I haven't heard the M2 yet, or their downsized versions, but I trust the accounts of others who have. The directivity index is particularly exemplary, and the on-axis compensation is quite good. The latter is easy to compensate, the former is not amenable to correction except in anomalous cases.
IMO loudspeakers have improved a lot over the last twenty-five years or so, out of Harman at least, owing to the salutary influence of Toole et al. I picked up a pair of Infinity-branded two-ways for the great composer/arranger and bandleader Bill Holman (his KEFs with the concentric tweeters had them burned out, and friends were starting to complain that something was wrong) for very cheap, and they sounded extremely decent at the closeout price of 230US a pair. In fact, except for a slight audible bass hump they were nearly as good as my main speakers, and easy to drive. I probably should have bought another pair just for backup.
With the grilles off one saw a thing over the tweeter, which I assumed had some acoustical function. As I knew that they would be positioned on their sides on a bookshelf, I went to the trouble of rotating the thingy. I was told later that they had very little acoustical effect.
No, lovely as some of the historical JBL and Infinity speakers were, as well as a whole bunch of highly-regarded offerings from others, a lot of the appeal is nostalgia. In blind tests few perform that well. When you can see the pretty industrial designs, all bets on acoustic evaluation are off.
IMO loudspeakers have improved a lot over the last twenty-five years or so, out of Harman at least, owing to the salutary influence of Toole et al. I picked up a pair of Infinity-branded two-ways for the great composer/arranger and bandleader Bill Holman (his KEFs with the concentric tweeters had them burned out, and friends were starting to complain that something was wrong) for very cheap, and they sounded extremely decent at the closeout price of 230US a pair. In fact, except for a slight audible bass hump they were nearly as good as my main speakers, and easy to drive. I probably should have bought another pair just for backup.
With the grilles off one saw a thing over the tweeter, which I assumed had some acoustical function. As I knew that they would be positioned on their sides on a bookshelf, I went to the trouble of rotating the thingy. I was told later that they had very little acoustical effect.
No, lovely as some of the historical JBL and Infinity speakers were, as well as a whole bunch of highly-regarded offerings from others, a lot of the appeal is nostalgia. In blind tests few perform that well. When you can see the pretty industrial designs, all bets on acoustic evaluation are off.
Define cheap please.
It's hard to believe Parasound makes much of anything of it's products that cost a few hundred. You only get 45-65% of the 6x markup of cost to build MSRP. Selling a $200 amp? It cost $33 to make. I can't buy the parts I need to make anything decent for that, and it doesn't matter how many thousands were ordered. Go direct, now maybe it cost $100 to make. You might be getting somewhere, MAYBE, but the reality is you need to sell thousands... that's not easy and China won't let it be.
Electronics are not expensive. People are poor. Stagnant wages are already causing unstable stock prices. It's no one's fault but big investment companies that bought up lots of smaller companies after 2008, and decided to gut all the salaries; or just kept playing with more CDO's. It's not like the public did any favors to change that, still throwing money at China as fast as they can. Seriously, I can't tell the difference in people's perception from the mid 1990's and today as far as the dollar and it's worth. It's like they believe it's the same but the price of everything magically went up? A $2000 amp in 1995 would be a $3112 amp today... Think on it, compare the prices of things. And yet people are essentially bothering to believe a good wage then would be a good wage now? No wonder audio looks spendy.
Maybe we need an audiophile country...
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This reminds me of when a couple asked me if I could hook up their new playback equipment. They were living in a converted garage in downtown LA, and were hardly well-heeled. But Bruce spent his money on the important stuff like LPs (this was a loooong time ago).
I agreed to come over and help, presuming that it would amount to plugging in a few RCAs and maybe stripping some speaker wire. It turned out that it was a bit more work---the Altec Lansing Voice of the Theater systems required "some assembly". I arrived around 10PM and we were finally hearing music at about 3AM.
Yes the big Altecs, whose drivers I had to mount, and in the black painted cabinets. In a garage. But they sounded o.k. if probably very ill-suited for what amounted to near-field listening.
Bruce's gratitude extended to bestowing upon me a big stack of Odeon LPs of mostly-Hindustani classical releases, as soon as he had systematically replaced each one of them.
Purely philosophical in my case the money does not matter at all the sense that the average home system needs this bothers me.
Cool, I just noticed that. The underlying outlet does not look like hospital grade but Home Depot re-brand grade.
I should clarify. My point was that you 'could' argue that the M2 was as good as it gets in 2016. Spending more gets pride of ownership or w*nk value like big cars and watches that give you a workout telling the time.
