Now the problem is, if the reason Harman's curve is best is because lack of competition, what will happen if Harman stop showing the curve or research behind it? Will people still think it is the best or think it is not superior to other curve?
Biased opinion since I really like Harman’s stuff from vintage JBL SA600 to Greg Timbers era L112, Mini Everest S2600, XPL90 to Allan Devantier’s Music 2 and HLS-610. I have had a Revel B15a for 15+ years. Harman has always had a strong science background even though they lost the ability to have engineering and manufacturing under the same roof.
The Harman science is to find the best overall sound for the population. We see that in speakers, when speakers were cool, and now in headphones now that it’s a bigger market.
But in the speaker blind test done here at ASR, 80% loved the Revel speaker but there were 20% who liked something else. And it is perfectly OK to target that audience the same way you can go into a supermarket and get regular ice cream, frozen yogurt, or all sorts of dairy substitute frozen desserts. You may not like kale based desserts but there are people who like that and a company can profit selling to that niche.
Harman already knows that you need to have a JBL curve and a AKG curve when it comes to headphones, which reflects differences in bass performance.
The biggest difference is in automotive audio. Harman does the audio for Lexus (Mark Levinson), Toyota (JBL Synthesis), Lincoln (Revel), Genesis (Lexicon), Cadillac (AKG), Volvo (Bowers and Wilkins*), BMW (Harman Kardon, Bowers and Wilkins*), and Audi (Bang and Olfusen*). I could keep going.
Bowers and Wilkins *car audio* is run by Harman and Bang and Olufsen *car audio* is run by Harman too.
None of those cars have the same target curve. Volvo gets Dirac while the others don’t.
Harman themselves acknowledged the benefits of visuals. One of their press releases includes the statement:
“Our Bowers & Wilkins system features a tweeter on the dashboard which is sure to grab any driver or passenger’s attention. Does that tweeter improve the audio performance? Yes, but the bigger impact is the visual moment that is shared between the car, the driver, and passengers.”
Similar to headphones, different cars are tuned a little differently.