i feel like room is more important, i heard multiple speakers, including some vintage and cheapo jbl monitors, castle speakers, harbeth 40.2, harbeth 30.1, elac adante, kef ls50 and kef r300, r900, in a room that was large, if you have enough space to the sides of the speakers, the ’holographic’ ’dissapearing act’ will apply to pretty much any speaker if the source gear is transparent enough. i say this because all the speakers i heard did disappear very well. I actually think the kef and elac speakers disappeared the best but all of them did so in a way that I figure a good room would do, which is why I'm of the belief if your speakers aren't disappearing, its your room.
narrow and wide baffles and imaging
According to all the "professional" audio reviews that I've read over the last several years, narrow baffles are crucial to creating that so-desired pin-point imaging.
However, over the last few weeks, I've had the opportunity to audition Harbeth 40.2, Spendor Classic 100, Audio Note AN-E, and Devore O/93. None of these had deficient imaging; indeed I would go so far as to say that it was good to very good.
So, what gives? I'm forced to conclude that modern designs, 95% of which espouse the narrow baffle, are driven by aesthetic/cosmetic considerations, rather than acoustical ones, and the baffle~imaging canard is just an ex post facto justification.
I can understand the desire to build speakers that fit into small rooms, are relatively unobtrusive, and might pass the SAF test, but it seems a bit much to add on the idea that they're essentially the only ones that will do imaging correctly.
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@twoleftears Yes you are correct. Also mid sized ATC like the ATC 100, JBL and other big boxey three ways tend not to image (or disappear) as well. It all has to do with mid range and tweeter frequencies because the LF sound wraps around the entire speaker (wavelength is much larger than the woofer) I did not mention but a waveguide around the mid range or tweeter can create directivity and reduce the baffle issue too. ATC mid range has a waveguide and so does the tweeter but nevertheless the smallest models image best. A horn works well too like Avantgarde. Audiophysics really do the disappearing trick and so did Bose Acoustimass although the audiophysics are a fantastic speaker and Bose is average but you get the idea.... It is more the disappearing act than imaging that is most immediately noticeable... Genelec have done a lot of work on this https://www.genelec.com/key-technologies/minimum-diffraction-enclosure-mde-technology |
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