Hard to advance the art of loudspeaker design building the same old 2 ways and slim towers the market demands.
"Against design"
Yet another interesting blog from Mr. Weiss, this time on the design of speakers. As he goes:
http://oswaldsmillaudio.com/blog/
I concur to the above; speaker design in general has become trite (and non-organic) to the point where consumers, in getting so used to it, rejects whatever breaks the long-established mold of more or less square boxes, as well as other aspects of speaker engineering that goes contrary to the general norm (like small drive units, the type of driver used, etc.) when atypical design goes on to produce a prejudiced stance on the associated sound quality.
With regard to the enclosure materials used, how often does one see them made of carefully finished hardwood? OMA (via above link) and Daedalus comes to mind as some of the very few to hone real hardwood into beautiful speakers, evoking the feeling of something natural and organic - of something all too rare these days. My own speakers are made of fiberglass, definitely not an organic material, but their shape - what I'd regard "organic" or certainly curved, even to the point of being a sculpture - has led to numerous negative remarks:
http://www.horns.pl/mummy.html
- Just for being different? Almost every time I look at my speakers seems to do something different about them; the way the light hits them, the amount of it, ones angle to the speakers, mood, etc. - the magic of curves, if you will.. ;) Most importantly their design comes from a functional standpoint, and the non-parallel sides are only a plus acoustically.
Please chime in on the above...
Audiophiles want ugly speakers. Really. This sounds almost funny. Why would you want something that’s ugly?
The reason is very simple. If it’s ugly, you think–it must be good. No one in their right mind would pay $100,000 plus for a box with some cones in it, an unattractive thing at best, unless it was GOOD at doing what it does. Conversely, a speaker which is beautiful, or at least one where a great deal of work is evident in its industrial design, is not to be trusted. That speaker is, in the mind of the audiophile, trying too hard, like a woman all gussied up, hair, cosmetics and clothes all concealing another reality. Could not possibly sound as good as it looks, to be blunt about it.
It wasn’t always this way. In fact, it was pretty much the opposite fifty years ago. Before that AR monitor speaker, owning a really (sonically) impressive horn speaker was the ultimate. And those speakers, made by companies like JBL, Voight, Klipsch, Electrovoice, et al., were often very beautifully designed as pieces of furniture, a trend almost entirely absent today. Speakers such as the Paragon, Metregon and Hartsfield would not be out of place in the Museum of Modern Art, or any contemporary interior design magazine. Most audiophiles have never even heard of these speakers, let alone listened to one.
http://oswaldsmillaudio.com/blog/
I concur to the above; speaker design in general has become trite (and non-organic) to the point where consumers, in getting so used to it, rejects whatever breaks the long-established mold of more or less square boxes, as well as other aspects of speaker engineering that goes contrary to the general norm (like small drive units, the type of driver used, etc.) when atypical design goes on to produce a prejudiced stance on the associated sound quality.
With regard to the enclosure materials used, how often does one see them made of carefully finished hardwood? OMA (via above link) and Daedalus comes to mind as some of the very few to hone real hardwood into beautiful speakers, evoking the feeling of something natural and organic - of something all too rare these days. My own speakers are made of fiberglass, definitely not an organic material, but their shape - what I'd regard "organic" or certainly curved, even to the point of being a sculpture - has led to numerous negative remarks:
http://www.horns.pl/mummy.html
- Just for being different? Almost every time I look at my speakers seems to do something different about them; the way the light hits them, the amount of it, ones angle to the speakers, mood, etc. - the magic of curves, if you will.. ;) Most importantly their design comes from a functional standpoint, and the non-parallel sides are only a plus acoustically.
Please chime in on the above...
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- 20 posts total
Interesting perspective by the OP. I thought the more modern designs were in part a response to what was previously found unattractive in older speaker designs. Some of the older speaker designs were of some necessity due to the amplification technology of that era. Some years ago, but much closer to today than some of the previous designs, Thiel's speakers were actually praised in an article in Architectural Digest. I think that the promotion and wider use of multiple speakers for home theatre use might have had an influence on many more recent designs. I've often heard that the use of MDF; besides offering costs benefits, might be better for the environment and perhaps more importantly was better at reducing stored energy. I wonder if the use for an all solid wood speaker might be driven to appeal to the consumers desire for pride in ownership? All things considered the use of MDF with solid veneers might be the value leader. Though the use of alternate materials such as fiberglass, carbon fiber, aluminum, etc., is interesting to me, I use speakers with MDF with solid wood veneers and the speakers that I have been considering are the same. If my budget permitted the German Physiks in carbon fiber finish might be mine. |
I used made speakers with MDF panels with 1/8” skin veneer. MDF wood is like a sponge to compare to the plywood. MDF absorbs the impact while the plywood bounces. 1/8” skin does almost nothing but appearance. Plywood cabinet speaker sounds more extended to compare MDF cabinet speaker. The MDF speaker sounds rolled off and more like easy listening music. The plywood speaker sounds real and open. I rarely read anyone talks about musicality. People only talk about the sound. The reason people keep change equipments is because they are listening the sound. There is no end of upgrade if you are looking for the sound. There is always better sound with bigger and better cabinets and materials. There are too many MDF speakers with no soul. MDF can’t dig your heart and emotion. Last couple of decades, many people and audio industry have lost musicality with MDF speakers. Musicality is hard to measure for men. It’s hard to distinguish a good sound and musicality for men. I, with 30 years in audio, can’t distinguish musicality and a good sound easily. I hear every speaker before we pack for shipping. In 10-15 minutes of final listening inspection, I am not confident that the speaker is musically up to our standard. So, I ask Jackie (woman) to do the musicality inspection. Jackie listens few songs and gives me “OK.” Musicality is hard to measure for men. So, if you are not sure, you’d better trust woman’s ears. MDF speaker doesn’t have potential. We don’t compromise in hi-end audio. Since when we gave up the quality of sound for the cost and inconvenience? Audio is art! The speaker is a musical instrument. We can always tone down the screaming speakers which has potential. We shouldn’t eliminate or roll off screaming frequency from speakers. Alex Wavetouch Audio |
A new blog from Mr. Weiss titled "Stereo as furniture:" Today even manufacturers of $100,000 speakers, which tend to be large, go to great lengths to make the front baffle of their speakers as narrow as possible- the result is tall, skinny and deep. This is a very bad idea acoustically speaking, but it does address the unspoken fear in the industry of people not wanting to look at a speaker in their living room – at all. They are in effect trying to make a very expensive thing disappear, which is sort of insane. This is the space audio equipment occupies in our culture today, guilty fetish objects, trying to disguise themselves because no one loves them. A pity. http://oswaldsmillaudio.com/blog/ |
- 20 posts total