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An interesting article on audio gear from wired

spartaman64

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https://www.wired.com/story/audiophile-gear-guide/

"The quality of the sound you hear in your room will only ever be as good as the room itself. In other words, a pair of $250 speakers will sound better in a room that's been treated to dampen reverberations than a pair of $10,000 speakers will sound in an empty room with bare floors and walls. "

TBH I know absolutely nothing about speakers but this seems like an extreme claim. Maybe if you are listening to them in your garage or something but in a regular room I don't think it would be that bad.

"f you prefer over-ear headphones, I really like the latest models from the French company Focal. The recent Celestee closed-back headphones ($990) are as gorgeous to listen to as they are to look at. They produce one of the widest soundstages I've ever heard. (In headphone lingo, the soundstage is the imaginary three-dimensional space you find yourself in when you shut your eyes and listen.)"

I haven't listened to the celestee but this is the exact opposite of what everyone said about them.
 

pozz

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He's mostly making it up as he goes. It's a terrible pattern in audio related press.
 

RayDunzl

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TBH I know absolutely nothing about speakers but this seems like an extreme claim. Maybe if you are listening to them in your garage or something but in a regular room I don't think it would be that bad.

Does your regular room have bare floors and walls?

Example...
 

Inner Space

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... a pair of $250 speakers will sound better in a room that's been treated to dampen reverberations than a pair of $10,000 speakers will sound in an empty room with bare floors and walls.

Exaggerated for journalistic effect, in terms of the price points, but otherwise a completely accepted proposition, surely, because it's generally true. If we only talked about what really matters, 90% of our posts would be about rooms.
 

Helicopter

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Exaggerated for journalistic effect, in terms of the price points, but otherwise a completely accepted proposition, surely, because it's generally true. If we only talked about what really matters, 90% of our posts would be about rooms.
Yeah, I would have said $600 speakers for the low end.
 

Somafunk

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Obviously I have to mainly agree with him, as I have KRK active monitors (£300) & KRK active subwoofer (£300) with £2k+ of GIK room treatment.
 
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Chrispy

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Who wants to sit in a bare room? Altho I've seen some pics of "audiophile" systems that get close....
 
OP
S

spartaman64

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Who wants to sit in a bare room? Altho I've seen some pics of "audiophile" systems that get close....
i guess if you are a millionaire living in a mansion you can afford to have bare rooms
 

Blumlein 88

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Steve Jobs stereo which Wired has done an article on before shown here circa 1982.
Acoustat 3 speakers, Threshold power amp, and preamp along with a Gyrodec TT. Mostly bare walls and floors.
1623026831798.png
 
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audio2design

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Exaggerated for journalistic effect, in terms of the price points, but otherwise a completely accepted proposition, surely, because it's generally true. If we only talked about what really matters, 90% of our posts would be about rooms.

It's how you tell real audiophiles from posers. If they have more into cables and tweaks than acoustics, they are a poser. They likely regularly insult others hearing and believe they are immune to bias.
 

Chrispy

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i guess if you are a millionaire living in a mansion you can afford to have bare rooms

But why would you stick the audio in there? OTOH I'd think you could afford to decorate the crap out of the place....and even afford a professional to handle the acoustics. OTOH there's a thread I saw recently (elsewhere) about a guy looking at 10M houses and wondering what brand of ceiling speakers the builder likely used.....
 

MakeMineVinyl

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The article isn't as bad as it could easily have been.
 

krabapple

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https://www.wired.com/story/audiophile-gear-guide/

"The quality of the sound you hear in your room will only ever be as good as the room itself. In other words, a pair of $250 speakers will sound better in a room that's been treated to dampen reverberations than a pair of $10,000 speakers will sound in an empty room with bare floors and walls. "

TBH I know absolutely nothing about speakers but this seems like an extreme claim.

It's not. It's quite plausible, on the terms he cites.
 

pozz

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Good speakers sound good in any room, treated or no.
 

Somafunk

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Good speakers sound good in any room, treated or no.

Really?, so all those with treated studios should just have bought “good speakers”………..?
 

jsrtheta

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I agree with what he says, basically, about rooms and acoustic treatment, though I have heard terrible sound from over-treated rooms as well.

In general, articles like this, though not terrible, are both glib and superficial. So I'm not sure how helpful they are in the end. And his coverage of DACs I find worse than useless.
 

MakeMineVinyl

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I agree with what he says, basically, about rooms and acoustic treatment, though I have heard terrible sound from over-treated rooms as well.

In general, articles like this, though not terrible, are both glib and superficial. So I'm not sure how helpful they are in the end. And his coverage of DACs I find worse than useless.
You should see some of the vintage articles I have about stereo systems from the 1960s - you'd think the only reason was to impress women. And they only got more superficial from that. Exhibit "A" o_O

Teen Tape Session 1967.jpg


I don't know whether to laugh or puke. :oops:
 
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Bullwinkle J Moose

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The quality of the sound you hear in your room will only ever be as good as the quality of your speakers

The quality of the sound you hear in your room will only ever be as good as your ears

The quality of the sound you hear in your room will only ever be as good as the source material you are listening to

Add a few more >
 

wwenze

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"The quality of the sound you hear in your room will only ever be as good as the room itself. In other words, a pair of $250 speakers will sound better in a room that's been treated to dampen reverberations than a pair of $10,000 speakers will sound in an empty room with bare floors and walls. "

I want to challenge that statement. In the grand scheme of things, and if we look at reality directly, this is likely true. Because it does not care about the problem of diminishing returns, or how spending $10,000 on speakers doesn't even guarantee you get a better product than a $500 one.

With $25 speakers vs $1000 speakers however, the $25 speakers won't even have much to work with, and any $1000 speaker randomly thrown in with no room correction still sounds better. (Assuming that $1000 speaker isn't from a garbage brand.)

So everything is about bottlenecks, diminishing returns, and optimal allocation of money. Above $250 or $500 or honestly anywhere you like to start, you will eventually need to start working on your room since it will be your bottleneck. And since EqualizerAPO is free, you should start as early as possible.
 

Wes

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You should see some of the vintage articles I have about stereo systems from the 1960s - you'd think the only reason was to impress women. And they only got more superficial from that. Exhibit "A" o_O

View attachment 134248

I don't know whether to laugh or puke. :oops:

but that room is pretty well treated - carpet, stuffed furniture, diffusors esp. if they pull some albums out part way
 
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