Context is Everything

[Guest pirateflynn]

Context is Everything

Several years ago when I still had co-workers, one of them asked my advice

on $300 speakers. On my recommendation he ordered a pair of $280

over-achieving small monitor speakers from Audio Advisor. About two weeks

later he passed me at work and growled, “Your speakers suck.” I laughed and

said, “Heh-heh. Sure.” And he said, “No, I’m serious: They SUCK!” I could

hear the anger in his voice. So I started asking questions--what do they

sound like, where do they sound deficient, where are they situated, what

kind of amp is driving them. He said they sounded muffled and closed in,

that they lacked any life or dynamics or sparkle. It turned out he’d placed

them on the floor and he was driving them with a pawnshop mass market

receiver he’d picked up for around $80. He was playing the CDs on an ‘80s

pawnshop CD player. So I asked him to bring the speakers over to my house

along with his favorite music so I could hook ‘em up to my small stereo in

the living room, which I knew didn’t suck unless he had a wildly

different perception of what sounds good.

Since I didn’t have speaker stands either, I placed his speakers on top of

my small column speakers to get the tweeters to ear level when we sat down.

I connected his speakers to my amp, a modest but high current 50 wpc British

integrated amp. Then we started playing music. Within 30 seconds he blurted

out, “Well, it’s not the speakers.” They sounded great, and the music was so

nicely balanced we spent the bulk of the afternoon spinning our favorite CDs

for each other.

He wondered how the speakers could sound so different at my house versus

his. I explained how each component leading up to the speakers created a

signal chain that could be complementary or self-defeating. He liked the

sound in that system so much that he wrote down every component in it

including the equipment rack and cables. By the time I saw him at work

again, he’d ordered an exact duplicate of everything I had, plus speaker

stands.

Context is everything. You can’t make crummy gear sound good, but you can

certainly make good gear sound crummy. The strong bass characteristic of

bigger floorstanding speakers usually overloads a small room. Small speakers

strain to fill the space in a large listening room. Low-powered tube amps

sound organic and lush, but only when driving efficient speakers with a

high, stable impedance. And the most influential component in your audio

system is the room it’s in.

But you already knew this instinctively. You don’t expect your Hamer to play

and sound its best if the setup and pickup adjustments are out of whack. You

don’t bring a Roland MicroCube to perform at an outdoor concert. You know

that a 200 watt head and four 4x12 cabinets is a usually a bit much for a

small club. There is no one “best.” There are instead optimum choices for a

given budget, environment, application, use, and preference.

Speaking of preference, the most important applicability issue is you.

Ultimately your audio system’s applicability must fit your own unique

perceptions, values, and tastes.

This is an exciting time for sound reproduction. True high resolution

systems are more affordable and compact than ever. The rise of the iPod,

emergence of music servers, and the renaissance of the vinyl LP have

expanded our listening options as never before. But the real value is in the

applicability of these items--where and how to get the best use out of them

And that’s where I’m hoping to be of some help in future posts on this

general topic of home and portable audio.

--JohnnyB

[cordroad]

JEB is the audio guru, listen and learn, grasshopper.

Seriously, John will listen to your requirements and provide several viable options for your consideration.

[Guest pirateflynn]

JB has been trying get me to add speaker stands for my Klipsch horns since I bought them .. and maybe add a subwoofer, too. Maybe one day I'll get off my ass and do it!

[Moose]

Best thing I did in the last couple of years to improve my speakers was to build some panels with OC703 and put them across the corners of the room and behind the speakers. AMAZING how much nicer the bass response is with just 2 corners worth of bass traps and a couple of broadbands on the walls.

If you have a small room, low ceiling, SQUARE room, or any combination of the above, those awesome speakers in someone's nicer room could sound like crap -- no matter what drives them. A change in listening position or a little room treatment can make a huge improvement.

[JohnnyB]

JB has been trying get me to add speaker stands for my Klipsch horns since I bought them .. and maybe add a subwoofer, too. Maybe one day I'll get off my ass and do it!

For now, using the flip flops to tilt the speaker back is better than putting them on a stand--until you get a subwoofer. I didn't like the Heresy idea in the first place because the bottom octave is entirely missing. If you stay with your vintage vibe, the Klipsch Forte would be a much better match. Same sensitivity as the Heresy but a much better top to bottom tonal balance, and at least 1/2 octave more bass (the part you need).

More than any of those, however, the best match for that amp and the space limitations of your Burbank rancho, however, would be a modern design speaker, specifically the Mirage Omnisat FS (FS=Floor Stander). Mirage is now up to the third generation of Omnisats. The current version is called the OmniSat3 FS, at $1200/pr and is superb. However, Vann's is closing out the 2nd-gen version, (Omnisat v2 FS) originally at $1K/pair for slightly less than $360/pr with free shipping here. I've heard these and they're superb. They are 5.5" wide columns, meaning they actually take up less space than minimonitors on stands. They make a claimed in-room sensitivity of 94 dB at 1M, which means your little Dyna amp should bring them up to a danceable 109 dB. They could probably use a little sub as well, but they'll have more bass punch out of the box than the Hereseys.

Although they're not retro horn-looking, they do sort of capture the googie space-age vibe of a lot of designs from the early '60s, with their aluminum & glass construction. Can't you see these at home in the Project 22 house?

[Guest pirateflynn]

Can't you see these at home in the Project 22 house?

Yes, I sure can. I'm about a day or two from pulling the trigger.