Do Physicists Or Musicians Design Better Speakers?


While looking at and listening to various speakers, I notice that the designers behind the speakers often fall into two distinct camps: They either have impressive academic credentials, usually in physics or mathematics and design speakers from a technical perspective. Or, they are musicians, or have a musical backround, and design from an artistic standpoint. I've heard speakers designed by scientists that sounded great and not so great and by musicians also with divergent results. Wondering which backround consistently results in great speakers.
steinway57

Showing 1 response by tim916

It depends on what one considers "better".

From one group's perspective, the purpose of a speaker is to reproduce the signal it receives as accurately as possible. I would think that a physicist would be better qualified than a musician to take on this task.

The there is the group who believe that a speaker must be "voiced" in order to sound "good". A musician might be more likely to design a speaker that suits this group's needs.