2way speakers

I prefer any LS3/5A design ( two way sealed ) type. Spendor, Harbeth, Stirling, Falcon, etc., etc. If you don’t like bright speakers I doubt you will like B&W!

Duke, excellent write up. Thanks for taking the time.

Why did I not like the cold sound of the green mountain audio chromas? 

What makes the speaker sound that way? 

@audiokinesis

Agreed. You can’t argue the physics. Even off axis dispersion or even power response was discovered in the 70’s. I think reknown manufacturers like B&W know this but B&W has built a succesful global business selling designs with a hole in the mid range. B&W crossover a 6 inch woofer at 4 KHz (big mid range hole) and tend to boost their bass response too. B&W speakers all sound like hi-fi - boosted bass and boosted treble. Along with other manufacturers they have defined a sound that most people equate to hi-fi. It isn’t natural sounding and it is fatiguing principally because the ears/brain can’t quite make sense of the unnatural sound. It demands attention because it sounds different from everything else we hear all our lives. It sells well as owners are proud of the distinctly unnatural “hi-fi” sound. In a sense, the marketing department and magazines have educated us to expect this kind of exaggeration from “hi-fi” speakers. Natural sounding speakers do not draw any attention to themselves in the way “hi-fi” speakers do. Most well heeled buyers are actually more willing to part with large $$$ when they can clearly hear something different and attention grabbing. B&W know exactly what they are doing and it works! Great and tremendously succesful company.

@shadorne 

You're making the common mistake of judging the sound of a speaker entirely based on its response.

The fact of the matter is most hifi speakers I've seen reviewed in stereophile do have quite a flat response within a few db.

Why should anybody pay several thousand dollars more than a basic hifi speaker costing say 300 dollars if the only difference you're getting is a few db differences in the frequency response?