-end integrateds including them now.


If you are listening only to audiophile recordings with an audiophile checklist, that really narrows your scope, and makes me wonder if you care about music, or just some set of tones and sounds that you find pleasant.

But in terms of gear, yes, it's hard to justify performance on it's' own merits for most. In 300 years the ideal playback system will look like a rectangle that is transparent and the size of a deck of playing cards. Hard to justify several month's salary for that.


Room acoustics before cables. Also, I really think every audiophile should build 1 pair of speakers in their lifetime. A small two way would be ideal. They'd learn so much and give up on the cable chasing phenomenon we are in.


Best,
Erik
erik_squires
5,268 posts
 
Cables can make a diffetence

@gillatgh


I never said otherwise. My messages have been consistent:

  1. Deal with room acoustics first,
  2. Much of what you do with cables you can do with a speaker if you tweak the crossover
  3. I question the price / performance ratio of a lot of cables.


erik_squires
5,268 posts
 
Whats the prettiest, most expensive, highest pedigree speaker that sounds like garbage?  Someone chime in here.

My two pet peeves are Golden Ear and Dali. First has a really ragged, second has very elevated, top end.


After that, Magico. Much much better sounding than the previous two, but to my ears never get the tonal balance right, especially with female voices and pianos.


PS I only posted this so a lot of people would go nuts and reply.



You are welcome,


E
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