MattHooper
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I don't need high SPL speakers with at that SPL level low distortion because I basically only play at lower levels.I'm a little fascinated by those who start threads here and are looking for speakers that can produce a level of 100-110 dB while at the same time sounding good and not just loud. Those levels are for me just pushing the pedal to the metal to test levels but nothing you (I) listen to for a long time.
Same here. If those type of levels are fun for some people good for them. I personally listen that lower sound levels, having already done enough damage to my ears from high levels playing in abandoned the 90s.
My comments about my speakers, sounding smooth and low distortion weren’t in the context of only comparing speakers when they are played loud. It’s an across-the-board perception. That said, those loudspeakers allowed me to listen louder than I ever have before, without discomfort.
I think Semmy Lazaroff's remark was mostly aimed at those Hifi people who like the "soft", "warm" tube amp sound.
The only thing missing in Lazaroff’s take is the context or recorded/reproduced music versus real instruments. He’s essentially referencing what he perceives to be features of the sounds of real instruments. There wouldn’t be much debate if recordings and sound reproduction actually reproduced what real instruments sound like. But for the most part they don’t. All sorts of colorations arise from the recording process down through the mixing and reproduction, which means there are all sorts of alterations of the character of instruments once you hear them.
And since generally speaking recordings are all over the map and the reproduction departs from reality, audiophiles may find themselves making choices about which aspects of the sound is most important for them to feel like it is more natural.
In terms of these trade offs: I would imagine that an audiophile with the mindset of Lazaroff would care most that his sound system reproduce transients and leading edges with sharpness and precision, where another audiophile may perceive that body and richness of instruments and voices is often underserved in reproduced sound, and even that leading edges are often exaggerated, and if it a bit of that richness, warmth and body is added back in, he/she may cue in on that aspect, and it will sound more natural.