No. They are not good speakers because they do not have measurements that indicate that they will be preferred in blind listening tests. A good speaker WOULD have such measurements. It is the only way to have the actual sound waves preferred by listeners.
“these are not good speakers” Have you owned any Magnepan speakers to make such an incredible statement.
Oh please. That's ludicrously dogmatic. And yes, I have read AND understood Toole's research.
Excellent. Bonus points for that. I hope the rest of your post demonstrates this.
….and it all comes crashing down (the hope that you read AND understood). This is a common misunderstanding of the research. The research doesn’t say, “this is on average, and there is a wide range of individual variation so everyone has different and unique preferences”. I mean, if it did say that, it would be of almost zero value. It is better summarised as, “here are a set of speaker attributes that are almost universally preferred except for a few dB plus or minus in the bass level. There initially appeared to be quite a bit of individual variation, but once we tested the hearing of listeners and eliminated those with significant hearing damage, the variation all but disappeared.”
Oh yes. And here is his response.
That’s right. If you like brick wall compression (it’s a playback manipulation), fine. If you like 1950s car radio sound (it’s a playback manipulation), fine. If you like the sound coming out of a cheap TV (it’s a playback manipulation), fine. Toole dedicated his working life to bridging the gap between “any old sound, but if you like it, fine” and “loudspeakers with these characteristics are pretty much universally preferred by listeners”, but if you like speakers that can’t deliver that, fine. If you don’t get the point he was making, fine.
That’s right, he liked them, once upon a time and in an odd room and for one type of music. He has described the one-off conditions in that singular case. He was stuck in a situation where forward firing speakers of the day had poor off-axis neutrality, and his unusual room was going to murder them. So the M1 was least-worst, but he said he paid a price in loss of imaging (a factor that his own subsequent research has shown is important to listener preference), and I suspect the further the music moved away from large-scale classical concert hall recordings, the less the setup delivered. My point: don’t make too much of an audio great choosing a certain speaker 50-60 years ago, as having much relevance today.And at least one point in his listening life, he liked them: "This is my “classical” listening room in our custom-built Canadian home. Conceived as a space for enjoying large, spatially involving, works of music, it was the largest “concert hall” I could afford at the time. The very neutral, essentially omnidirectional, Mirage M1s “became” the orchestra and the room became a seamless extension of the recorded space. It provided a very satisfying, involving, experience."
Room Reflections & Human Adaptation for Small Room Acoustics
Dealing with acoustics in small rooms is no trivial matter. This article focuses on how to treat early reflections based on listening habits, your loudspeaker choice. Absorb, diffuse, reflect; decide.www.audioholics.com
What is a good speaker? What is a good speaker?
I drive LRS with two amps, AB class amp rated 190W/4ohm with low damping factor: 25, and Icepower D Class rated 300W/4 ohm, damping factor >1400.
I wonder how much better dual mono is like with the H390 having the LR channels separated from each other. Anything to expect from mono?
When I was still in university I picked up an old beat up Technics 1210 for cheap. Once I realized I could sell it for much more, I kinda began looking for vintage Hifi bargains. A few years and many speakers and other gear later, I stumbled upon a pair of Magnepan MMG for $150 and thought to myself "Okay, those look interesting (and expensive)", so naturally I picked them up. Oh boy was I flabbergasted how great they sounded with my beloved live recordings.