What I don't know is how much cheaper you can get and remain fundamentally transparent if you accept that you like being married and like your ears as they are (M2s do 117dB or so, which is only adequate for Ed but excessive for me to the tune of about 20dB)
As JC has said, there are good music recordings if you look for them. Masters (analog or digital) sounds best IMO. Being able to hear the HD masters without major processing is a plus to the industry. Never-the-less, the traditional sources (CD, FM, LP) for the music are fading out of mainstream with support greatly reduced. The music may be just as bad in most cases as before but not all of it... most of the HD downloads from re/masters are generally great in music and sound quality. These new sources of HD masters are better than ever before available.
=THx-RNMarsh
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i am going to see if I can get a pair at an accommodation price... without thier amps. As soon as I get back to the 1st world. It is a big improvement in dynamic loudspeaker systems. But Im not selling my quad electrostatic speakers just yet.
I took LP as far I as could - SME arms and others, MC, pre and pre-pre etc. Took FM as far as I could. Ditto analog tape. Then took CD as far as I could. Now moving to DAC/ADC HD files. but a good amp and speaker (and room) are still where the greatest improvements are to be found.
So what is next ? This? https://www.llnl.gov/news/lawrence-...borate-build-new-brain-inspired-supercomputer
THx-RNMarsh
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Rtchard, excellebt recordings have been around for the lat 40 years at least. It's the LP/CD manufacturing that kills much of POTENTIAL quality on the master tape.
A long time ago, in the early 70ies, I was treated to a demo by Studer/Revox in a mmusic shop in Munchen. They had a live band on a stage and recorded their playing on the spot using just a pair of Beyer microphones (solid usnits, not high end by any means), using a stock Revox A78 Mk.III running at 15 ips. In playback, the deck was connevted directly to a mastering console, which drove a pair of Klein & Hummel active 3 way speakers (12" bass driver and 2" and 1" mid and treble domws. I'll be damned if anybody could tell the difference between live and recorded.
Now consider what was typically done with that source material in a typical studio before it was pressed as an LP, and what it had to pass through before you heard it in your room. So many variables. Impossible to control all of them. And not too many gave a damn, they were in a hurry to get the LP out on the market and make some money.
A long time ago, in the early 70ies, I was treated to a demo by Studer/Revox in a mmusic shop in Munchen. They had a live band on a stage and recorded their playing on the spot using just a pair of Beyer microphones (solid usnits, not high end by any means), using a stock Revox A78 Mk.III running at 15 ips. In playback, the deck was connevted directly to a mastering console, which drove a pair of Klein & Hummel active 3 way speakers (12" bass driver and 2" and 1" mid and treble domws. I'll be damned if anybody could tell the difference between live and recorded.
Now consider what was typically done with that source material in a typical studio before it was pressed as an LP, and what it had to pass through before you heard it in your room. So many variables. Impossible to control all of them. And not too many gave a damn, they were in a hurry to get the LP out on the market and make some money.
Pretty much parallels my experience also..... I have done similar demos myself.
Now, finally, the master recordings can be in the hands of the people.
Nice overview and history getting to this point: http://www.theguardian.com/music/2015/may/28/how-the-compact-disc-lost-its-shine
THx-RM
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Scott,
Pretty sure they are Hubbles and the green dot means isolated ground. I think the only Hubble isolated ground units are hospital grade.
Besides the upside down labeling I suspect they silver plated the contacts. That should last until you plug something in while turned on. The arc should burn through the plate quite nicely.
So now we need to do a well controlled double blind test to see if the systems sound better if plugged in with the power switches on or off.
My money is that plugging the power amp in "hot" will actually have an easily heard effect. (Blown circuit breaker if the soft start doesn't engage.)
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Still not sure what makes you think that. The mastering engineer still munges the final mix to suit the brief he is given.
Here is one of many sites about the differences used for HiRes/HD mastering specs. And it gets us closer to the master source than playing older technologies.
High Resolution Audio
some sources of mastered HD/HiRes" http://www.sony.com/electronics/hi-res-audio-music-services
THx-RNMarsh
High Resolution Audio
some sources of mastered HD/HiRes" http://www.sony.com/electronics/hi-res-audio-music-services
THx-RNMarsh
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If the master source was 15IPS tape no it doesn't. This is only valid for things recorded and mixed 24/96 and says nothing for the quality. I know you truly believe your HD downloads sound better, but you are not any closer to the master that you were before based on evidence I have seen and heard.
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