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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?

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Showing 1 response by h4k4lugi

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h4k4lugi
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Boomieness happens when someone hasn’t run REW on their system and confirmed the (size/dimension driven) room modes - and corrected for them.

The reason big speakers appear to produce them, when smaller, speakers don’t in the same room- is it a small speakers roll off sooner, so may benefit from the additional reinforcement below 100 Hz- even if peaky.

And although not everyone has room correction DSP in their pre-amp, if you’re using Roon, you can add it there- or more importantly, for this conversation “subtract it there”

Narrow Q cuts aligned with your measured room Modes do wonders for full range  speakers and subs - anyone who would invest big dollars for a truly full range speaker - should also set aside the time for this step (And room treatments)

TLDR boomieness isn’t inherent in big speakers - it’s a function of your room - and it is revealed by them.

 

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