Loudspeakers - looking for a correlation between measurements and listening impressions

I think first of all one must understand how we hear things and our frequency response to different spl. or just a case of turning your system on and listening to and enjoying what you hear. Take a look at the Fletcher-Munson curves, do you take this into consideration when you measure your speakers at different power levels, do you hear what you think you hear.

I certainly don't. If I feel the bass/treble is not to my liking I adjust the controls or press the loudness button and everything becomes respectable. There is not much you can do with a modern single knob high end amp to make something sound enjoyable to you at that moment.

Why should one pay for, and eat a bland meal without any salt, pepper or other spices to make it palatable. to express your refinement? Why drink a bottle of expensive vinegar if you actually enjoy a Coke more.

Why should old loudspeaker drivers be sneered at but vintage ornaments are hip. Same with tube amplifiers, they lost their relevance in technology decades ago but are still craved by some for their apparent warmth and musicality, those things should be in a dustbin and only class D amplifiers are acceptable. Class A is something of the distant past, why still believe in that it sounds better.

Are audiophile becoming a form of snobbery? If you are not an audiophile you cannot possibly enjoy listening to music on something other than an all-in-one music center. I am not that old but, was were their audiophiles at the advent of the gramophone? I suppose so else the grand systems of the 70s and early 80s would never have been developed, it seems like we are going back to the gramophone era with only a wind-up handle, no more controls to dial in your preference of tonality.

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AI defines an audiophile as:
Audiophiles are an exceptional breed of people who are fascinated by pure audio, motivated by sound quality and addicted to audio gadgets.

Why don't we slate all the impurities, distortions and noise emanating from the recording studio? Are our equipment not far superior than the miles of patch cords, thousands of LM741 op-amps, auto-tuning and stuff in the recording/mixing studio. All we are doing is amplifying this and then whine about how to make the reproduction system superior so we can hear all these added oddities.
 
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😀 gadgets are far more interesting than acoustics, because one can't see sound, or touch it! What happens in auditory system even less tangible, because there is no products one could buy to improve it or tinker with it while for acoustics one can do at least something about. It's far more interesting to ignore these tough subjects, and get hands on with equipment and explain everything with the equipment🙂 Hifi stuff is a hobby, luxury items nobody actuallly needs for anything, except for entertainment, which has many other forms like live music. It's weird stuff in a way, not to be taken too seriously, although music being very interesting ingeneral as it somehow resonates very deeply for many, if not most humans. Each one have their own way navigating within it, some hangout on forums, some use all kinds of methods to "improve" sound, some never consider their playback system other than whether there is music or not.

Recording and playback are different phases of single process. On the recording side one is encouraged to do as interesting sounds as possible to tingle senses and create moods, convey emotion. On the playback side it's also about that, the same chain that started in the recording process is timemachined to moment of playback, and the recording is hopefully let through with full impact the people in the past wanted it to, whatever that is. Likely they just wanted to give good vibes, connect people, divide people, empower people, send secret messages, have fun and get laid, whatever, just resonate with someone 🙂
 
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that what provide the sound of a driver above all other things is the material of the cone
If true like i think this is an extremely important statement
Do you believe it's possible for a speaker to reproduce music while adding no sound of it's own?

The issue of cones sounding different tends to be minimised by using them within their intended range and managing resonance and breakup issues.
 
you would have to do extended listening tests to verify there is a correlation between reproduction of square waves and what you like in sound reproduction - or what you would classify as quality.
otherwise it's just an arbitrary rather "visual" attemt to simplify an (unverified) concept of "truth".
don't fall for the false and cheap explanations!

by the way: a measurement microphone, a soundcard/interface and REW are not very expensive and allow to make CSD and group delay graphs and much more.
It's incredibly instructive to use these tools.
I am sincere now I really thought that measurements like the wonderful CSD needed very high end instruments
This week i am in the middle of a moving but from next week i will try a calibrated mic I have such a mess at home
When i said Square wave clearly i did not mean a square wave listening test I see only that the ability to reproduce quite accurately a SW seems to be a selling point
Something worth to be shown I remember also Redheko speakers mentioning the same test
I hope to be able to measure something soon Thank you very much indeed 🙂
 
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😀 gadgets are far more interesting than acoustics, because one can't see sound, or touch it! What happens in auditory system even less tangible, because there is no products one could buy to improve it or tinker with it while for acoustics one can do at least something about. It's far more interesting to ignore these tough subjects, and get hands on with equipment and explain everything with the equipment🙂 Hifi stuff is a hobby, luxury items nobody actuallly needs for anything, except for entertainment, which has many other forms like live music. It's weird stuff in a way, not to be taken too seriously, although music being very interesting ingeneral as it somehow resonates very deeply for many, if not most humans. Each one have their own way navigating within it, some hangout on forums, some never consider their playbacknsystem other than whether there is music or not.

Recording and playback are bit different, on the recording side one is encouraged to do as interesting sounds as possible to tingle senses. On the playback side it's also about tinglign senses, usually so that the tinglements in any recording come through 🙂
yes you are right I think that recording a live event is much more fun I bought a Tascam digital recorder and two cheap mics to try some recordings of amateur bands or groups
I did not have the opportunity The ones who cares rent a professional studio
we have a say here Between to say and to do there is an ocean And i suffer of sea sickness The tools can be bought But they are not enough
 
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Do you believe it's possible for a speaker to reproduce music while adding no sound of it's own?
of course not But the chief designer has been categoric He said that many hours and resources have been spent to get an optimum material that now they use in all their products They do not use drivers from other brands like others
Harbeth is a famous brand like Spendor
The issue of cones sounding different tends to be minimised by using them within their intended range and managing resonance and breakup issues.
this i did not know Thank you for the precious advice
i do not want to sound provocative but i actually listened to a driver in free air and found the sound quite good at least in the midrange
it was a vintage JBL LE-5 with alnico magnet It was just placed on a small table It was sounding even without cabinet I was impressed
i guess paper cone
 
what about using them with a very steep digital xover ? for me it is important that at least in a range they measure very good
Very steep xovers don't sound good .. especially EVIL digital FIRs (the most common type). You want a smooth transition so there are no kinks in the directivity.

