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Custom Tuning Conspiracy

I have a theory that the reason custom tuned loudspeakers are not offered to the market place is because it would essentially destroy the whole speaker industry. If every audiophile had their speakers custom made for them, there would simply be no need for further speakers to be made, until the next generation of audiophiles came along which would take decades. 

If you think about it, most speakers are mass produced junk. They are made in vast quantities so that more profit can be made. 

Even the few companies that do offer so called custom speakers are not really customized. Companies such as Gr research and Fritz offer their range of speakers hoewever GR research tunes all their speakers flat by default and Fritz does not tune his speakers to his customers exact specifications. 

Wouldn't it be wonderful if there was a speaker company that made speakers according to your exact specifications? You would choose the material, shape, drivers, components, configuration, crossover slopes and frequency response. It would be made to measure. 

The people that mock this idea say that speakers dont need to be made to measure. This is nonsense. Every speaker on the market already sounds different from one another. Audiophiles then go on the merry go round and buy one speaker after another, each speaker never quite fulfilling their needs. How much time would be saved if the right speakers were made for you right from the start?

Not only would it save time it would save resources and energy. Every speaker model is produced in their thousands. Yet perhaps only a dozen people will eventually find that particular model suits their ears. So that means several hundred speakers have been made and will eventually end up in the junkyard. What a waste of time, energy and resources? 

Should there be more companies doing truly custom tuned speakers among the vast sea of mass produced junk producing companies?

kenjit

Showing 2 responses by mceljo

mceljo
1,351 posts
 

@kenjit - Assuming that such a company did exist, here's a couple of questions:

(1) How would the customer specify their personal design requirements?

(2) Would it be an in-home process to account for the rest of the systems and room acoustics?

(3) Do you believe that a perfectly customized speaker would always and forever be the perfect speaker for the customer?

Audiophiles often prefer different speakers for different styles of music, so I'm not sure that any single speaker could be ultimately fulfilling.  I think the best case scenario is a set of beloved speakers which isn't that different from what audiophiles often have now.

 

mceljo
1,351 posts
 

@kenjit - You clearly spend time on this forum, so should be able to recognize that it's effectively impossible for any discussion to come to a consensus.  Also, very few of the most dedicated audiophiles keep the same system for long periods of time, they are always looking to upgrade with the goal of improving things and also to satisfy their unquenchable drive to try new things.  Most recognize that the final sound quality results from the "sum of the whole" rather than any individual component.

Even if it were possible for someone to custom design a speaker for a customer which would rely on the designer to understand the personal preferences of the individual customers, the market would be limited to people that had the funds, interest, and knowledge to desire it while also not wanting to approach it from a DIY perspective.

 

I would also argue that a custom car would be much easier than a custom speaker.  For a speaker the preferences are not easily defined or understood.  For a car a customer can describe if they want comfort (Rolls-Royce is essentially fully custom) or performance (Bugatti is essentially fully custom).  If performance is what you want, you can adjust a car to suit driving preferences based on track using speed as the unit of measure, this is commonly done in racing.

With a speaker, you could theoretically design for a specific person using a specific room, album, and song, but all bets are off if a component were to change, the room changed, or there was a desire to listen to different music.  It's a compromise at every level.

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