2. speakers
  3. 138388-17271

Cannot find perfect sound

I've been listening to supposedly some of the finest speakers that currently exist. These include b&w 800 Series, revel high end, vivid audio, Psi audio and kef blades.

None except the kef blades satisfied my high level standards.

When I play my reference tracks on cheap earbuds I hear timing accuracy that is missing on all the above speakers. Only the kef blades came closest to what I hear from cheap earbuds. 

Explanations please?

I really suspect that none of these high end speakers are accurately reproducing the sound on my CDs despite all the marketing claims about accuracy and high quality sound.

What could there possibly be that my cheap earbuds can do that eludes these super high end speakers?  

I'm not so eager anymore to spend any money until I have a good explanation.

kenjit
twoleftears's avatar
twoleftears
1,457 posts
 
I agree that you need to cast your net wider.  These mainstream "supposedly some of the best" speakers don't always turn out to be that.  Speakers vary A LOT.  You've heard one you like; there are hundreds of brands out there, and I'd bet there are 4 or 5 out that you would like as much as, or more than, the KEF.
jond's avatar
jond
3,400 posts
 
You should read this..........
https://www.audiostream.com/content/problem-loudspeakers
geoffkait's avatar
geoffkait
14,147 posts
 
It’s all a big scam at a certain level.
blueranger's avatar
blueranger
575 posts
 
Amp amp amp. Your headphone amp can produce a very clean signal because its in the low wattage domain. It is significantly more difficult to make a high powered amp. Paul Klipsch once said years ago "What this country needs is a good one watt amp" Portables have another thing going for them is that they have a dedicated power supply. The acoustics are also controlled. For me headphone listening is not as pleasurable. Even though the accuracy is there I think your body needs to feel the sound waves to be convincing.
audiokinesis
1,872 posts
 

@kenjit wrote: "Mids are easy to absorb."

Sufficient absorption to make a significant difference in the mids will totally kill any in-room energy in the highs. That’s the problem with relying on absorption to fix a problem in the mids - you get overabsorption of all shorter wavelengths.

I believe that a room problem in the mids often originates as a speaker problem in the mids (perhaps excess off-axis upper midrange energy) and the such problems are most effectively addressed at the speaker level.

Earbuds of course have zero contribution from room reflections. Such reflections are inevitable in a room but can be minimized by nearfield listening, and/or rendered beneficial by making sure they are spectrally correct and don’t arrive to early relative to the first-arrival sound.

"On the other hand, high end speakers may have a super flat response and low distortion but the timing is all wrong."

IF the off-axis response is not flat, and if you are not in a nearfield setup, then the response that you hear is not flat. The on-axis quasi-anechoic frequency response only tells part of the story, and imo it does not tell the biggest part.

Full-range electrostatics (most Quads, most SoundLabs) might be worth checking out. I’m fairly familiar with the SoundLabs (was a dealer for many years), and while not inexpensive, imo they do the kinds of things you are looking for very well.

For instance, SPL falls off more slowly with distance from a line source (-3 dB per doubling of distance) than from a point source (-6 dB per doubling of distance). So SoundLabs maintain nearfield conditions much further back into the room than a point-source speaker does.  This minimal change in SPL with distance gives the SoundLabs an unusually realistic "feel" because the soundfield where you sit is more consistent, like the soundfield would be if you were attending a live performance.   (And you can sit nearfield if you need to - I had a customer who sat close enough to his SoundLabs that he could learn forward and touch them. Because the change in SPL with distance was so small, there was no "head in a vice" effect either.) Since their radiation patterns are exceptionally uniform up and down the spectrum, the room’s contributions will be spectrally correct as long as you don’t overdo the absorption. The radiation pattern is narrow enough to virtually eliminate early reflections, assuming you can pull the speakers out into the room about five feet in front of the wall and toe them in somewhat. Last but not least, they use a single ultralight diaphragm to reproduce the entire spectrum, kinda like a giant earbud.

Duke

dealer/manufacturer


More to discover