Analytical or Musical Which way to go?

05-28-12: Khrys
What if the choice was accurate vs. euphonic? Same parameters. Different semantics.

I don't agree. "Analytical" is not synonymous with "accurate", nor is "musical" with "euphonic." One of the problems with measurements is they were only designed to measure sound, whereas musical sound is a subset with a more extensive and stringent set of requirements that include transient response, intermodulation distortion, panel resonances, power response, amplitude delineation, timing and pitch accuracy, the ability to handle complex polyphonies, and so on.

Meeting all the tests of test tones and tone bursts may determine that a speaker is "accurate," but doesn't totally address if it's musically accurate. A good example is that I never see tests for amplitude delineation, yet it's the most essential element in musical expression, nuanced dynamics, and the blending of an ensemble.

Hi all ! One thing I have noticed.....With analytical speakers I have to play certain Cd's in my collection to make them sound good . With musical speakers all my cd's sound good . They may not all sound great but I still enjoy them .

I went shopping for some headphones the other day and called it to my local hi-fi shop. I didn't know much about the headphone market and just started listening to various brands and models. Some were just boom boxes with bloated bass. Others were rather dry. The ones I liked the most were the AKG K601. Bass wasn't overpowering and there was plenty of glorious detail on guitar strings and cymbals and such.

So I went home to chew on it for the night and read reviews on the K601's before I pulled the trigger. It appears that a very popular peer of cans amongst audiophiles at the moment are Audeze LCD-2's. The K601's were also highly regarded in the same circles.

An interesting pattern emerges if you compare the frequency response of the two headphones I have mentioned plus some other more widely used headphones...

http://graphs.headphone.com/graphCompare.php?graphType=0&graphID

On the Speakers front page at the very bottom, why is this thread suddenly relegated to having had the latest post on New Year's Eve Day '69???

"You want neutral speakers plus a tone or tilt control which compensates for the bad recordings so that better recordings are not compromised."
Ideally yes.
How do we know which componet is colored? Or if the source is colored? It has been suggested to me that EQ negatively alters the tonal balance of a speaker.