The only linear loudspeaker models we offer are intended for professional studio engineering and they are tools for a toolbox. Changing crossover parts values to flatten the frequency response is a super simple task; my job is to get the speaker sounding right for an audiophile. The problem is most audiophiles don't go for 'scientific sound'; to my ears, it's analytical, sterile, forward in the midrange when turned up, and frankly not much excitement to be discerned.
I hesitate to wade in here but… the above text is very clear;
1) the speakers designed by Mr Alexander can be divided into two categories based on how they are engineered for two different markets/users. One category is professional/audio production; speakers for that category should be flat/neutral, and that is what Mr Alexander’s speakers for such aim to achieve in that regard. The second category, implicitly a much larger set of products, is engineered for consumer/domestic use by a specific market or user group which he terms “audiophile.” Audiophiles don’t want or like a flat curve. Mr Alexander does not enjoy listening to flat curves much either apparently.
Let’s put to one side how one defines the “audiophile” market or that we do not know the basis for his statement about their preferences. It is not unreasonable that performance criteria for two different uses are different. Indeed, “studio monitor” speakers have long been designed to be as flat as possible and to be listened to in near field. Headphones designed for studio use are similarly designed to be flat. Or indeed, to emphasize a certain part of the spectrum, such as human vocal range, if they are intended to be used in the recording or mixing of such. Why? Because the goal is to have the most accurate reproduction possible such that one can mix, master, etc to create the recording one wants. To do so one needed a baseline…a flat response…to start with so that you could then know exactly how to control levels etc. also One that presumably works well and is reasonably close via whatever means of reproduction is going to be used. Back in the day, if a song was going to be consumed at least as much on FM radio as, say a hone turntable, mixers and masteres took into account the characteristics of fm transmission, for example.
And it’s not unreasonable to state that consumers preference are not for flat responses. eg, the “Harmon Curve” which is the result of scientific research on statistical preferences and the biology of hearing preferences that derived a non-flat target curve for consumer use headphones. Indeed, even perfect human hearing is not linear either vis a vis frequency and db level…perception of low high frequencies are especially prone to relative variation at different db levels. Hence the old “loudness” button on old receivers.
So whoever the audiophiles are, though one can surmise Mr Alexander’s preferences are similar, it’s fair enough for a designer to create a speaker that caters to what they think that market prefers. Heck, headphone companies like beats make it selling point that their products boost the bass. Lots of people seem to find them fun based of market share.
Hey, I enjoy a good smile curve eq myself.
However…
if Mr A claims that he is not designing a neutral, flat, linear etc speaker he cannot complain about a test procedure that shows that he achieved just that. kudos mr A, objective measurements have proved you are a great designer of speakers. these are indeed "fun", implicitly for "audiophile" target consumer and presuming that if one were to do a study of audiophile preferences along the lines that Harmon did of consumers and headphones, that the measured responses correlate to what that study determined "fun" preference was (as different from…non fun?).
and so what if amir prefers a different response and applies eq to flatten it somewhat…to the extent possible.
By your own statements, you should be thanking Amir rather than complaining. You should quote the review on your website! and make sure to also tell your target audiophile consumer that you design speakers to be inaccurate in all the ways that you and they prefer! Publish those curves!
One point of clarification: at 8 feet away, does my amount of fun decrease if I don’t listen with my ears on axis and level to the woofers? If, for example, want dance, cause these are so fun, should I raise my speakers higher? And I guess I can only dance in one place given the off axis response…or do I need to interpret the off axis graphs differently according to audiophile fun preference and do they get even more fun off axis?
Cause I’m an Audiophile fun sorta guy.