kana813
kana813's picture
Offline
Last seen: 3 years 11 months ago
Joined: Sep 9 2005 - 2:45pm
TAS Reviewer on the July Issue
gkc
gkc's picture
Offline
Last seen: Never ago
Joined: Feb 24 2006 - 11:51am

This is just brilliant. He has never heard the speakers. He knows that rooms affect sound, as the graphs illustrate. And the speakers are "upper midrangey" (whatever that means) to boot. Or is it the room? What is the point, here? Rooms affect the sound of speakers. Gee, after 30+ years of dancing behemoths around my various living rooms, it's nice to finally learn that from a scholar of graphs. Tonight, instead of listening to a few tunes, I think I'll sit down with a couple cold ones and read some graphs.

ohfourohnine
ohfourohnine's picture
Offline
Last seen: Never ago
Joined: Sep 1 2005 - 7:41pm

We just have to get with the latest stuff, Clifton. I know a guy who plays tournament Texas Hold 'em against computerized opponents. At the end of a session he is able to review a graphical presentation telling him the outcome - as though he didn't already know it. He loves it. These guys are hip. Apparently, we're not.

gkc
gkc's picture
Offline
Last seen: Never ago
Joined: Feb 24 2006 - 11:51am

Yes. There is a common thread running through all these "techno" experiences -- it appears to be hip to get as far away from reality as your nearest electron barrage can take you. I sympathize, I guess. I went to the LA Open golf tournament a few months ago. Like your card-playing acquaintance, several folks were in line to "play golf" by hitting electronic blips into a large display monitor that calibrated the quality of their imaginary hits and recorded a score. The machine hadn't figured out how to exude the smell of grass, and nobody said "fuckitall" after slicing one OB, so there IS hope for us reality freaks. But our days may be numbered. There are just too damned many of 'em out there, Clay, and we're hopelessly outnumbered. Still, if you can tune 'em in electronically, I guess you can make 'em go away with the same button. Cheers, Clifton.

kana813
kana813's picture
Offline
Last seen: 3 years 11 months ago
Joined: Sep 9 2005 - 2:45pm

Now that I''ve finally got my July issue, and read the article, I can see Greene's comments are meaningless, unless you sit on stool and listen in the nearfield(see photos).

I also see my letter about JA's measurements of JM's ESP Concert Grands got published.

JA- I've been a TacT users for over two years. I know flat
response doesn't sound good, and a gentle rolloff in the high end is desirable, but a $40K speaker that's -5db at 8Khz, -8db at 10Khz and -10db at 14Khz is more than a little rolled off, plus it's -5db at 50hz!

Your Wilson Maxx 2 measurements aren't rolled off like that, and I don't remember MF reporting they sound bright.

gkc
gkc's picture
Offline
Last seen: Never ago
Joined: Feb 24 2006 - 11:51am

The ESP's sounded fine at the Los Angeles HE a couple months ago. I couldn't compare them to the newest Wilson Watt/Puppy models in a nearby room, because Wilson's demonstration was too structured to accomodate the same or similar software used in the ESP room. I tried to "listen to the curves" presented in the Stereophile review, but could hear none of the negatives suggested by these graphs. The ESP's were extremely smooth and spacious, set up in one of the larger rooms, well away from boundary reinforcement. They sounded close the the best I have heard on large-scale symphonic music, and I was familier with some of the software used in the demo. As I have suggested many times, real-world software will (from my experience and subjective impressions) make far more noticeable differences in sound than even the most extreme frequency curve graphs might suggest. For me, this is the "art" of speaker design, and I would guess that the graphs represent intentional design choices by the manufacturer, given the wide variety of software that will most likely be played through the speakers. I, too, looked askance at the published graphs, but the proof is always in the listening for me. Greene is a mathematician and will thus put more faith in the numbers than I ever could, after my hearing so much disappointing sound from so many speakers that measured so well, over the years. Until there is some uniformity in the software quality (never happen!), I suspect the anomilies between measured speaker performance and listening evaluations will persist. Cheers, Clifton.

kana813
kana813's picture
Offline
Last seen: 3 years 11 months ago
Joined: Sep 9 2005 - 2:45pm

Clifton-

Appreciate your feedback on the ESPs.

Maybe someday, I'll get a chance to visit mainland and hear some of these hiend speakers.

Aloha,

Dan

Log in or register to post comments
-->
  • X