Big speakers, are they really the best way to get great sound?
Yesterday, I had the opportunity to listen to some very large speakers that are considered to be at, or close to, the pinnacle in speaker design and ability. Needless to say, the speakers retail in the mid to high $300k range. These speakers, and I will not be naming them, were sourced by about $800k of upstream gear. Room size was about thirty by twenty, maybe a little larger.
To say the the overall sound was BIG would be accurate, but also I noticed something else, that I typically hear with big speaker systems. Generally, the speakers were right on edge of overloading the room, depending on music, the dreaded bass boom could be heard. But, the whole presentation was greater in impact than most any smaller speaker system, yet it was almost unlistenable for the long term.
The question I asked myself, is do we really want this type of presentation in our home audio systems? The speakers threw a pretty large soundstage, but also made things sound somewhat larger than life. I also thought that this type of speaker is akin to the large box dynamic speakers of yesteryear. For example, a set of large horns from Altec Lansing or similar was reminiscent of this sound. Makes me believe that if one has a big room, a similar sound can be obtained from most any large speaker system and at a fraction of the price.
I listen in a very small room, and by necessity in the near field, yet I think the overall intimacy of this type of listening experience is better for me, your thoughts?
@audioman58 makes a good point. So it depends on what you consider great sound. If imaging and disappearance is more important to you than coherence and presence then small stand mounts are likely to sound greater to you. Of course the higher you go up the investment levels the more you get both.
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Fitting the speakers to the size of your room is a thing. Acoustical treatments can help adjust, but usually the best bet is to get speakers that operate within the sound pressure levels you enjoy without overloading the room. I chose Sonus Faber Amati Traditional… not the line below or above for that reason. |
OP, “…I think the overall sound will be unlike what hears in a ‘live’ setting, due to the seeming inability of speakers like these to sound intimate enough, when called for.”
I am not sure how many of these large speaker systems / electronics are really trying to sound like the real thing. They take you for a sound spectacular (when properly set up). The holographic abilities of Wilson for example is simply incredible. Lots of speakers are made to sound great, exaggerating details to amaze folks by treating the listener to details they have never heard before or making solo performances out of background instruments or giving physical impact to the bass where this would normally not happen.
I think these are design goal choices of the companies making them. There are a few brands who’s goals are the natural reproduction of live / realistic music. These include Sonus Faber for speakers and Audio Research, Conrad Johnson and others. They don’t design for flash, they design to get the gestalt right, the overall presentation… and are incredibly intimate.. conveying the musical essence of the performances. So, it is a question of aligning your values with the values of the company. It took me decades to figure this out (ok, I’m slow)… but the journey and destination has been worth it for me.
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OP,
My personal journey away from flash and towards realistic musical reproduction began with the observation that an upgrade would improve the music on my test disks and make much of the rest of my music sound worse. This initiated a two decacade odyssey of learning what real acoustic instruments sound like and their venue. It includes ten years of season tickets in 7th row center seats in the symphony. A seat where I could carefully listen to the subtitle echos around the symphony hall… arrival times of instruments in front and back. Also, solo piano, violin, and cello had their sound holes pointed right at my seat. The recording mikes when they recorded for publication were very nearly over my head. Hundreds of concerts are very informative. From the symphony and lots of small acoustic jazz concerts… and listening to individual pianos and cymbles made me realize that most HiFi systems are tuned for detail and slam. So the perspective was all wrong… the venue was overemphasized and often the mastering techniques. Going through my memory of all the speakers I had heard over the years, Sonus Faber stuck out as very different sounding… ones that I felt sounded like the real thing. So, over the last fifteen years I proved my hypothesis about Sonus Faber… and started with used, then new Olympica, and now my Amanti… and while I started with a Audio research preamp and phonostage, I upgraded those and added all Audio Research components. Now, when there is a crescendo in a symphony… the rumbling bass of combined instuments comes as a huge wave… instead of a slap over a microsecond. The venue details are there, but you have to turn your minds eye to listen for them, instead of having them hit you in the face. Also, all kinds of music sounded better as I made this journey… instead of some getting better and some worse. When I listen to my system, I listen to the music, not the system… the snappyness of the treble, the bass slap… I am emotionally connected to the music… not the system. I get to listen three hours a day, and have to drag myself away. My old reference… highly detailed / slam system would get boring after an hour. |
