Speaker Voicing and Reviews

[MattHooper]

I seem to remember somebody like Floyd tool writing about this (or some other researcher), in which the idea of a different West Coast versus East Coast sound didn’t hold up on analysis.

The same would be true about “ British versus North American sound.”

I think so long as “ British” is confined to referencing certain storied BBC loud speakers and derivatives, that can make some sense. But I don’t see any wider sense in which British loudspeakers sound any particular way versus North American loudspeakers.

 

[thewas]

I seem to remember somebody like Floyd tool writing about this (or some other researcher), in which the idea of a different West Coast versus East Coast sound didn’t hold up on analysis.

You, the same would be true about “ British versus North American sound.”

I think so long as “ British” is combined nearly to referencing certain storied BBC loud speakers and derivatives, that can make some sense. But I don’t see any wider sense in which British loudspeakers sound any particular way versus North American loudspeakers.

I also see it similarly, and if there was a trend in tuning it was mainly in the bass region as US living rooms were on average larger and having more dry walls (so needed more bass) while UK living rooms were smaller and more brick based.

 

[LTig]

I thought it was an adorable little German coupe.

My father had one and it was not little (for germans).

AFAIK the "Taunus sound" refers to the Taunus mountain range as several manufactures (Heco, Canton, Braun) had their plants there.

 

[restorer-john]

I seem to remember somebody like Floyd tool writing about this (or some other researcher), in which the idea of a different West Coast versus East Coast sound didn’t hold up on analysis.

The same would be true about “ British versus North American sound.”

I don't believe he would say something like that.

Anyone selling and listening to hundreds of loudspeakers over the decades would be well aware of the voicing in the US brands. The UK speakers and German/European were different again as were the Japanese.

Entire ranges within a brand had a "sound" which was easy to identify. JBL, Infinity, etc all had a sound. Yamaha had a sound. Wharfedale, KEF had a sound.

When you've sat there with a speaker comparator, switching an entire speaker line-up, from bottom to top, of one brand versus another, it's pretty obvious.

 

[mhardy6647]

My father had one and it was not little (for germans).

AFAIK the "Taunus sound" refers to the Taunus mountain range as several manufactures (Heco, Canton, Braun) had their plants there.

I did not know that -- although, as a long-time fan of Braun and its US cousin/sibling ads, I had been musing that there must be a Braun sound!

ads L-710 -- still one of my favorite three-way "large bookshelf" loudspeakers.

 

[thewas]

I did not know that -- although, as a long-time fan of Braun and its US cousin/sibling ads, I had been musing that there must be a Braun sound!

This should be differentiated, early 70s Braun, Canton etc loudspeakers were quite neutrally tuned, the Taunus tuning with excessive highs came rather in the late 70s, some bad tongues say to compensate the flokati rugs used en masse. The 1969 Braun L710 is even with todays standards an impressively tuned low distortion loudspeaker which I have bought 3 times by now in my small vintage loudspeaker collection (sold and regretted it each time so bought it again).

Source of the measurements: https://www.hifitest.de/test/vintage-hifi/braun-l-710-22549

 

[LTig]

I did not know that -- although, as a long-time fan of Braun and its US cousin/sibling ads, I had been musing that there must be a Braun sound!
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ads L-710 -- still one of my favorite three-way "large bookshelf" loudspeakers.

Yep, that is the typical design of that age - a 3-way with domes for mids and highs located side by side without a note in the manual to place them horizontal.

 

[thewas]

Yep, that is the typical design of that age - a 3-way with domes for mids and highs located side by side without a note in the manual to place them horizontal.

Which isn't as critical as the crossover frequency between the mids and tweeters is quite high and not symmetrical LR pairs were offered. On the other hand the manual writes to place them close to the front wall which is a more useful information as it leads to a quite decent bass response with the closed baffle tuning.

 

[mhardy6647]

This should be differentiated, early 70s Braun, Canton etc loudspeakers were quite neutrally tuned, the Taunus tuning with excessive highs came rather in the late 70s, some bad tongues say to compensate the flokati rugs used en masse. The 1969 Braun L710 is even with todays standards an impressively tuned low distortion loudspeaker which I have bought 3 times by now in my small vintage loudspeaker collection (sold and regretted it each time so bought it again).


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Source of the measurements: https://www.hifitest.de/test/vintage-hifi/braun-l-710-22549

That makes great sense. The later (and larger) ads loudspeakers have a reputation for brightness that always puzzled me.
The L710 is a very fine sounding and easy to drive loudspeaker. My pair (with cat-hostile metal grilles -- bonus! ) were found on the swap pile (free table) at our erstwhile town dump in Harvard, MA, long ago. I had them for many years, but have passed them along to a friend across the river in Vermont a couple of years ago, as I was not using them and they're, frankly, too good not to be used.

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* The "yankee swap pile" at town dumps (more typically, and more accurately, transfer stations nowadays) is a longstanding (if slowly disappearing) New England tradition. We don't have a transfer station in New Hampshire, where we now live, sadly.

Entrance to the Harvard dump transfer station on a lovely early summer day, much earlier in the 21st Century.