I won't go into why FIRs are truly EVIL cos there are many here who believe they are the bees knees 😊
 
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I think first of all one must understand how we hear things and our frequency response to different spl. or just a case of turning your system on and listening to and enjoying what you hear. Take a look at the Fletcher-Munson curves, do you take this into consideration when you measure your speakers at different power levels, do you hear what you think you hear.

I certainly don't. If I feel the bass/treble is not to my liking I adjust the controls or press the loudness button and everything becomes respectable. There is not much you can do with a modern single knob high end amp to make something sound enjoyable to you at that moment.

Why should one pay for, and eat a bland meal without any salt, pepper or other spices to make it palatable. to express your refinement? Why drink a bottle of expensive vinegar if you actually enjoy a Coke more.

Why should old loudspeaker drivers be sneered at but vintage ornaments are hip. Same with tube amplifiers, they lost their relevance in technology decades ago but are still craved by some for their apparent warmth and musicality, those things should be in a dustbin and only class D amplifiers are acceptable. Class A is something of the distant past, why still believe in that it sounds better.

Are audiophile becoming a form of snobbery? If you are not an audiophile you cannot possibly enjoy listening to music on something other than an all-in-one music center. I am not that old but, was were their audiophiles at the advent of the gramophone? I suppose so else the grand systems of the 70s and early 80s would never have been developed, it seems like we are going back to the gramophone era with only a wind-up handle, no more controls to dial in your preference of tonality.

View attachment 1370637

AI defines an audiophile as:
Audiophiles are an exceptional breed of people who are fascinated by pure audio, motivated by sound quality and addicted to audio gadgets.

Why don't we slate all the impurities, distortions and noise emanating from the recording studio? Are our equipment not far superior than the miles of patch cords, thousands of LM741 op-amps, auto-tuning and stuff in the recording/mixing studio. All we are doing is amplifying this and then whine about how to make the reproduction system superior so we can hear all these added oddities.
Thank you very much again
I think I am understanding better that are more obsessed than concerned
But for instance tone controls are gone these days
I have listened all the time without them and I don't miss them at all
It's like spicing up a food
It doesn't make it better just hotter
But I really must be less obsessed and stay calm
Focus more the enjoyment of music
 
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It's any point source, like Multiple Entry Horn.
Do you mean a coaxial unit like a KEF UniQ or Tannoy? Have you actually used very steep xovers with these? I'm asking for pics cos they will tell us if you are doing da "Distance & Delay .. and as a by product, Phase" correctly. 😊

Or are you claiming all Multiple Entry Horns sound good?
 
Do you mean a coaxial unit like a KEF UniQ or Tannoy? Have you actually used very steep xovers with these? I'm asking for pics cos they will tell us if you are doing da "Distance & Delay .. and as a by product, Phase" correctly. 😊

Or are you claiming all Multiple Entry Horns sound good?
Hi, I'm not claiming anything, I don't have MEH, it's just that a point source has opportunity to function great here and I'm parroting information that I've gathered.

FIR has possibility for phase manipulation if one wishes, without much penalty if added time delay is not counted, which makes steep crossovers viable. Phase correction would introduce preringing, but if it's complementary filter the other driver would cancel it out in case of coincident sources, where both sources have roughly same acoustic environment and radiation so that the ringing cancels to all directions. This doesn't happen with conventional speaker with non-coincident sources, except on one listening height / plane. Steep slopes would make "lobing" less audible on conventional speaker, because the overlapping bandwidth reduces, except reveal the ringing and might not be that much of an improvement.

If you search mark100 threads and posts he's explained and demonstrated this over and over again 🙂

I haven't played with tannoy or KEF coaxials either, so don't know how capable they are. Simplified thinking for any coaxial could be that the bigger the woofer compared to tweeter the more their acoustic output differ and phase correction could reveal itself. The smaller the woofer on a coax, the more similar their acoustic output and chances are phase correction stays inaudible. I see no reason why steep phase linear filters wouldn't work in case of small coaxial. Hearing might be different.
 
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Your ears are on the side of your head to judge direction. If both the ears hear the same thing it is in front or behind. You can achieve this easily with headphones. There are many 360 deg. tests available to prove this. Your eyes are in front of your head to judge depth or distance. That is the way we evolved. One can place a sound anywhere around the head by utilizing both amplitude and time.
 
Your ears are on the side of your head to judge direction. If both the ears hear the same thing it is in front or behind. You can achieve this easily with headphones. There are many 360 deg. tests available to prove this. Your eyes are in front of your head to judge depth or distance. That is the way we evolved. One can place a sound anywhere around the head by utilizing both amplitude and time.
You can't get sounds coming from the front with headphones
The front is always silent
Like a black hole
A very unnatural feeling
Maybe it will be possible in future with some DSP
Listen to any binaural recording
The sound never comes from the front Never
I have listened to hundreds of them
Video gamers are pushing for that