Interview about Measurements with Pearl Sibelius Speaker Designer

[Mr. Widget]

Who needs measurements when we have sighted anecdotes from random posters??

Which works both ways... the objectivist who "knows" a speaker measures poorly, will immediately dislike the sound when presented with an actual audition due to his sighted bias.

I say we should always keep an open mind. Who knows, we may just be in the statistical minority who prefers this or that coloration. Unless you are involved in audio professionally, your own pleasure is all that matters. That pleasure may be purely auditory, it may may be due aesthetic concerns, prestige, or "knowing" that the measurements reflect near perfection. I think all of these are of equal merit and reflect personal choice..

 

[Mart68]

Well, your bias based on your experience has failed you. Listened to these at Axpona this year, and they were one of the best sounding at the show. The sound was great even when i was considerably off-axis.

You listened to them with every recording ever made or just what the people demoing selected so that their multiple flaws were not shown up too badly?

FWIW I also had a demo of them this time last year. Since I didn't pick the programme they were not unpleasant to listen to. Personally I don't want a speaker that dictates what I can listen to, and certainly not at that price. It's hard to believe anyone with any significant experience, or knowledge of how a loudspeaker works would be seriously interested in them.

 

[ahofer]

Which works both ways... the objectivist who "knows" a speaker measures poorly, will immediately dislike the sound when presented with an actual audition due to his sighted bias.

I say we should always keep an open mind. Who knows, we may just be in the statistical minority who prefers this or that coloration. Unless you are involved in audio professionally, your own pleasure is all that matters. That pleasure may be purely auditory, it may may be due aesthetic concerns, prestige, or "knowing" that the measurements reflect near perfection. I think all of these are of equal merit and reflect personal choice..

Agree with your argument on blind trials being superior.

On the second point it feels like the more subjective leaning are often mislabeling the disagreement for some reason. Very few people on this site would disagree that preference is subjective, individual (despite some evidence of commonality), and perfectly fine. The disagreement revolves around the best way to get there given the high variability of source material.

Added: By "get there", I mean arrive at your preferred sound presentation. The more "objectivist" approach to equipment here suggests starting with the most accurate signal possible fed to a speaker that conforms to the preferences revealed in Toole/Olive's work (which are also pretty neutral). From there, the user can use EQ or other *reversable* methods to get to the preferred presentation, but starting from a baseline of fidelity.

 

[rattlesnake]

No rock or pop ?

There goes 80% of my music.............

Anything with voice and bass would gargle.

Intermod distortion is the enemy of full range drivers.

I used to swear that full range drivers (or 6db crossover speakers such as thiel) do a better job at voices, until I played with emotiva xb2 and dynaudio excite x32's.

I was wrong.

Yeah, I am not especially well written wondering about intermodulation distortion in the Sebelius

 

[MattHooper]

Personally I don't want a speaker that dictates what I can listen to, and certainly not at that price.

I feel the same way. Personally, I want a speaker to sound great with the wide variety of genres that I listen to.

There have been some reports and reviews suggesting the speakers are better suited to certain genres. Though I understand they played a fairly wide variety through the speakers at shows, including electronica.

If the speaker somehow suits the genres somebody’s interested in, then I can see the appeal.

I would like to hear them just out of curiosity.

 

[Purité Audio]

Speakers don’t actually know what they are playing.
Keith

 

[MattHooper]

Speakers don’t actually know what they are playing.
Keith

?

Are you getting confused by informal language again?

 

[Mart68]

Speakers don’t actually know what they are playing.
Keith

Some types of music sound good even on badly flawed speakers. Some genres will really show up any issues. Bad speakers will have you selecting only the music that does not show them up, and blaming the recording engineers for why everything else sounds crap on them.

 

[ahofer]

Speakers don’t actually know what they are playing

At transducers, hopefully they can discern signal from no signal. .

 

[Arindal]

Speakers don’t actually know what they are playing.

Surely not, but certain qualities or flaws of the speaker will come into play and be audible/annoying more with one genre and less with another.

One who is solely interested in listening to string quartets, might never notice the bass is not as low-reaching or powerful. And for lovers of electronic instrumental music, horn colorations typically revealed by vocals, would never be really an issue.

That does not mean a speaker should have a tailored response or certain character for a desired genre.

 

[ahofer]

Speakers don’t actually know what they are playing.
Keith

I suppose we are not far off from a “large music model”, wherein the speaker is fed a signal prompt and then assembles pleasing music based on its training base.

At that point, we will be wondering if it “knows”.

 

[Ian Knight]

I didn't like much of what was in there. His logic that he uses colored mics so speakers can be colored made no sense to me. Why would I want to perform double coloration that way? Wouldn't I want a neutral speaker to hear what coloration he added specifically by the use of the specific mic? Why would I want every piece of music colored all over again by the speaker?

And as @ctrl is rightly stating, it doesn't seem like they know about any measurement than on-axis response.

It is only a voigt pipe with a "wide band" driver stuck in a very expensive cabinet