Law of Accelerated Returns
I think back over the many decades of pursuing high end audio and I realize some of the most inspirational were listening to state of the art systems. Systems I could never dream of affording. I occasionally would get up early and drive the two hours to Phoenix in hopes of finding no one listening to the state of the art system in “the big room” at one of the four or five high end audio stores there in the early ‘90’s.
One such time I was able to spend over an hour with the most amazing system I have ever heard: Wilson WAAM BAMM (or something like that… all Rowland electronics, Transparent interconnects). The system cost about over $.5 million… now, over a million… although I am sure it is even better (I can’t imagine how)..
But listening to that system was so mind blowing… so much better than anything I could conceive of, it just completely changed my expectation of what a system could be. It was orders of magnitude better than anything I had heard.
Interestingly, as impressed as I was… I did not want “that” sound, as much as I appreciated it. It still expanded my horizon as to what is possible. That is really important, as it is really easy to make judgments on what you have heard and not realize the possibilities… like never having left the small town in Kansas (no offense).
I keep reading these posts about diminishing returns. That isn’t the way it works. I recently read an article by Robert Harley in The Absolute Sound called the Law of Accelerated Returns that captures the concept perfectly. March 2022 issue. The possibilities in high end audio is incredible. Everyone interested in it in any way deserves to hear what is possible. It is mind expanding.
@jerryg123 nice! Have not heard the shorts but I like the price and specs listed and all the Walsh speakers basically sound the same. Just a matter of how big a room and how much bass needed. Did you get a delivery time estimate? I read Ohm was pretty backlogged according to the site recently. |
My advice to those who continuously spend lots of time and money with fuses and tweaks and the like always looking for something better or different, that money would be better spent invested in acquiring and properly setting up a good pair of wide dispersion/omni speakers. Then you truly have something new and different to compare. |
I will say though, that with a good symphony recording, if I close my eyes at home, I can convince myself what I hear is similar to what I would hear at The Meyerhoff Symphony Hall in Baltimore or Carnegie Hall (in NY), maybe a third to two-thirds of the way back in most cases, depending. Those are the two quality venues of that scale that I am most familiar with. Achieving that was one of my goals and that makes me very happy and content! If I sit close enough with the Ohm wide-dispersion pseudo omnis, maybe front row if the recording permits. Also worth mentioning that the guy who designs the Ohm Walsh speakers that I fancy, John Strohbeen, is also a classical musician who frequents Carnegie Hall and says he uses what he hears there to "voice" his speakers. Done very well I would say! Ohms are the poor man’s mbls. They were designed to work well fairly close to walls in most any room most people might actually have though YMMSV. |
Well I should qualify that the mbl demo I heard was a full scale symphony orchestra recording and you could locate the players exactly in a 3-D area about 24-30’ wide at the immediate front of the listener I would estimate and similar depth as I recall however the sides were tapered to maybe only 5’ or so at the rear, so NOT parallel and highly treated with curtains and whatever was used behind those. So sit in row 1 at the symphony and shrink the size of the stage down to that size and that’s what you had, with all the players locations easily triangulated by the ears within that space. It was awesome but still obviously a scaled down version of a live symphony in terms of physical dimensions though SPL levels were comparable. |
To your point, I have heard only one setup EVER that did the 3-d soundstage to the extent you describe...and I have heard 100’s over the years I would estimate. As I have alluded to on occasion in past threads here, that was a demo of an all mbl system with mbl 111a speakers set up at then United Home Audio in Annapolis Junction, MD, in a showroom optimally constructed for the purpose unlike anyone is likely to have at home, probably over 10 years ago. Same system at shows, less optimally setup...back with the pack. So I have seen what it takes and factor that into what I do at home to the extent needed for me to be happy in lieu of setting up a custom room like that and going full omni. Something I greatly appreciated but do not need to get my endless hours of enjoyment from my music at home. THis ain’t the Olympics and I have no preconception about being the best in the world. Too much trouble! But never should be too much trouble to at least learn from the best and apply what you learn as you may. :^)
My system(s): Sound Chaser | Virtual Listening Room (audiogon.com)
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It’s true the most important ingredient is caring, not money.
I know my hifi sounds good and the way I want it to sound to me. Lots of time and sweat and a few $$$s spent over the years to get it that way. Also listening to everything and anything and paying attention over many years, both hifi systems and live.
Not interested the slightest in having a competition. No Hifi Olympics for me. Mission accomplished! |
