I'm never going to hear a megaspeaker in a good room am I?


Was thinking about something. There’s a thread about good $40K speakers which made me think that honestly despite hearing a lot of them at shows, I’ve never heard one in a decent environment. Now, perhaps we can argue:

If it doesn’t sound good anywhere, including a hotel room, is it really that good a speaker?


But let’s not go that route. But I am thinking to myself, in well treated rooms the best speakers I’ve heard were merely mid-range Wilsons and Magicos. I say "merely" because they were under $40k, not because of performance. The two best speakers I’ve heard, in medicore rooms were the SF Stradivari and Snell A/III, and top of the line Vandersteen.

All the $40K + speakers I’ve heard have been at shows, and either very badly treated rooms, or in halls so big the first reflection point was like a mountain echo. Am I ever going to get to listen to $40K+ speakers in great rooms anywhere again??

As a result, I’ve developed a severe bias against the performance of mega speakers, because I only ever hear them in terrible rooms and have not heard one I’d spend money for, and honestly that's unfair to them.

erik_squires

Showing 3 responses by wyoboy

Getting back to the original question the answer is you could but you'd have to be willing spend the time and money to search and travel.  Are you really serious about purchasing such a mega-speaker if you heard it in the right environment and loved it ?  or just looking for that experience?   You could call Mike Pedero in the Phillippines--he designs listening rooms and designed Jack and Jim Duavit's two rooms which i've read are the two best listening rooms in the world--and Jack's a dealer but no showroom--just his basement in Quezon City...how far are you willing to go ?
Maybe it's a good thing you can't or you might experience what happened to me a several years ago.  I went to a boutique dealer to hear some Aerial Acoustic speakers.  He had an amazing listening room with movable walls, ceiling and room treatments that he could adjust to demo all of the speakers he rep'd.  I bought the Aerials after listening to them in a room designed to be the equivalent of mine in size and shape but then saw a pair of Rockport Cygnus speakers (i didn't know the brand at the time) and asked about them.  Of course way out of my price range but i wanted to hear them so he adjusted the room and away we went.  I have regretted that curiousity ever since--best speaker i've heard to date and although i'm happy with the Aerials i still think about that Rockport and wonder...however, besides price being an issue my wife has made it clear our marriage would also be at stake !
True dat--the Aerial 7T's that i bought sound great in my room   but i guarantee the dealer's room treatments (and source/amps) were way better--still working on room treatment in mine as i believe this may be the single most important aspect of re-creating what i heard there.  I'm guessing the dealer's set up for the Rockports was not as good as their listening room in Maine (bucket list?) but it was still better than anything i'd ever heard.