I've always wondered tape packs from raves are so much more valuable than other recordings. The majority this forum believe they seek 'perfection' - a flat frequency response.
Bygones.
Perhaps those who got out during their youth are looking to re-experience their youth. Bose and other big-box manufacturers this. Flat? Flat is crap - nobody's hearing is flat.
Sound is subjective. It's DIYAUDIO - the object of the exercise is to reproduce 'the sound you like'. As the man says," It was the best of times . . ."
If you're of a certain age . . . your first experience of musical joy was "Good Times" being pumped out of 2 x 12" disco speakers in a woefully undersized cabinet with screechy scratchy Piezo tweeters providing the treble. The DJ is maxing-out his 120w amplifier.
You grew up, you got a car. The first thing you did was to buy a graphic equalizer to make the music LOUD. The very next thing you did was to set the frequencies into a 'smiley face' - big-up the bass, big-up the treble!
You never wanted flat.
Bygones.
Perhaps those who got out during their youth are looking to re-experience their youth. Bose and other big-box manufacturers this. Flat? Flat is crap - nobody's hearing is flat.
Sound is subjective. It's DIYAUDIO - the object of the exercise is to reproduce 'the sound you like'. As the man says," It was the best of times . . ."
If you're of a certain age . . . your first experience of musical joy was "Good Times" being pumped out of 2 x 12" disco speakers in a woefully undersized cabinet with screechy scratchy Piezo tweeters providing the treble. The DJ is maxing-out his 120w amplifier.
You grew up, you got a car. The first thing you did was to buy a graphic equalizer to make the music LOUD. The very next thing you did was to set the frequencies into a 'smiley face' - big-up the bass, big-up the treble!
You never wanted flat.
I grew up listening to AM radio, with highest frequencies ~ 5Khz, an experience I do NOT wish to replicate
The argument I'm getting from OP I will try to summarize as:
"Many of our best and most nostalgic music listening experiences were on systems with "bad" performance (not flat). So it doesn't make sense to try and re-create those experiences (or possibly even new ones) using equipment with "good" (flat) sound."
My response to this is that my nostalgic memories about music are about the music. I couldn't tell you anything about the FR or distortion of any of those systems beyond broad outlines. If I want to reminisce about those times, I don't experience any kind of loss by listening to the same music on a better system.
Maybe you have nostalgia for a certain "bad" speaker or recording, in which case, by all means re-create that gear. There's nothing wrong with that, and I think it's a cool way to approach the DIY hobby. Certainly more interesting in some ways.
Personally I come to the experience through the music, the gear is just an increasingly nice vehicle to take that journey with, so my goal would simply be to build the best speakers I can.
"Many of our best and most nostalgic music listening experiences were on systems with "bad" performance (not flat). So it doesn't make sense to try and re-create those experiences (or possibly even new ones) using equipment with "good" (flat) sound."
My response to this is that my nostalgic memories about music are about the music. I couldn't tell you anything about the FR or distortion of any of those systems beyond broad outlines. If I want to reminisce about those times, I don't experience any kind of loss by listening to the same music on a better system.
Maybe you have nostalgia for a certain "bad" speaker or recording, in which case, by all means re-create that gear. There's nothing wrong with that, and I think it's a cool way to approach the DIY hobby. Certainly more interesting in some ways.
Personally I come to the experience through the music, the gear is just an increasingly nice vehicle to take that journey with, so my goal would simply be to build the best speakers I can.
I dunno you but aging I love more and more mono source that diffuse confortable in the room, especially for voices ! (hence my basic planar tv)
I desperately wonder if two stereo loudspeakers with no more than 15-20 inches spacing and firering towards the front wall (difusor) with a deepness spacing as low-pass that should be setuped by try & error would not be more confortable for most home difficult rooms ?!
When you think it twice, but the fact there is amount of DSPs in such TV nowadays, the bass do not care but the higher frequencies are time deleted being less 360° and spreaded by the front wall with a time offset when the TV have their spealkers on their back and firering towards the front wall!
I do not see horns everywhere but I am tempted to say front wall is a horn too ! (which you are into if the side walls is a part of that mono horn).
I desperately wonder if two stereo loudspeakers with no more than 15-20 inches spacing and firering towards the front wall (difusor) with a deepness spacing as low-pass that should be setuped by try & error would not be more confortable for most home difficult rooms ?!
When you think it twice, but the fact there is amount of DSPs in such TV nowadays, the bass do not care but the higher frequencies are time deleted being less 360° and spreaded by the front wall with a time offset when the TV have their spealkers on their back and firering towards the front wall!
I do not see horns everywhere but I am tempted to say front wall is a horn too ! (which you are into if the side walls is a part of that mono horn).
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Your brain does apply EQ, but it will likely sound more natural if that EQ is applied to a 'flat' reference.
You'll never hear a pilot say, "nah, I don't need to calibrate any numbers on that altimeter...looks OK to me". If you don't have a standard, a baseline to MEASURE off of, what's the point? Your impression of what "sounds good", maybe just plain crap...& I'll show you numbers, measurements by an outside party, a machine that doesn't care about what you listen to....but knows crap when its microphone hears it.
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I rely on measurements when it's best to, but if you don't know how to interpret them they mean little. A measurement won't tell you how you'll hear that diffraction peak. You'll have to EQ that by ear. Flat may not be correct. On the other hand there are aspects of design where I'll rely on measurements entirely.
I agree with Allen. Flat is a good goal for the technical process. Flat is a good place to start the voicing process, which marks the transition from a technical process to a subjective process. Once we start tuning by ear, and adjusting -1 dB here, + 0.5 dB there, we are moving away from flat.
The perfect system for me is the one I don't have to worry about, in any conceivable way and I am capable of repairing. What other people think of it, isn't any concern of mine. Flat or not, is a relative term and meaningless per se.
In my youth I provided music gear for private and smaller commercial events, which after installation and tuning in, the DJ took over.
During the event, when the room filled with people, I had to adjust on the fly to keep the sound quality, even when the sound level increased.
Any room is different, so I used an equalizer with long cables, playing some (to me) well known music and adjusted standing at the main listening spot, to my taste. May not have been the worst taste, as I was constantly booked,
What I took home from this, the frequncy curve does not have to be identical to "sound good", as the listeners ears adapt to it after a short time. Linear does not matter. The most important thing is to prevent any peaks in the response. So linear or smoothly falling to high frequency is always acceptable, but if some mid's or high's suddenly peak out of the spectrum, you can see the digust on peoples faces.
During the event, when the room filled with people, I had to adjust on the fly to keep the sound quality, even when the sound level increased.
Any room is different, so I used an equalizer with long cables, playing some (to me) well known music and adjusted standing at the main listening spot, to my taste. May not have been the worst taste, as I was constantly booked,
What I took home from this, the frequncy curve does not have to be identical to "sound good", as the listeners ears adapt to it after a short time. Linear does not matter. The most important thing is to prevent any peaks in the response. So linear or smoothly falling to high frequency is always acceptable, but if some mid's or high's suddenly peak out of the spectrum, you can see the digust on peoples faces.