Hi Amir,
Great review and I’m in the midst of trying to figure out what I want to get as my next system - so this is very relevant to me. I went and watched the YouTube of Toole as referenced from your other (recent) intro post. I’d sort of settled on getting a Benchmark DAC3, HPA4, AHB2 for stereo setup - the question then was what speakers... At a local store I was able to demo the KEF LS50W and B&W 805 D3s. I took in my own iPod, playing DSDs through an Oppo HA2 SE - to the line-in of the KEF and the amplifier they had in the store driving the B&Ws. I thought the B&W 805s were significantly better sounding than the KEF LS50Ws - playing Jazz: Nora Jones, Dave Brubeck, ... Rock: Boston, ... Classical: Anne-Sophie Mutter Carmen-Fantasia and others. Then, after watching Toole’s YouTube I went and did some more research (reading online) on the JBL M2, 708p/i (7 series), 305P mk ii... and I read about the background hiss on some of the JBL xxxP speakers. This sounds like the built-in amplifiers have a high noise floor...
So my concern/question here is - we look at a spinorama of frequency and speaker response but it seems there is no data at all about noise floor (and only, with added cost/tooling/testing can we get any actual measurements on speaker distortion). It seems like the speakers are the generally the weak link in the system (please correct me if that’s not the case). While I’m tempted to go get a pair of JBL 708Ps (7 series) or M2s based on spinorama - they basically force you (if I understand correctly) to use their JBL’s amplifiers (built in or external) ... which means those could be dumping a huge amount of noise and/or distortion into the system that makes a Benchmark (or similarly quality DAC & pre-amplifier) irrelavent. Am I missing something here?? Or, even with these sorts of Speaker measurements are we still missing something by measuring individual components that might still give us an unclear picture of the entire audio reproduction chain from source file to listener’s ears?
Again, I’m really very grateful for your (and other contributors) work here. It has been very educational and helpful. I’ve bought a few items so I could hear for myself what the measurements imply. So, I really do not intend this to be a complaint in anyway - just wondering if I am really missing something or if there is indeed still a measurement gap?
Thanks again!
Edit: Would it be possible to drive the JBL 708i (if they have a passive version) (or JBL M2) with the Benchmark AHB2 (or one per M2) instead of using the JBL’s required amplifier? Toole mentioned in the YouTube clip that he believed integrated amplifier-speaker combinations were the future. This suggests to me that perhaps they’re getting such a good spinorama by electronic adjustments they’re doing in the amplifier stage. So this is part of my concern - if that is indeed what is being done, then how do we measure the net effect of both speaker and amplifier?