My hifi rig is glorious sounding, and has been approved and certified as a superior music reproducer by noted experts...or actually just me, so the certification was easy. Tube preamp, single ended tube power amp, efficient speakers, great subs, nice wire, blah blah, but when reading in bed at night I listen to "cans"...most recently with a Schiit Magni 3 and Grados (SR80e) driven by an old iPhone 3 that somehow wifis great for this purpose (not a phone anymore of course). Sounds great, but just bought a pair of Audioquest Nightowl Carbons and they're amazing (comfortable, very accurate even without being broken in)...still...the aforementioned hifi rig remains my preferred sound reproducer, and although the speakers are 3 ways with horns (Klipsch Heresy III) somehow the crossovers and whatever else the Arkansas factory deemed worthy of sticking in a fat little box all works swimmingly.
Headphones as Models for Speakers? Interesting Read from Herb Reichert - Opinions Please
I came across this article by Herb over the weekend and found it very interesting [https://www.audiostream.com/content/problem-loudspeakers ]. He argues for speakers that are/have...
As an architect by profession, the less is more argument resonates with me on many levels. I’ve also found this to be true for this strange hobby we all enjoy, recently experimenting with passive preamps; I have found them to be truly transparent and revealing. One less power supply polluting the signal, less over-redundant gain, etc.
Does anyone have opinions of the article? The only manufacture that I can find that actively markets a simple crossover-less design is ZU Audio, and from what I have seen people have mixed reviews of their speakers. Are there any speakers that come to mind that are already using this methodology for design?
From my understanding the truly difficult part of what Herb is arguing for are
"... full-range, crossover-less, benign impedance, high sensitivity, and direct connective-ness, [and] that headphones ... should – and could – be a model for floor-standing audiophile speakers."
As an architect by profession, the less is more argument resonates with me on many levels. I’ve also found this to be true for this strange hobby we all enjoy, recently experimenting with passive preamps; I have found them to be truly transparent and revealing. One less power supply polluting the signal, less over-redundant gain, etc.
Does anyone have opinions of the article? The only manufacture that I can find that actively markets a simple crossover-less design is ZU Audio, and from what I have seen people have mixed reviews of their speakers. Are there any speakers that come to mind that are already using this methodology for design?
From my understanding the truly difficult part of what Herb is arguing for are
"...full-range transducers with high ruler-flat impedances".Is this outside of our physical capabilities as the driver scales up from headphones to loudspeakers? Any thoughts would be appreciated, there are a lot of folks out there with a lot more knowledge than I have.