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From: rfg@hound.UUCP (R.GRANTGES)
Newsgroups: net.audio
Subject: Re: How to evaluate speakers
Message-ID: <937@hound.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 20-Feb-85 23:03:38 EST
Article-I.D.: hound.937
Posted: Wed Feb 20 23:03:38 1985
Date-Received: Fri, 22-Feb-85 09:27:44 EST
References: <967@ihuxn.UUCP>
Organization: AT&T Bell Labs, Holmdel NJ
Lines: 37

[]
Walt, that idea of multiple speakers interfering with each other
has been shot down time and again on this net. You have been sold
a bill of goods by a dealer.
Your ideas about what to look for are sound, in my opinion, but
not necessarily workable for two reasons. First, real musicians,
by which I mean musically oriented people knowledgeable about
the art are able to listen for what you recommend right THRU the
sound, however badly it is reproduced. They know what to listen
for and are able to commune with the composer. Ithink they hear
in their imaginations more than thru their ears. This is the
reason that musicians often have really awful lo-fi stereos. If
someone has told them that outfit x is good, ok, they'l buy it.
But left to their own, they will be happy with very little.
Second reason is that to the people who do not qualify under
my first reason, it takes a pretty good system before you can
begin to hear the instruments from the mush. If you don't know
what to listen <for> you may easily be carried away by neat
sounding mush. For example, highly resonant reproduction - I mean
with many peaks and valleys in the curve (vs freq) tends to sound
much more ...alive, lively, with it, forward ...etc. than flat,
non-resonant reproduction when listened to for short periods.
Even one emphasized portion of the spectrum can make a speaker
sound "better" on short acquaintance.
Perhaps one way to implement what you suggest is to take some well
received recording (one known to be very good) of, say, a large
orchestra playing something dense. See if you can follow different
instruments through the passage work on successive playings, or do
many tend to get submerged in the mush so you lose them. That's
a test of definition failed by a lot of cheap speakers, and one
that I would suppose would have to be passed before one could
hope to commune with the composer - unless you already knew the
piece cold anyway.

-- 

"It's the thought, if any, that counts!"  Dick Grantges  hound!rfg