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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
mzkmxcv
558 posts
 
The polar response is indeed important, but the off-axis measurements done by Stereophile, SoundStage/NRC, etc. use is more telling. 
 
Good vertical response is important too, say withhin a +/-10° window; this is where speakers like the Tekton Double Impacts do horribly in, you need to be on the reference axis or else the response changes greatly. 
 
Dynamic compression is also important, how the speaker measures at low and high volumes. 
 
How its spectral decay and transient response is also are important. You want fast transient and an even decay that’s also decently fast. 
 

stevecham
3,298 posts
 
The reason why the majority of speakers offered today have good frequency, dynamic, timbre and spacial responses is due to competition from a wide variety of designers and companies, each with their own version of the answer to your main question. Each individual carries her/his own set of subjective, objective, emotional, quantitative and qualitiative values, opinions, ears and eyes as to what forms the so-called "ideal." Even identical twins have their own sets of preferences simply because it's physically impossible for any two people to always occupy the same place and time, and experience the exact same things, simultaneously.

I celebrate that we get to live in a time when there is an abundance of choice, that there is no "ideal" or absolute, and that part of the pleasure is in the hunt to find the speaker, and, as importantly, its associated components and listening environment, to form the system, and, as Tom says, puts the smile on my face and makes me want to listen for hours.
kalali's avatar
kalali
1,645 posts
 
I’m convinced that a “good” speaker is only good within a given “system”. Same speaker moved to a different room and paired with a different system will not be as “good”.
n80
1,227 posts
 
I think my speakers are good. They are largish tower speakers. They pass Tomcarr's smile test every time. And are a joy to listen to all evening long.

I don't know enough to explain why they are 'good'. But the two things you notice most when you examine them is that they are dense. Knock on them with your hand and it feels like they are made of a solid block of wood. Seriously. And the second thing you will notice is that they are heavy. Even heavier than their density and appearance would suggest. So heavy they are difficult to move around and re-position with just one person.

I have no idea if these are critical speaker features or not. But they are definitely noticeable and apparently very intentional.
cleeds
2,065 posts
 
kenjit
How do we know how close a loudspeaker is to recreating the sound of a violin, cello, piano, human voice, or anything else ...
If you know what real instruments sound like, you'll recognize them when you hear them through a speaker system.
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