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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
marqmike
676 posts
 
+1 Mapman. It is about that simple if you are concerned about sound quality.  If it sounds good, wait for the drum roll ......., it is good. But first you have to know what your listening for. Live acoustic music for me is the best way to get a handle on what sounds best in a speaker.
wolf_garcia
4,650 posts
 
I have 2 dissimilar speakers around, Silverline Preludes and Klipsch Heresy IIIs, and they sound astonishingly similar relative to general tonality. Although the Silverlines are reasonably efficient, my quest for more efficient speakers led me to try Sonist Recital IIIs which are beautifully made and efficient, but not for me tonally as I was used to the Preludes clearer top end...sold 'em...Next I auditioned the Heresy IIIs and thought...hmmm...could be the thing...bought a pair and man...these things are really great sounding speakers, coherent, efficient, accurate, engaging, short, fat, etc., need subs which I have, so now I'll say goodbye to the Preludes. Note that all of this was prompted by switching to a lower powered single ended tube amp that sounds glorious, but sounds gloriouser with efficient speakers, and the Heresy IIIs provide that efficiency. System dependent? You bet.
mrdecibel
1,244 posts
 
The truth is this, and it has been pointed out before, and above. We are not hearing " just the speakers ". We are hearing the system, which besides the speakers ( and there specific set up ), includes the room acoustics, the listening seat, the associated equipment, and who knows how much tampering and manipulation of the actual recordings themselves. Now, do you want to talk about over the ear / closed ear headphones ? Let us face it, the speaker is very dependent on everything else. So the question should be " when do you know when a system sounds good to you ? That, to me is simple. When you want to continue listening, to this recording, and to that recording, and to another recording, and so on, and so on, and so on....Enjoy ! MrD.
mapman's avatar
mapman
15,679 posts
 
Yep you only know a good speaker for sure when you hear it and each speaker has to be setup properly (including a proper amp) to enable that. Speaker A might handily sound good and Speaker B not on Amp A but swap in amp B and the reverse is very possible.

Also it is true that if the speaker is an easy load to drive, chances are it will sound good off a wider variety of amps than otherwise.

A good example is KEF ls50. State of the art within its limits in many ways, but will not sound good if amp is not up to the task of driving them ie lots of clean not just power but also current. I’ve heard both cases in my house.

Compare to Fritz Carrera, designed to provide a very easy load to drive. . I heard these sound very good indeed off a 7 watt headphone amp recently and have no doubt they would excel with most any amp used.
audiojan's avatar
audiojan
245 posts
 
Regardless of price, every speaker will be a compromise in one way or another. Basically it sounds perfect to the designer given the constraints (price, resources, materials, drivers, components,etc).

what it it comes down to fir me is can I live with those compromises and do I “feel” the music? If I get goosebumps listening to certain tracks then I know they are good for me.
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