Speaker Voicing and Reviews

[Theta]

"Years and years ago, speakers were described in the Hi Fi press, as "the East Coast sound or the "West Coast sound". In Europe we had the English sound the German and the French sound. These generalizations were not at all scientific but they were in fact real indication of what consumers could aspect from speakers in which they were interested. Klippel test while unquestionably useful to manufacturers, and relevant to most, do not tell or even give a clue to the end user what the speaker he is thinking of auditioning or purchasing will sound like in his room.

 

[LTig]

You just need a cross reference between spinorama (FR) and those "sound names".

 

[mhardy6647]

True (to some extent -- although even the 'East coast/West coast' sound was something of a truism), but not sure where you want to go with that comment, @Theta? Say more.

 

[tove]

Klippel test while unquestionably useful to manufacturers, and relevant to most, do not tell or even give a clue to the end user what the speaker he is thinking of auditioning or purchasing will sound like in his room.

What? Not even a clue? Some mushrooms are not for eating you know...

Did you understand how to interpret the Klippen data? It is more useful than anything in determining how a given speaker would sound in a given room.

One could concievably even create a model from the Klippel data to simulate what a speaker would sound like in a given room. The issue with the simulation would be getting accurate values for absorbtion in parts of the rooms, and things of this nature. The speaker itself we would know very well how it behaves.

Do tell me how someone would predict the sound of a speaker by having been told it has "German" or "French" sound. I have never heard of any of these things. English could possibly be refering to the 'BBC dip', but still, it's useless compared to Klippel.

 

[JustJones]

Is this like East coast jazz vs West coast jazz?

 

[Chr1]

Be great to see a compilation of the various FR curves for the various "voicings"/"sounds" of famous speakers.
Seems to be a few random ones online but no compilation as yet.

 

[mhardy6647]

Is this like East coast jazz vs West coast jazz?

Depends on what kind of loudspeakers the tracks were monitored and/or mastered with -- JBL/Altec or Acoustic Research.

And what about the Arkansas Sound?

 

[Theta]

True (to some extent -- although even the 'East coast/West coast' sound was something of a truism), but not sure where you want to go with that comment, @Theta? Say more.

Just food for thought, saying more could be dangerous on this forum (joke). Thank you for the "to some extent".

 

[MAB]

You just need a cross reference between spinorama (FR) and those "sound names".

Yes indeed. Would have been a good effort prior to kicking off this thread, and would have helped to create a useful discussion.

Just food for thought, saying more could be dangerous on this forum (joke). Thank you for the "to some extent".

Somehow I get the impression useful discussion wasn't the agenda. Please demonstrate otherwise.

 

[kemmler3D]

Klippel test while unquestionably useful to manufacturers, and relevant to most, do not tell or even give a clue to the end user what the speaker he is thinking of auditioning or purchasing will sound like in his room.

I think this is fair in one sense but also not fair at all and totally off base.

Fair in the sense that most people can't look at a frequency response chart and get any sense of what it will sound like in practice.

Not fair, since if you can look at a frequency response graph and understand how it will sound in real life (which takes experience but isn't rocket science either), that gives you just as much information as "west coast" or "German" and a whole lot more.

If someone doesn't know what they are looking at on a spinorama, and they would like to, they should spend some time with music, pink noise, an EQ and a good spectrum analyzer. Play around for a few hours and maybe you can spot the west coast sound by eye.

 

[Purité Audio]

"Years and years ago, speakers were described in the Hi Fi press, as "the East Coast sound or the "West Coast sound". In Europe we had the English sound the German and the French sound. These generalizations were not at all scientific but they were in fact real indication of what consumers could aspect from speakers in which they were interested. Klippel test while unquestionably useful to manufacturers, and relevant to most, do not tell or even give a clue to the end user what the speaker he is thinking of auditioning or purchasing will sound like in his room.

Isn’t that exactly what Klippel does?
Keith

 

[LTig]

Do tell me how someone would predict the sound of a speaker by having been told it has "German" or "French" sound. I have never heard of any of these things.

There was the "Taunus" sound in Germany in the 1070's. Might have been no bass and bright mids/highs.

 

[Anton S]

This may be helpful:
Subjective assessment of audio quality, particularly Table 1.

 

[eddantes]

Klippel test while unquestionably useful to manufacturers, and relevant to most, do not tell or even give a clue to the end user what the speaker he is thinking of auditioning or purchasing will sound like in his room.

Between the CEA2034 and PIR charts, one can get a reasonable idea about the broad strokes of a speaker. Spend more time with Erin's and Amir's videos; they are very helpful to understand what those charts mean.

Also helpful, to get two speakers that have measurements in Spinorama, and then do some back to back listening. You don't need to do anything fancy like rapid switching or blind testing; just a reasoanble back to back session while using the compare tool in Spinorama can be educational.

Enjoy the journey!

 

[tove]

I wonder if this was just bait all along.

 

[Theta]

There was the "Taunus" sound in Germany in the 1070's. Might have been no bass and bright mids/highs.

Easy: less now, but you could pretty much predict how a speaker was going to sound by just looking at it. Even today just look at the cone material used. Not scientific, I know, not always right, but it exist.

 

[tove]

Easy: less now, but you could pretty much predict how a speaker was going to sound by just looking at it. Even today just look at the cone material used. Not scientific, I know, not always right, but it exist.

I wonder if this was just bait all along.

Yep, I was right.

 

[Doenerkunde]

There was the "Taunus" sound in Germany in the 1070's. Might have been no bass and bright mids/highs.

Taunus sound was a loudness voicing with exaggerated lows and highs and recessed mids.

 

[mhardy6647]

I thought it was an adorable little German coupe.

 

[thewas]

Easy: less now, but you could pretty much predict how a speaker was going to sound by just looking at it. Even today just look at the cone material used. Not scientific, I know, not always right, but it exist.