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How do you know what a good speaker is?

Frequency response for high end speakers at every price level is usually relatively flat. The differences in audible sound quality reported by audiophiles is disproportionate to the differences in frequency response between different speakers therefore frequency response cannot be a very significant factor in what we're hearing.
Distortion is usually below 0.5% so again the same reasoning applies.
I'm not convinced that polar response is quite as important as is sometimes claimed. 

If you look at the specs of most ultra high end loudspeakers,  there's no hard evidence provided by the manufacturers to justify their claims that their speaker is vastly superior.
And if there was it would need to be independently verified.

So how does the consumer know how close any given loudspeaker is to the ideal loudspeaker? How do we know how close a loudspeaker is to recreating the sound of a violin, cello, piano, human voice, or anything else? 

What makes a magico vastly different from a yg or Wilson? On the other hand if the difference between these speakers is extremely small then why is there such a discrepancy in opinions and why do we need a yg and a magico and Wilson and tidal audio and b&w etc on the market if they're all so similar?  







kenjit
michaelgreenaudio's avatar
michaelgreenaudio
643 posts
 

"How do you know what a good speaker is?"

There's probably not too many speaker designers out there that think their speakers are bad. The important thing to understand is, when you are bringing their speaker into your home your also committing yourself to someone else's paradigm. A speaker is a tool, nothing more and nothing less. If a speaker fulfills your goal it's a good day.

MG

inna
5,245 posts
 
Wrong. This is an awkward effort to please the crowd and renounce objectivity. Really good speakers will be acknowledged as such by everyone with hearing regardless of sound preferences.
michaelgreenaudio's avatar
michaelgreenaudio
643 posts
 

Hi inna

What crowd?

Maybe you weren't referring to me.

sdj888
9 posts
 
+1 n80

On the sold and heavy cabinets, mine are 80kg (176lb) ea. And they are not so good looking, but provide countless hours of joy. And I understand some isolation from the (stout) stands (or floor) is critical,  currently using asorbathane of the firmer type (70 duro). 
I imagne good speakers can be found in lots of places, but great ones are a treasure, and often worth their weight - pardon the pun. 




gryphongryph
85 posts
 
When I hear the violin on a good recording of Erbarme Dich on my Graham Audio LS 5/9 as I did this morning before going to work, know I have the speakers for life, they might not have the deepest bass or the most detailed highs, but the music they make sounds so realistic and true that the shortcomings are totally forgotten, also to be able to listen for hours on end without any fatigue is such a nice pleasure, if a manufacturer gets the human voices and instruments right, then some shortcomings in bass or treble it is possible to live with, but for me get the midrange wrong! Then I can not listen long to that speaker, also getting older it is not so easy to hear the highest notes;-) so for me a rolled of treble is no disappointment.
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