Problems still exist of course, but I think it still has some value as a comparison. We've already established that actual listening can be a big problem before choosing and has this method any less value than hearing someone else's impressions?
I can tell if a recording is well made without being in the recording studio. Just listen to the result. We enjoy recorded music all the time and in fact, most is recorded with mics, and the whole chain of gear used. Which is why we have DIYA. It’s not about live music. To listen to how speakers really sound in your own room, the only way is to install in your room and listen. The acoustics of the listening room in a sound room at your local HiFi boutique, or at Magnolia, or your friends house will be different. But the main features of a driver from 300Hz to 8kHz will come through pretty well via a quality well made microphone recording.
You could take the speaker, put it in an anechoic chamber, use a B&K preciison mic and preamp. You still have the amp the source, youtube and all the uncontrollable stuff at the receiving end. Too much is lost/buried to really know.
It is sort of a cartoon like take on what each driver sounds like. Or cardboard cutout?
dave
It is sort of a cartoon like take on what each driver sounds like. Or cardboard cutout?
dave
Youtube? Headphones are very revealing, a half decent DAC and amp driving them would contain a lot of small detail.
True, but exact chain, level, helps.
There was a guy on youtube taking his portable mike setup comparing different speakers.
It was easy to hear the benefits of time alignment vs not on transients (with my sennheisers hd 595).
Especially the extremely dynamic sato western electric 15a giant horn, maybe crossed at 150hz to 15's but not time phase aligned.
But good sound doesn't necessarily mean accurate.
Dunlavy brought up that we wouldn't buy a cd player / amp / preamp that can't pass a square wave.
If that is true, then why would we tolerate a loudspeaker that butchers a square wave ?
I'm suprised more of us aren't listening to nearfield setups on genlec monitors.........
There was a guy on youtube taking his portable mike setup comparing different speakers.
It was easy to hear the benefits of time alignment vs not on transients (with my sennheisers hd 595).
Especially the extremely dynamic sato western electric 15a giant horn, maybe crossed at 150hz to 15's but not time phase aligned.
But good sound doesn't necessarily mean accurate.
Dunlavy brought up that we wouldn't buy a cd player / amp / preamp that can't pass a square wave.
If that is true, then why would we tolerate a loudspeaker that butchers a square wave ?
I'm suprised more of us aren't listening to nearfield setups on genlec monitors.........
That is because those speakers are very fatigueing and sound accurate, but not good. They are to clinical.
I use them weekly in the radiostudio where i do my radioshow, and after an hour i already start to feel fatiguing, while i can listen for a whole day to my less accurate but good sounding fullrange speakers without fatiguing.
Listening to music is about enjoyment for me, not perfect numbers and measurements.
My guess is that the Genelecs use a lot of DSP and steep crossovers with phase wrap. That can cause fatigue as well as amps that have too much higher odd order distortion. Or a voicing that doesn’t tilt down to the right - aka Harman “house curve”. Circa -5dB less at 20kHz vs 50Hz. But phase artifacts from steep DSP crossovers have ringing in the impulse response. We subconsciously hear this as fatigue.
True, I do buy into the listener’s fatigue affected by the phase not being right.
But many full range drivers, the phase slowly can slowly wrap pretty far also (lows vs highs).
But many full range drivers, the phase slowly can slowly wrap pretty far also (lows vs highs).
It doesn’t matter how good the stuff you are listening with, the small stuff is lost. Even with the very best recording.
Once it is lost, it is gone. Nothing will bring it back.
dave
Do full range driver manufacturers publish phase measurements much, it seems an important attribute?
I wonder if a mic placed close to a driver and subsequently replayed through a good system and headphones could actually be more revealing of the differences between drivers than listening to them under "normal" circumstances. It's still a very good alternative to listening to peoples' opinions when you can't hear them in person.
Have you heard about my friends in the band called "Bacon Torpedo"?
That's most definitely an euphemism, well documented.
Link:
Bacon Torpedo
I find them to be at least "somewhat accurate".
I have a pair of 1030A, very clear reproduction and no fatigue whatsoever. I don't understand the generalism that occurs quite often here...
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The Samara kit seems to be interesting. In fact, I bought it on a whim, despite I haven't finished the current build😛
The Samara kit seems to be interesting. In fact, I bought it on a whim, despite I haven't finished the current build😛