Speaker and room interaction (pics) - your opinion

[fluid]

Couldn't agree more. Recording quality is all over the map. Even for orchestral pieces which everything should have been recorded (mic'd) at the same time its often iffy.

Most of the modern major record company releases / remasters are actually reasonably well balanced. Check them with good headphones, they should sound reasonably OK. If consistency is a big issue, the root is usually speaker / room, ime.

The comment was more related to the presentation of these recordings from the dipoles in the current room, not to say that the recording is good or bad. I like all of them but some present as I expect and I enjoy them, other's not so much and I don't really enjoy listening to them which is a shame because I want to. I noticed much less of this variability when they were in a bigger room that suited them more. I probably won't have that size of living room any more which is why I am looking for alternatives for that space.

There are certainly good and bad masters, Bob Katz has written quite a few articles on the things he has done to get the clients happy, most of which are some pretty awful things to get the average level up. Having said that I am not someone who will look for every available copy to compare looking for the best. I have a number of songs in mp3 320 and I enjoy those too.

That would be an interesting comparison, as you would have a good basis for comparing the different configurations. Hopefully you'll post results. Have you measured the speaker-room interaction with something like APL TDA or a REW waterfall?

No I haven't, it is something I should do but I can't see myself getting to it anytime soon due to family restrictions on that sort of activity and the need to actually finish my other projects! When the line array is done that will need measuring so that will probably be the ideal time.

You still have the dipoles, and operate them as dipoles. So do you prefer the added reflections over a more controlled directivity box type speaker ?

The dipoles have more controlled directivity than the bookshelf speakers I have. The bookshelf's sound pretty good either nearfield or spaced well away from walls as long as they are not turned up too loud, lack of bass is their issue but I find less variability in genres on those. I like the dipoles as long as they are far enough out from the sidewalls and in a big enough room neither of which I have now 🙄

 

[plasnu]

There are certainly good and bad masters, Bob Katz has written quite a few articles on the things he has done to get the clients happy, most of which are some pretty awful things to get the average level up. Having said that I am not someone who will look for every available copy to compare looking for the best. I have a number of songs in mp3 320 and I enjoy those too.

I was talking about the balance, FR, not the overall quality nor loudness of the masters. Bass shy or boomy speakers / room usually have consistency issue, for example.

BTW, smaller room would require more serious acoustic treatment for flat response, but whatever we do, the large room always win, unfortunately... 🙁