Example of speakers designed via measuring and informal listening:
Joseph Audio Speakers.
As Levimax pointed out, especially in relationship to the Andrew Jones discussion, it’s a bit misleading to talk about loudspeaker design designers who don’t use measurements at all. I would think there would be very few of those.
But for those who use both measurements AND some “ designing by ear” I’d suggest
Jeff Joseph would be pretty typical.
There’s nothing special about Joseph in this regard. I’m just using Joseph loudspeakers as an example out of convenience, since I own Joseph speakers and I’m familiar with a wide range of reviews and listener impressions of the brand.
To back up: it seems many ASR members don’t want their loudspeakers “ sound like” something. In other words, they don’t want some voiced or coloured presentation, they want the speakers to simply be neutral transducers or conform to measurements that have been correlated to high listener preference scores in blind, listening conditions (and of course those two can overlap).
But a lot of the audiophile world including speaker designers DO want their speakers to “ sound like” something. They have some criteria they are aiming for that is not simply hewing to a measurement standard, but that the loudspeaker “produces a certain type of sound or presentation.” Eg “
Sounds more like live music” or some other set of personal preferences as a guiding criteria.
This doesn’t mean that neutrality is completely thrown out the window.
Some people may find that a generally neutral speaker is what gets them to this sound they are seeking. Sometimes a slight departure from neutral, or even a sizeable departure from neutral , may be what the designer ends up with.
I personally want my loudspeakers to “sound like something” and among those characteristics are “natural“ and “sounding more like the real thing”… reproducing what I perceive are some important characteristics I hear in live instruments voices. I have other criteria, but that’s part of it. (as it turns out, I don’t want a loudspeakers straying too far from neutral because a very unbalanced sound does not sound natural to me).
Joseph Audio has a similar approach. This description from their website, captures it:
“Live, unamplified music has unmistakable presence and clarity. Yet, at the same time it also sounds relaxed and warm.”
For me that beautifully captures the “gestalt” that I perceive when I pay attention to live on amplified musical sources.
So right off the bat, an audiophile like me can at least note “
This speaker designer seems to be identifying the right things to be going for in terms of what I care about.”
Taking some notes and paraphrasing from an interview with Jeff Joseph, he says he can get good measurements pretty quickly with the speaker, but he uses informal listening to dial-in or ensure he’s getting these qualities:
- Strives for a purity of tone; he wants to be able to hear the very distinct tone and timbral colours of instruments voices.
- Wants to have the sensation of listening through the speakers to the original live performance .
- Wants the listener to be able to hear any part in the mix no matter how tiny or subtle, so if you want to focus attention on a tiny element in the mix or a single instrument, you should be able to clearly perceive those elements.
He says he has certain recordings that he finds useful in getting a handle on the system, evaluating the crossover, etc.
So for instance, he uses a certain piano recordings he’s familiar with to make sure he’s adjusted the fill of the crossover in a way that sounds natural to his ears.
So that’s where it seems the listening and personal preferences and decisions come in.
Did the approach work?
To my ears, Jeff knocked it out of the park. Before I’d even really known the brand, I encountered Joseph speakers at a show and was knocked out by precisely the qualities Joseph seemed to be striving for.
When people are demoing “ good vocal tracks” at audio shows I typically close my eyes to listen and compare them to the sound of real voices - often someone is talking in the room.
It immediately reveals the gap between the mechanical and electronic character of voices coming through a loudspeaker versus reality of sound coming from real human flesh.
But when I did this eyes closed comparison with a vocal track Jeff was playing on his flagship Pearls I was just astonished at how they nailed the timber and tonality of the human voice… there was very little difference between the voices coming from the speakers and some voices occasionally chatting in the same room. The timber and color, and the natural warmth “matched” which to me is very rare.
And then I immediately found a dealer in my hometown to listen to the brand again, and yup… all those qualities were there.
What I perceive from the Joseph speakers is a purity of tone… an effortless relaxed clarity that comes from a completely etch or grain-free presentation. Yet also with some warmth and richness (not thin or anaemic sounding).
The effect on the sound of instruments and voices is like looking through a clear stream from which all sand or silt had been removed revealing all the vivid colours of the rocks and pebbles. In the same way it felt like the distinct variety and beauty of instrumental timbre and tones came through in the way I had rarely heard before. When I played familiar tracks, I was continually surprised as each instrument entered, because each sounded so individual and harmonically beautiful.
Plus, they sound-staged and imaged like bastards, totally disappeared as apparent sound sources, while also sounding rich and punchy from the mid bass down.
I left my first audition incredibly excited and it was after that that I really started researching reviews and other listener impressions.
And over and over the same themes emerged from other listener impressions… essentially citing the same characteristics I just described. Reviewers tended to note the “high level of discernability” where even in dense mixes with overlapping instruments playing in the same register, the distinctiveness of instrumental timbers made it effortless to hear each instrument.
Which is what I experience from my Joseph Perspective2 speakers.
So, the sound profile Joseph was seeking that both he and I associate with live and amplified, music -
unmistakable presence and clarity. Yet, at the same time it also sounds relaxed and warm - seems to be exactly what I’m getting out of these loudspeakers.
And it is tremendously rewarding.
Around the same time, I was also auditioning plenty of other loudspeakers, including the
Revel Performa F228Be a couple times, and as obviously competent as those speakers were, they did not grab me like Jeff’s speakers.
Would I have preferred the Revels if these speakers were compared at the Harman blind testing facilities? I certainly can’t rule that out.
But if you’re an audiophile like me who’s interested in a range of loudspeakers that go beyond Revel or the loudspeakers for which we have spinoramas etc, then often personal listening sessions is all we’ve got to go on. (the fact that they’re at least some Stereophile measurements is for me helpful but just not definitive).
So while I don’t have scientific level verification for my choice or for the success of the design of these speakers, there’s a heck of a lot of informal listening impressions out there for the Joseph speakers that seemed to align with my own and with Joseph’s personal sonic goals. And it’s made for an extremely satisfying purchase in my experience.
(And none of that is to say that all of the characteristics noted above couldn’t have been arrived at purely through a measurements-only based approach. I’m just throwing out a possible example of design that also incorporates the designer’s subjective preferences, seems to me like it can be pretty successful).
