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Digital, Low Mass, ClassD, Less expensive, Let it happen!

Well here we are! Not that you can't go back and buy boat anchors, but now we know sound is better with low mass designs. Digital source? Yep, the tide has turned. ClassD amplification is also here to stay. Lower mass speakers, on their way back too. The audiophile hobby is getting less expensive and better sounding.

I guess we can debate this, but it's happening anyway. The hobby is simply growing up and becoming more aware of how to get great sound, and get it smart. There has been a lot of myths passed down when we only had paperback magazines, mostly for marketing, but the internet has finally caught up with audio reality. Instead of $20,000.00 components we have $20,000.00 whole systems (including all the trimming). Shoot, there are $5,000.00 systems that excel. The Trade Shows are changing, the market is changing and we are changing. Want to stay old school? No problem, there will always be old school and plenty of used gear (at least for our lifetimes). There will also be smaller niche companies that spring up to tempt us.

The hobby is entering a new era for the extreme listener. It will be a hobby of doing and exploring Electrical, Mechanical and Acoustical as equals. Components will be much smaller and more flexible, and more time will be spent on playing our whole music collection, and not just a few recordings. Many HEA debates will be making their way to the archives as the hobby grows closer to mainstream. Mainstream as in higher quality audiophile mainstream.

Are you ready? I sure am!

Michael Green


http://www.michaelgreenaudio.net/

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bdp24's avatar
bdp24
4,908 posts
 
I just love sweeping generalizations. Low mass speakers are "coming back"? ESL's never left. The vacuum inside a tube exhibits very low mass (zero), but the transformers of the amp it is installed in shouldn't (ask Roger Modjeski or Tim de Paravicini). More grandiose proclamations please!
geoffkait's avatar
geoffkait
14,147 posts
 
One wonders if low mass speakers refer to the total mass or just the diaphragm. The flagship Martin Logan’s come in at 280 lb per pair. The big Sound Labs A-1s tip the scales at 370 lb per pair. Is that really considered low mass? Hmmmmm...
inna
5,245 posts
 
Yeah, they better get brain implants with music -upgradeable - and be done with it.
michaelgreenaudio's avatar
michaelgreenaudio OP
643 posts
 

Well, like I've been saying (as well as others here), it's happening whether there's a debate here or not. Simple passive acoustics, room correction (DSP), low mass amps and entry level speakers, inexpensive enough to make the audio cheapskate blush, are making their way into the audiophile mainstream way of thinking.

None of this needs Agon membership approval. It's just a fact that simpler, happier audiophile days are here that is far more practical then what was preached years past.

Many of you are putting together, past and now, systems that rival the big buck systems and that's good. The cool thing that I'm talking about is, your sharing your findings and that's what is needed. And, that's what's going to balance out this hobby and introduce new blood to the magic of in-room listening. Headphone and car listening are already there, more or less, but HEA has struggled to get to that comfort level it deserves.

Room correction is now the norm, passive and electronic, that's a big step. Low mass is taking place, that's the most needed next step taking place. Low mass more gain.

Michael Green

bdp24's avatar
bdp24
4,908 posts
 
In 1974 the FMI 80 was a very good low-priced speaker, better than many much more expensive models from other companies. The same was true of the NAD 3020 integrated amp in the 1980's. I guess they could be described as "low mass", but that's not why they sounded good. Good design is not a bumper sticker slogan.
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