Of course, looks matter! Try to sell something that is butt-ugly. And I know that it is a real challenge to design an audio product that looks sharp, yet does not cost the majority of the initial funding to make it. I am certainly not good at it, and those who are, are rare, so we usually hire professionals in metal design who cost big bucks, per chassis. That is how Constellation does it. Parasound tends toward cost effective (cheap) and we look a little shoddy against our more expensive competition. The best compromise that I am working with is Audible Illusions with their new phono stage. Good looks, yet not too pricey for the case. Hogging them out is my preference for my best stuff.
Ah you assumed I wanted some facts on it. I was more interested in wild speculation from the oldies who actually remember the mono era 🙂
I found that a single Klipschorn to be perfect for mono listening only. Did it for years. So did Richard Heyser! My favorite portable mono source is my Telefunken Bajazzo transistor radio that I first purchased in 1965. Still listen to it every day, even today. Back in 1967, I would sometimes put my Telefunken on top of my K-horn playing music from the very same FM station and compared the two. They could sound very similar at modest levels. I never thought much of stereo, and I guess that is why i can concentrate on the electronics quality more effectively than most.
was the K-horn in the corner or middle of the wall and were you facing it when listening? Trying to work out if you need the diffuse soundfield to get the best effect.
The best speakers IMO are the ones that disappear in the room.
The ESL63 can be such a speaker.
I once gave a demonstration to a trained audio reviewer, with LP’s he had taken with him.
Once he had left, I saw with a shock that all the time the mono switch had been turned on.
Because I did not know the music he brought, I did not notice it was played in mono, be he didn’t either. 😀
What a shame.
So much for speakers that can’t be located when playing mono.
Hans
The ESL63 can be such a speaker.
I once gave a demonstration to a trained audio reviewer, with LP’s he had taken with him.
Once he had left, I saw with a shock that all the time the mono switch had been turned on.
Because I did not know the music he brought, I did not notice it was played in mono, be he didn’t either. 😀
What a shame.
So much for speakers that can’t be located when playing mono.
Hans
I can't locate my apogees when playing mono, but the conjecture remains that mono through 2 spaced speakers is non-optimal?
That's interesting in the 80's I had DQ-10's and playing a mono LP gave a dead center image with no width or depth no cues at all that there wasn't one speaker dead center.
IIRC the largest driver in the top array had very thick felt on the back and the others were all closed back. The woofer was closed box of course.
You just revealed the truth on high end audio electronics. That will be a bad thing for the sellers.
Then looks shouldn't matter.
Then looks shouldn't matter.
No- one could call my apogees pretty...
As for electronics only black boxes allowed by order of SWMBO.
I had a very similar experience when I was younger. I was installing a pair of ESL63s at a customer's house and he put on an RCA Red Label mono LP he knew well to evaluate the speakers. I didn't know it was mono, and the Quads reproduced it with good depth and an actual image, though not laterally of course. I didn't suspect mono because the image was quite good!
If not for their low SPL in general and requiring a rather difficult and $$ integration with a subwoofer I would have a pair now. Great by themselves for chamber classical and light jazz though!
Cheers,
Howie
For me, stereo is a relatively new experience. Even when I worked as a circuit designer at Ampex, over 50 years ago, I only had a single K-horn (corner model of course) and I usually bought only mono records, because they usually had better fidelity than stereo records at the time. I only had stereo with headphones, first Koss pro 4's, then a very high quality pair of Beyer headphones (a favorite of mine) directly from the outputs of my Ampex pro 15", 1/2 tr recorder, for highest fidelity. Today I would use my STAX electrostatic phones with my STAX tube driver, almost too much fidelity. Stereo is important for headphones, but I can live without it with speakers, even today. I just don't care about 'imaging', just like many here are more forgiving of their electronics, while I care a great deal about sound 'quality' over everything else.
Last edited:
When I had the semi-open baffles in the lava cave, good mono recordings had depth. No horizontal positioning, but certainly depth. By good I mean decent recordings of orchestras, operas and things that would have depth. Mono recordings that were close mic'd in the studio had little to no depth.
That was a standard 2 speaker stereo setup with about 10 meters to the wall behind the speakers.
That was a standard 2 speaker stereo setup with about 10 meters to the wall behind the speakers.