2. misc-audio
  3. 182012-159065

Interesting situation! Do we need this....

  I had a very interesting and unsettling experience that brings this hobby all together...or rips it apart. Recently,  I bought a pair of Fluence SX6 speakers, on sale at Amazon for $120 pair. A small, black, two way bookshelf speaker. Highly-positively reviewed. My plan was to pull the drivers to use in another project. I couldn't buy drivers and crossovers like this for $120(More on this later)...Anyways, I was listening to my new kit amplifier, AKITIKA Z4 that I recently built...Streaming Quobuz...The Fluance speakers were set up next to the KEF LS50 Metas as I had used them previously to test yet another kit amplifier, Nelson Pass' ACA Mini.....For six hours I was simply amazed at how great the AKITIKA kit amp sounded. Massive sound stage, tight, well defined bass, some of the best vocals I've heard, the "AIR" around jazz instruments was fantastic!.....a system to behold...playing through my KEF LS50 Metas....Six hours later, after all types of music, it was time to call it a night (or early morning)....As I go to shut down the system, I realize that all night I was listening to the Fluance speakers!!! They were placed side by side with the KEFs. Do we really need any of this high end equipment to really enjoy the music!

rbertalotto

Showing 3 responses by mceljo

mceljo
1,351 posts
 

@rbertalotto - First, I appreciate your candidness in sharing your experience.  Not every audiophile would admit having done this.

I’d be most curious to see if you sat down to listen to the Fluance speakers again knowing what you were listening to would taint your experience. Clearly, the combination of the amplifier and speakers was good enough to draw you in, but I suspect that there was some expectation bias from the amplifier being what you were intending to evaluate.

I hope you find the KEFs to be an even better sound as one would anticipate should be the case. 

mceljo
1,351 posts
 

@anotherbob - I think the OP was simply sharing that when he thought he was listening to one setup it actually turned out to be another one that he wouldn’t have expected to be as good and it “lesser” combination compelled him to enjoy the music. 
 

It will be interesting to see what his experience is with the intended combination, but he never said that the “lower expectation” speaker was better. 
 

It kind of reminds me of the Bose demonstration where you think you’re hearing large speakers and then they reveal the little one. It’s fun when something sounds good enough to trick you into thinking it’s something that you’d expect to be better. 
 

Sometimes it’s expectation bias and sometimes is a high value product, but either way it’s nothing more than a compliment to the gear of the listener enjoyed it. 

mceljo
1,351 posts
 

@rbertalotto - Is the question how good speakers need to be to be enjoyed or how good the audiophile expects them to be?  I think your experience is partly a result of expectation bias because you expected that the new amplifier would be an improvement with the more expensive speakers.  This is human nature and what makes me trust results that are counterintuitive the most. 
 

I have found more than once that I’ll make a change and then convince myself that the original setup sound difference in some way, but when I swap back it’s far more similar (maybe close to indistinguishable) from the new setup. 
 

My most recent change was to try a new set of speaker cables. In this case it was an actual relief when I switched back.  In this case my listening muscle memory didn’t deceive me.

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