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The review is fascinating.... these speakers reproduce a square wave and impulse better than anything I have seen. The fact that is was done all passively is amazing.
This thread brings to mind a dilemma for folks like me who love listening to high end audio sound, but who don't have a technical education in electronics, speaker design, etc.
I'm left essentially to looking at the case made by people who do have such knowledge and experience and/or who do created speakers etc, be they professional or DIYers. And I just have to end up making the call for myself as to who seems most convincing. The arguments for the audibility of things like high end AC cables are just terrible from the get go, as they are for a number of audiophile tweaky stuff. So for me wading through some of this is easier than other parts.
But especially when it comes to speakers (and amplifiers...but sticking with speakers)....the hope WOULD be that once one extracates from the audiophile woo-world of clueless conjecture and subjective bias confirmation, that one will find settled answers and convergence to some degree.
Unfortunately that doesn't seem to be the whole story. Over many years I've watched people with technical chops, EEs, various people who build speakers argue and debate over all sorts of technical and design issues. This is actually understandable on a few levels. First, sound reproduction/speakers haven't reached perfection so there are sets of compromises anyone has to make, and some will emphasize one set over another according to what he believes to be important. The other, it seems to me, is the very nature of reasoning....as applied to the experience of designing audio equipment. There's a sort of winnowing process that is inherent in the procedure, where if an engineer is designing new speakers there are plenty of choices to be made, both in terms of materials, construction, electronics, drivers,design goals, etc. And all along the way one is considering options and coming up with reasons to decide "that's the wrong route...THIS is the right choice..."
So in a sense the designer is sort of closing doors to alternatives behind him along the way down his own rabbit hole of figuring out how to produce the best speaker he can.
This often (but not always) leads, it seems to me from reading/seeing so many speaker-makers discuss their work, to a sort of tunnel-vision and single-mindedness on design goals. This is very useful for actually getting a product made. But it also IMO can have the result of people ending up fairly set in their ways in terms of the beliefs they've come to as to which choices are important. And, as most people/companies designing speakers aren't set up as science labs, to blind test every salient decision, most end up relying a lot on their own experience in forming their opinions.
So...you get competent people, or at least those with necessary technical knowledge to build speakers, but with all sorts of varying opinions as to what is the "right way" to build a speaker. "If you really want to build a good speaker, you wouldn't do X, Y or Z....!!!" (I think this same mindset goes for those more technically knowledgeable audiophiles who don't manufacture products, but who have followed a similar narrowing path simply in doing their own investigation of the technical issues....so there will still be disagreements).
It seems people like me are still left to sift through the arguments and disagreements and make our own call.
For instance, when the issue of passive first order crossovers and time/phase coherence comes up. there are always those who will defend it, and many who will bring up all the talking points against it. "In order to achieve the dubious goal of time/phase coherence, you'll necessarily be making all sorts of important bad decisions elsewhere which will end up with a significantly compromised speaker performance...etc."
And yet, if I listen to the arguments against first order/time phase coherent designs, I would never have predicted that, for instance, just such a design - in my case the Thiel 3.7 speakers - produced to my ears the overall best and most pleasing sound I ever had, with the least intrusive colorations. As I mentioned before, I've owned many speakers (and still do) and auditioned everything from Magico, to Monitor Audio, to the latest Paradigm Persona speakers, to Revel, to ATC, to many, many others. And none made me feel like I could replace the Thiels.
Certainly, not everyone would make the same choice, but it's amazing the distance I experience from reading the technical compromises purportedly inherent in the design, and the actual level of sound quality I hear from the speakers.
So what's the next move for someone in my position?
Well, I've simply been relaying my own subjective impressions.
I have long been annoyed by the audiophile refrain that this is an almost purely subjective hobby; that, while speaker measurements are important, "you can't quantify people's subjective experience of the sound."
Oh hell yes you can! Subjective impressions themselves can be studied and correlated with technical speaker performance, as we know from the work of Floyd Tool and others still working for Harman Kardon. I don't need to tell anyone here the findings from all that blind testing as to which speaker characteristics tend to predictably be related to listener preference.
So....this all sounds great!
But how does this work in practice for someone like me? A typical audiophile in the sense of being very picky about sound and his product purchases. In a sense, I could just go with the claims from the research and buy a Revel speaker...after all the odds are in a blind test I'd choose it as the best sound!
Here I meet with a further problem. I've listened to (and owned occasionally) various speakers designed via the parameters suggested by the research. And as often as not, I did not care for them. For instance, in looking for a replacement for my Thiels (a bit too big and deep visually for my room) I auditioned a number of Revel speakers at more than one store. The Performa series. (Which apparently in blind tests sound very similar to the Salon series). One store in particular had them set up very nicely in their room, so the sound was very neutral, balanced, rich and full from top to bottom. My impression was of a very, very competent sounding speaker. In fact, it probably sounded closer to my Thiels than any other speaker. Except....they just didn't move me at all. There was no 'it' factor that I have experienced with other speakers that make me want to just stay all day long putting every bit of music I have on them. I could just take it or leave it.
So....what now?
I can imagine the Revel folks saying "trust us, if we put you in a blind test the odds are you will choose the Revel over your current speakers, or others whose sound you THINK you like better." That may be the case. But it sure is weird to trust "you'll like our speaker better" when I've heard it...and I didn't like it better. Further, since 100 percent of listeners apparently do not choose the Revel speakers, maybe I'm in the smaller category of those who wouldn't prefer them even in a blind test. Without going to their facility, I can't really know.
So....how am I, an audiophile/consumer to work through this combination of personal experience and the arguments/data I can find on these subjects?
It still seems, in the end, a personal call, where ultimately I will rely on my sifting through the arguments, and having to rely on my personal experience in making the call for my own purchases.
(BTW, I know that some people can have a less 'audiophile-nervosa' prone approach to the hobby, and simply look at whatever has great measurements and say ' SOLD.' They can buy a product that way, and not think more about it. But that doesn't necessarily work for those of us who feel really damned picky. If for instance i'm not hearing a certain level of tonal beauty coming through a system, I have no urge to sit and listen at all. Subtle differences can set me off).
Anyway....that's something of a dilemma I find myself in, and I know I'm far from alone given most audiophiles aren't electrical engineers and it can be daunting to wade through even the technical arguments among those who DO have the knowledge.
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