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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

Showing 4 responses by bdp24

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bdp24
4,908 posts
 

Distortion is below 0.5%? In what universe?! On some speakers at some frequencies at some SPL, but nothing more. All speakers produce huge amounts of distortion at even 40Hz (10% is common), let alone 30 or 20. And while above bass and midbass frequencies the percentage is less, it is nowhere near as low as 0.5 at realistic SPL.

You don’t need specs or verification of them to hear the serious colorations in loudspeakers. Buy or borrow a recorder of some sort, a microphone or two, and make recordings of family or friends speaking. Play the recordings on your speakers to hear how much they change the sound of even voices! Do the same with an acoustic guitar, drumset, or piano. The most interesting thing you will learn is how much better (more lifelike) a homemade recording can sound in comparison with a commercial one (LP, CD, etc.).

bdp24's avatar
bdp24
4,908 posts
 

@n80, did you ever read how Doug Sax (the legendary mastering engineer, producer of the Sheffield Labs LPs) evaluated both equipment and his recordings? Going into the studio, listening to the live sound, then going back into the monitor room and comparing the sound coming out of his (horn) loudspeakers to the live sound, making adjustments as needed to minimize the difference between the two. For equipment evaluation, he would do a by-pass test.

Who knows how "the engineer/producer intended you to hear it"? They’ll be the first to tell you what he heard in the studio and what he captured on tape are miles apart. Having spent a fair amount of time in studios, I guarantee you most commercial recordings are NOT made to sound "accurate", but rather "good". To evaluate, say, loudspeakers using a recording you have no way of knowing the actual sound of is one of the major paradoxes facing the consumer.

bdp24's avatar
bdp24
4,908 posts
 
It’s easier for me than many others, as my main criteria when evaluating a speaker is of it’s ability to make singing voices and acoustic instruments sound as timbrally-lifelike and coloration-free as possible. Non-Classical acoustic music is performed at modest SPL, so extreme capability in that regard is not necessary (though nice to have when I have a cravin’ for AC/DC ;-). The bottom note of a standard 4-string bass (both electric and acoustic upright) is located at 41-42Hz, so the 20-40Hz octave is not an absolute requirement. But an 88-key piano extends considerably below 40Hz, a pipe organ (heard in much of the J.S. Bach I love) down to 16Hz! Bass is expensive, but we no longer need rely on loudspeakers to provide that; there are some great music subs available now.
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bdp24
4,908 posts
 
Some things sound good at first, but over time become irritating.
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