Odd shaped speakers

~~~~Clueless, Stay away from Killerpiglet!

Just the Facts!

Some speakers are designed / shaped a specific way for technical reasons. Many times, this type of product can be done so that they don't stand out from the crowd or at least do it in a manner that is not "over the top". Then there are the other times it is for sheer attention getting and cosmetics i.e. "art for arts' sake".

Clueless: As to being shaped like a ham, that really doesn't matter. We've read your posts and already KNEW you were a ham. As such, being shaped like one only seems to go with the territory. I wouldn't worry about it though, as it looks quite natural and you carry it well : ) Sean
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PS... We still love ya anyhow...

You know, when I consider the shape of all things natural, the essence of sound/music itself and the shape of the vast range of musical instruments used to MAKE the music reproduced by audio systems, i.e., the fact that not one (to the best of my knowledge) is a square or rectangle (or simple variations thereof); that indeed most are about as far from being of such simplistic geometric shapes as you can get, it stirs me to thinking that perhaps it is the vast majority of conventionally designed/traditionally-shaped speakers that should not be taken anywhere nearly as seriously as they have been by those in pursuit of the so-called absolute sound.

Fam124, such spiritual words. What do you mean exactly? What is the human avocation to ascribing qualities to things, animals and persons based on their physical properties (like garden-hosed sized speaker cables obviously producing better bass because any fool can see bass is a "BIG" sound and "BIG" things require a lot of space)called? Is that what B&W are thinking with seashell-like Nautilus speakers? They sound more "natural" because they look more "natural"? I, on the other hand, have never seen an organic looking watch movement. I am not taking aim at any manufacturer in particular, but what got me thinking were Norh speakers. I can honestly say I have never seen such grotesque creatures posing as speakers before. Maybe they look better live. I think that generally the physical aspect of the equipment and the immediate individual reaction to it cannot be dismissed in the listening qualities attributed to components in their subsequent audition. I suggest that some audiophiles actually believe a thick and expensive faceplate on electronics assures better sound. Now, we have a new absurd debate on "industrial design" looks vs. "organic looks" and how this affects the audiophile experience! I agree the math behind that seashell is a lot more complicated than a neat box, but is all this a marketing ploy based on symbolism or does it have some actual application to enhanced sound reproduction?

Well, I am in way over my head here. I like box speakers very much. I listen to ones I made myself based upon Northcreek.

Lots goes on inside a cabinet. If you tear apart an Ariel(Lynn Olson's famous speaker), for example, you see a lot done inside to deal with the consequences of placing drivers in Boxes. Pretty clear boxes are not perfect enclosures. Sean, in another post, recently talked about working on a speaker that has each driver in a separate enclosed tube to minimize internal pressure, internal standing waves and "crosstalk." Any decent speaker deals with this stuff and it's not easy.

Just look at the theory/tweaking behind transmission line speakers (Look at t-linespeakers.org. for a little info.) Some of the B&W Nautilus stuff can be understood as another step in this long experimentation. (There is a great picture of a large B&W Nautilus cabinet at that site.)

Speaking of B&W I think they do a decent job and their looks are not necessarily the strong point. I remember reading one review of the 803 where the first thing the guy said was it's not a bad speaker if you do not mind having a speaker that has a turkey baster on top of it in your living room. And the 802, well it looks like a speaker with a ham on it. These designs are not going to exactly float everybody's boat.

The Nautilas was first conceived, I believe, based upon stealth technology (I'm gettin further and further in over my head). All it does, to keep it simple, is deflect sound waves in a direction they do no harm. The enemy shoots up radar and the angles and materials of the plane do not shoot them back - you're "invisable." B & W took the idea to deflect sound waves back into the speaker enclosure where they do not interfere with the drivers. Can't do this with a simple box. Probably not the only answer, certainly not the cheapest, but I think that is the general idea. Get a good used price on the 802s or 803s and you have a pretty good speaker if you ask me.

I've heard the nOrhs and I like them. I took an entirely different view of them. They are made in Thailand as far as I know by folks who live there. If you look at the angles and stuff and then at Thai art and architecture....The first time I looked at them I thought "well, they could have packaged these to be more acceptable to the U.S. market where everybody expects a speaker to look like a box." If they were trying to tie into the "organic lifestyle" movement I'm not certain they succeeded. I concluded they were folks on the other side on the planet doing it their way.

I totally agree with you Pbb, if folks are just doing things for no reason they should be debunked (there is a lot of hype in the industry), but, with regard to speakers, I don't believe that everything that's not a box should be rejected.

By the way I've noticed a theme in your posts. You've rejected vinyl because it sounds like bacon (frying) and now speakers because they look like ham. Can we expect a retort of tubes because they look like link sausages?

Sincerely, I remain