Size matters Smaller that is
I know what you mean about "Move some air to get it done right". In my case to get it done right I prefer a nice glass of Amarone to accompany the music (ha ha). I think in the end there is probably no absolute solution to obtaining the best hi fi, only the best solution for your particular budget and taste. |
Nocaster, I think you have great taste. The Sonus Faber loudspeakers have always managed to defy (up to a point) the conventional wisdom about pistonic area vs. inner detail and dynamic range. Their first salvo, the Extrema in the early '90s, was a small baffle, deep cabinet, stand mounted 2-way with passive radiator that confounded the reviewers at Stereophile, as it had all the performance of a big floor-standing speaker in a small package. It just missed being full-range Class A by a few Hertz, as its bass managed to extend into the mid-20s and yet had a dynamic range to do justice to full orchestra and big band. Definitely my kind of speaker. Yet, with two small drivers on a small baffle, you get advantages of the coherence of a virtual point source that no line of woofers can duplicate. Here are the Stereophile measurements of the Guarneri Memento and here are the measurements of the Focal Electra 1037 Be. The Focal has all the advantages you expect of the larger 3-way speaker with three woofers--4 db more sensitive and bass extension down to about 30 Hz (vs. about 40 Hz for the Guarneri). The frequency response curves show both speakers to be admirably linear. But two other graphs indicate where the Guarneri would be particularly endearing. The spectral decay plots show the Guarneri to have a fairly inert cabinet, whereas the Focal has a large panel resonance at 344 Hz. This resonance would partly undo the Focal's sensitivity advantage, as this panel resonance (measured on all 4 cabinet sides) would obscure detail in that range when the music gets loud. This is often typical of floor standing speakers, as resonance control is a bigger challenge on big cabinet panels than on small. Now look at the step response graphs of the two speakers, which is a pretty good indicator of phase coherence. The Guarneri M puts out a very smooth slope, indicative of all the sound reaching you at the same time. You very seldom see a step response like this, and only from speakers specifically designed to address it. The Focal step response OTOH is a jumble of peaks, showing that the tones of the various drivers arrive at the listening position at distinctly different arrival times. So you have to pick your poison--dynamic range and a little more bass extension (advantage Focal) or intimacy and clarity and phase coherency (advantage Guarneri). I for one can easily understand why Nocaster would gladly sacrifice a few bottom end Hz and a little dynamic range for the absolutely seductive and addictive sensation of phase coherent loudspeakers and the additional clarity of a more inert cabinet. There is nothing else like it and it's hard to go back once you've experienced it. |
