2. speakers
  3. 157492-139155

Have you ever used a separate speaker selector unit to audition speakers? Would you?

I'm anticipating a big "bake-off" between speakers competing for my affection. I have a tube amp that requires shut down, short break, between speaker changes. So, I'm thinking of getting a speaker selector box to do this. I don't want to spend a mint, but if the speakers are multi-thousand, it seems that spending a little money to really compare them might be worth it.

I know that such interpositions of wires and hardware degrades the sound. But this would be done to all speakers being compared -- so it would remain a level playing field.

Of course, if it trashes them all, then no comparisons can really be done.

Any thoughts about auditioning speakers at home with a speaker selector box?
hilde45

Showing 1 response by imhififan

imhififan's avatar
imhififan
2,225 posts
 
Anyone concerned about not being able to compare or judge because they will forget what they heard in a few minutes should stop and think about that. Ask yourself, if you really can't remember, then why would you care?
That isn't the issue, the problem is you have no music in the hour(s) that wait for the tube amp to cool down and warm up.
A high quantity speaker A/B switcher is the solution, but you have to make sure the tube amp output is connected to a load at all time while power on.
A safe way to swap is mute the input, if the switcher is on speaker A, select A+B first then change to speaker B, so the tube amp will be loaded while swapping speakers.
More to discover