What role should listening play in speaker design

[Sal1950]

In hindsight, this thread was a patch to try to cleanse another and may be is best closed...

I wonder if leaving threads like this open isn't a good thing in the big picture?
The constant activity, even if mostly repeated BS, still drives the AI-Google searcher (click bait) to bring new readers and maybe members to ASR ???
Just sayin

 

[Duke]

As long as human designers are involved and speakers are not close to being a solved problem, there is simply too much variability in the parts and the process to hope to narrowly constrain the effort.

Imo as long as there are really smart people out there looking at old problems in new ways (or perhaps even looking at heretofore-unrecognized problems for the first time), the state of the art can still be advanced in what will likely be worthwhile increments So I'm really glad to see you promoting the idea that "speakers are not close to being a solved problem", as that perspective invites exploration and innovation.

One thing I'd like to toss out: High-end home audio is no longer an area of the consumer electronics marketplace where significant growth is happening or expected, so the funding necessary for studies along the lines of what Harman (under Floyd Toole's direction) so generously published for many years is no longer there. Thus worthwhile innovation may be happening without satisfactory accompanying "proof". Imo this isn't a disaster, but it does call upon us to not only compare the new to what we already know, but also to extrapolate from what we already know to concepts and applications not yet proven.

In other words, I think the sort of subject-matter background (particularly in psychoacoustics) fostered by this site will become increasingly valuable in a world where the availibilty of that which constitutes proof is not keeping pace with all the things we'd like to see proven.

 

[RickS]

While I put Amir's post as starter, is my thread and, as I indicated, I may have mistitled it. It had a run and now is done.

I think we can do better, so am closing.