Analytical or Musical Which way to go?


The debate rages on. What are we to do? Designing a spealer that measures wellin all areas shoulkd be the goal manufacturer.
As allways limtiations abound. Time and again I read designers yo say the design the speaker to measure as best they can. But it just does not sound like music.

The question is of course is: what happens when the speaker sounds dull and lifeless.

Then enters a second speaker that sounds like real music but does not have optimum mesurements?

Many of course would argue, stop right there. If it does not measure well it can't sound good.

I pose the question then how can a spekeer that sounds lifeless be acurrate?

Would that pose yhis question. Does live music sound dull and lifeless?
If not how can we ever be be satisified with such a spseker no matter how well it measures?
gregadd
Conundria (a word I just made up, or an obscure Italian town). I think it comes down to "things you like and things you don't like". Reviews that say "this speaker is too revealing for crappy gear", although sounding reasonable, is weird to me and makes me think somebody is trying to make me spend money. Non musical speakers are the ones they use for PA announcements in airports, and a musical speaker is somebody lecturing you in a "sing song" voice. I'd like to be in on the conversation among the designers at the "non musical" speaker company..."So Bob, we have to increase the tonal glare and destroy the phase response curves in this speaker...that bassoon is just too damn life-like". Yamaha ns10s, which used to be in every pro studio in the known universe, absolutely SUCK. I hate those damn things...non musical GALORE, but somehow somebody made musical stuff happen through them...analytical? No...just BAD, and I still hate them. I also think a lot of music is non musical, but that's another story.
All I can add is that, IMHO, there are clearly several speakers that measure well and sound very much like music. And, as an audiophile for some 40 years, I think there is no longer a debate "raging on".
No one denies there are good sounding speakers that also measure well. The question is why do some speaker measure well yet sound poor.Why are there good sounding speakers that measure poorly. The debate lingers.
Einstein once said:

"Everything that can be counted does not necessarily count; everything that counts cannot necessarily be counted."
To my way of thinking this is apropos to this thread...right down to the ground.

When designing a loudspeaker, the question should be, the FIRST QUESTION:
'Does it SOUND LIKE music?'
If there is any equivocation, change whatever is that is mitigating that realism.
For years, some speakers have been maligned for 'too much treble' or 'too much bass'...given that we ALL hear differently this isn't surprising.
But...BUT, there is no doubting that flat frequency response is the start, just the START of a design. Tonal aberrations are generally disqualifiers for most people as we usually can pick apart some tonal glitch that makes a cello sound 'wrong', or a clarinet sound 'wrong', as most of us have a good inner reference since we've heard these instruments first hand.

As usual, Charles Dad and Atmasphere give sage advice.
Years ago a Supreme Court Justice, in describing Porn said, 'I don't know exactly how to describe it, but I know it when I see it.' (Paraphrase)

Speakers, to me, at least one's that sound real, are the same. You'll know it when you hear it.
And one final thought...any slight aberration becomes major, MAJOR in a short while...so if you hear 'a little too much treble' at first, within a week, you'll be absolutely crazy...at least I am.

Larry