And then there are free resonance, that's controlled resonance speakers by Michael Green. Anyone listened to his Chameleons? I don't have Chameleons but I have his old Revolution 80i model. Very natural sound. Michael has a great ear. But I would not choose his speakers for big orchestra music especially if price is no object. Or probably for very big rooms, and I mean big. Also, ideally these speakers require iron-fist but gentle and refined amplifier, let's say like Rowland or Gryphon.
Speaker cabinets: How important is inert
First let's assume that the best school of thought is for speaker cabinets to have zero characteristics of their own, i.e it's completely silent.
A lot of the premium speakers like Rockport, Magico, YG, Kharma, Wilson all boast custom cabinets which are supposed to be "dead," which will let the drivers do their jobs without having the cabinets interefere. There are also premium speakers that uses braced MDF like TAD, Tidal, the lower Rockport lines, Avalons, etc which are supposed to be almost as good.
I'm not in the market for speakers, but everytime I look and listen to different speakers, I almost always prefer the big heavy duty cabinet speakers, and not the slim shaped refined looking speakers.
So my question is - do these custom epoxy or sandwiched or aluminum or whatever cabinets make a HUGE difference over plain MDF or braced MDF, or is it just marginal? How much of the secret to a good sounding speaker is in the cabinet engineering versus the drivers?
A lot of the premium speakers like Rockport, Magico, YG, Kharma, Wilson all boast custom cabinets which are supposed to be "dead," which will let the drivers do their jobs without having the cabinets interefere. There are also premium speakers that uses braced MDF like TAD, Tidal, the lower Rockport lines, Avalons, etc which are supposed to be almost as good.
I'm not in the market for speakers, but everytime I look and listen to different speakers, I almost always prefer the big heavy duty cabinet speakers, and not the slim shaped refined looking speakers.
So my question is - do these custom epoxy or sandwiched or aluminum or whatever cabinets make a HUGE difference over plain MDF or braced MDF, or is it just marginal? How much of the secret to a good sounding speaker is in the cabinet engineering versus the drivers?