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AUDIO FORUMS >> General Discussion and Support >> Is this what's wrong with hi-end audio?
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Message started by Steve Deckert on 07/12/19 at 04:55:19

Title: Is this what's wrong with hi-end audio?
Post by Steve Deckert on 07/12/19 at 04:55:19

I was reviewing the Munich show videos and came across this short section where you hear a pair of speakers that sound introverted and extra roomy and see the cool power meter on the amp saying 42 watts! It isn't even loud! In fact It's at a conversational listening level. It's ironic that I'm getting 4 times that loud with 2 watts because it really makes me wonder how it is even possible to need that much power to raise a speaker from the dead enough to actually hear it? No one who is mentally balanced can deny this came about over 50 years of marketing which was the dominating factor of systems like this today.

click on the picture to see and hear video.

Steve

Title: Re: Is this what's wrong with hi-end audio?
Post by Archie on 07/12/19 at 15:38:57

Every bit of the music sounded congested like I sound to myself when I have a head cold. I certainly hope this was just the recording on the video. :-/

Title: Re: Is this what's wrong with hi-end audio?
Post by Steve Deckert on 07/13/19 at 04:37:43

No, it's not the recording on the video. Watch the whole video, it's shot all with the same digital camera/recorder. Some things sound great. It's a very linear yardstick for evaluating audio gear to hear it in rooms, on on a video like this. Extremely telling, more so than if you were actually there, because on the video you hear the room 50% and the speakers 50%. At the show, you hear the speakers 60% and the room 40%. That 10% is all telling about how a system interacts with a room. I recommend watching the entire video for sure.

Steve

Title: Re: Is this what's wrong with hi-end audio?
Post by Dana on 07/13/19 at 17:45:45

I watched the whole show video and was taken by a lot of things. It was amazing how so many of the high end speakers sounded similar (not in a good way). When the camera man walked thru the hall you could hear the room but inside the listening rooms the sound was constrained, like it was coming from a box.

On the other hand the MBL speakers didn't have a box or sound like it... (dancers but no box???)

They say there are no stupid questions but here goes. I realize that they are completely different technologies but Steve's egg speaker and the MBL speakers radiate from oblong spherical source with no box. Would the MBL and the egg have a similar type of sound and since the egg actually has no top would it be actually truer to the ambiance that it was recorded in?

Title: Re: Is this what's wrong with hi-end audio?
Post by Brian on 07/23/19 at 04:48:36

Hi Dana,
I hope it is not a stupid question, because I am not smart enough to answer it.

Your topless speaker question does remind me of the CH Audio speaker of a few years ago. I could not find his web site so I guess they are caput.
The rear wave of the 15 inch bass driver goes up to the ceiling in an open top transmission line.
Sound reports were some of the best reviews I have read for any speaker.

Brian