IWalker
Well-known member
Yep, noone said it was EASY getting a great system that does everything right! Good bass response with a good power response curve requires a lot of air to be moved. IB subs do the best with that in terms of required in room space, construction costs, etc. But require more drivers and the appropriate setup. Subs have better flexibility options than sub modules within full range speakers...and the ability to actively cross them over, allows for better power response and efficiency to the other parts of the main speaker.
I agree with JonFo on the line array concept....it's got too many benefits to be ignored. They are generally expensive to build, however, due to the multiples of drivers...but DIY recoups much of that cost. There are a lot of different considerations as well, in terms of crossovers, EQ (which most speakers have some amount of filtering), etc. For example...2 way speakers have certain limitations, in that if you use a larger midrange, it starts lobing at higher frequencies, but if you use smaller midranges, you don't get the bass extension...yet when you start to add more elements, you have more phase issues, and crossover issues to deal with.
I'm going to experiment in the coming months with a couple of different designs, to try to figure out what is the best set of tradeoffs for me.
As for the question...if something sounds good to me, but measures poorly, would I be happy with it? No.
I want to listen to what is being presented...and base my tastes off of that, not change the characteristics of what I listen to in order to match my taste. It's akin to painting some earrings on the mona lisa...it may be your preference...but it's not the same. Also, if you go to a concert hall and listen to an orchestra...you don't ever say "man, this could use some more treble"...you can say either you liked the performance, music, etc...or you didn't...but you'd never try to alter that sound to better suit your tastes, would you? A neutral transducer should create that same feeling.
When it comes to manufactered music...the original state is much less important that it is for live music...and you can alter the signal however you want to match your taste...and that's what I do regularly in my car...but that's a far cry from "high fidelity." Fidelity = faithful. Faithful reproduction of the source.
I believe part of the problem is the definition of "tests." There are MANY different tests that can be run, that each tell you a little bit different things about a speaker. Almost always, the characteristics someone describes from hearing a speaker can be verified by one or more of these tests. In the same vein, the performance can be predicted in the same nature.
Charliemike made the point about one's ears. This is true, however, if I go to a concert hall and listen to music...I'm listening with the same ears...so "neutral" should remain the same.
Room interactions are very important. A speaker that sounds/measures great in one room could sound horrible in another. Most tests are done in the nearfield, while a much more telling set of tests would be to run the same tests at listening position within your own room. These are rarely done (or at least not published) because they have little meaning to anyone else, since they have a different room.
There are some of us out there that have to like the looks of the equipment, before they can settle down to listen.. of course that could be because the wife wouldn't let you settle down to listen unless it looks good in her LR.
