Are your speakers designed for your listening taste and hearing ability?


It occurs to me that speaker manufacturer’s and designers in many cases design their speaker ( and its subsequent sound) to the expected ’typical’ buyer. IME, a lot of high end speakers are designed to appeal to the consumer who has a certain amount of ’hearing loss’ due to age! This might sound odd, but I think that there are a lot of a’philes who have reached a certain age and have now two things going for them..1) A large enough wallet that the expense of the speaker isn’t really the issue and 2) a certain amount of high frequency hearing loss. This circumstance leads to designers and manufacturer’s bringing out speakers that are a) bright, b) inaccurate in their high frequency reproduction and c) not accurate in their reproduction across the frequency spectrum ( some may be tipped up in the highs, as an example). My impression is that a certain technology catches on--like the metal dome ( beryllium or titanium, as an example) and the manufacturer sees a certain public acceptance of this technology from the --shall we say-- less abled in the high frequency hearing dept, and the rest is as they say...history. Your thoughts?
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Showing 1 response by ianrodger

Interesting OP and replies.
IME when you factor in the source equipment chain, room acoustics and media recording quality, all speakers can/will sound different.
I have never been happier with my system than now, simply after having moved it into a different room which is smaller, more regularly shaped, has a concrete floor and came with curtains covering the sliding glass doors.

The previous much larger multi-purpose listening room had wooden floors, a raked ceiling, uncovered glass bi-fold doors for the view and compromised corners but was where I had to be due to family reasons. Kids moving out freed up what used to be the rumpus room.
Now I find the soundstage more credible, the treble is less harsh and the bass improved dramatically.
Speakers are vintage Klipschorns.