I don't know what your definition of mainstream is, but that is not really my experience. I even showed some articles.
It's not even a a theory, so I am in doubt where you get your information from?
That being said, the general consensus is just anxiety. Every time when also othet people like Geddes bring up the same subject, nobody seems to jump on board.
Again, have you done these distortion listening tests already?
This is exactly how it should be used and looked at.
Obviously there are some limits, but it's mostly to determine beforehand where the problem areas will be.
One of the reasons why it's so damn frustrating that manufacturers don't provide this data.
Spending a lot of money on drivers that are just not performing the way you had in mind is no fun.
... 15 years ago ...Somebody starts to understand it!!
I mean it's obvious when you look at the data
but it's a different thing to EXPERIENCE that.That's also the reason why some of us have a strong "opinion" about these topics - cause we understand the theory and measurements, the interaction with the room and psychoacoustics how we perceive that. AND we did experiments to that topic, listened to different speakers in a meaningful setup (e.g. blind, fast switching, fr corrected). When theory and experience then actually FIT - Eureka. *
That's a difference to an "educated guess" or some hearsay opinions on the internet.
(* that's not always the case. I stopped building D'Apollito cause of my listening tests. Discard projects and prototypes cause it was not working as I thought/hoped. That's the painfull part of the process)
Couldn't say it better, haha... 15 years ago ...
I mean it's obvious when you look at the data
That's also the reason why some of us have a strong "opinion" about these topics - cause we understand the theory and measurements, the interaction with the room and psychoacoustics how we perceive that. AND we did experiments to that topic, listened to different speakers in a meaningful setup (e.g. blind, fast switching, fr corrected). When theory and experience then actually FIT - Eureka. *
That's a difference to an "educated guess" or some hearsay opinions on the internet.
(* that's not always the case. I stopped building D'Apollito cause of my listening tests. Discard projects and prototypes cause it was not working as I thought/hoped. That's the painfull part of the process)
Although for me it never was/is an "eureka" moment, more just that everything makes sense.
Btw, 15 years ago, the landscape was also slightly different.
These days there are plenty of drivers that perform great.
Or to say it in other words, the hit-or-miss factor was much bigger 15 years ago.
Another big difference, is that DSP's and amplification is easy and cheap these days.
Therefor the general idea of how to build a speaker, is slightly different.
Also, there have been a couple of companies around that actually very clearly proved that distortion isn't the key factor.
And I will keep it repeating again, because people seem to misread or misunderstand it, I am NOT saying that distortion is NOT important.
I am saying that;
1 - distortion doesn't cancel out these other problems
2 - some of these other problems are far more audible
There is absolutely nothing new about this?
They already knew that over 50 years ago.
So many kinds of distortion and noise to offend our little ears.
Over the years amplifiers have improved to the point that most are harmless.
What remains are speakers, That I put into two categories; large stacks and shelf or stand speakers.
The focus here seems to be shelf or stand speakers. Within this category my preference is direct or near field listening. A smooth slightly down sloping on axis frequency response is of first importance. Minimum THD+N and minimum IMD/amplitude modulation distortion perhaps is number 2 in importance. 15 degree toed in speakers is possibly number 3 in importance. (crosses in front of the listening position)
After all that all the speakers all start sounding the same.
Thanks DT
Over the years amplifiers have improved to the point that most are harmless.
What remains are speakers, That I put into two categories; large stacks and shelf or stand speakers.
The focus here seems to be shelf or stand speakers. Within this category my preference is direct or near field listening. A smooth slightly down sloping on axis frequency response is of first importance. Minimum THD+N and minimum IMD/amplitude modulation distortion perhaps is number 2 in importance. 15 degree toed in speakers is possibly number 3 in importance. (crosses in front of the listening position)
After all that all the speakers all start sounding the same.
Thanks DT
2006 I did my big PA Tops with BMS 2"/1" Neo Coax and 2x12". Bunch of 18" Woofers. A few smaller tops before that and 2003 my first PA Speakers, 4 15" reflex Subwoofer. DSP and speaker controllers where already standard back then and available in good quality (I used a BSS Minidrive, still in my rack). But not exactly cheap.
Off axis performance was ALWAYS important for PA speaker. It just took a while until it was broader knowledge in HiFi. There where wavegudies for a long time in big monitoring speakers, just not as common as now.
Drivers are way more reliable now. Actually most PA speakers are at least OK nowerdays - that was VERY different 20 years ago.
Klippel made a lot of knowhow and information available for developer. And you have new designs like Purify who push the borders of what's possible.
With my PA and Studio background I'm tinkering around with woofer placement and off axis frequency response and in room response vs nearfield for >20 years now ... nice to see that it's getting more common knowledge nowerdays and people recognise the difference and importance.
Off axis performance was ALWAYS important for PA speaker. It just took a while until it was broader knowledge in HiFi. There where wavegudies for a long time in big monitoring speakers, just not as common as now.
Drivers are way more reliable now. Actually most PA speakers are at least OK nowerdays - that was VERY different 20 years ago.
Klippel made a lot of knowhow and information available for developer. And you have new designs like Purify who push the borders of what's possible.
With my PA and Studio background I'm tinkering around with woofer placement and off axis frequency response and in room response vs nearfield for >20 years now ... nice to see that it's getting more common knowledge nowerdays and people recognise the difference and importance.