Speakers: Anything really new under the sun?

Test your speakers....( not for timbre because it is techno music but test it for imaging and listener envelopment/source width ratio and soundstage)

This techno piece must be heard ALL AROUND you in front/left /right/back simultaneously ... Like a quadraphonic piece almost....😁😊

Headphone like sound but better than headphones but OUT of the head in my two postions: near listening and regular one...the soundscape must bear no relation to the speakers themselves...They dont exist and the soundscape fill the room....

My system is good but of low cost...Vintage well chosen piece thats all ...Dac of low cost but of good design....

The difference comes from basic knowledge of acoustic implemented in my room ....

Audiophile experience is NOT linearly RELATED to money spending sorry for those who never learned it......

 

 

That is well said:

That's the word: immersive, and more about the acoustic event and the energy of it than something "audiophile" sounding.

Wise post and interesting!

Thanks....

It’s all about IMPLEMENTATION...

Very interesting fact for me....

I already knows that many type of speakers existed for a long time, but these articles express it clearly... Thanks...

Fort sure there is innovations about all aspects of speakers design each year it is simple to verify...

It is also simple to EXPERIMENT that acooustic of small room make all the difference in the world for ANY speakers type...

Then nevermind your speakers choice the biggest improvement will come from the small room treatment and acoustical mechanical control...Simple to verify if you listen to the same speakers in a room well treated and under mechanical control, before and after, or if you listen the same speakers in any different room...

Why? because the perception of ALL acoustic cues are completed and translated only wheen the interaction between the speakers and the room is coming to your ears/brain in two way because you have 2 ears and by 3 sources: two speakers and the room itself...

Timbre, dynamic, imaging, soundstage,listener envelopment, etc, any acoustic cues result from the speakers/room relation to your ears...No acoustical cues is ACOUSTICALLY contained in the source, the acoustical cues in the source are an analog/digital information about the recorded acoustical original chosen cues who wait to be translated by the relation speakers drivers/room walls and acoustical content....Acoustic experience is not the analog/digital written information, this information need to be physically translated to reach your ears...It is described by two complementary science : physical acoustic and psycho-acoustic...

The digital or analog MAP of waves in an album or cd is not a listened wave coming from a speaker/ room...

You need wood and air to have fire, you need physical translation of wave phenomemon in air to have sound...

What audio call  material REPRODUCTION of sound in the analog/digital  engineering perspective will be better described as an acoustical TRANSLATION  between two environment modulo human ears...

 

In the 1920s-30s, the world’s largest corporations used nearly unlimited resources and the best engineers around to design almost all loudspeaker types we use today. Some from that era are still considered to be wonderful sounding and are highly desired today. http://www.audioheritage.org/html/profiles/lmco/shearer.htm https://www.martinlogan.com/en/electrostatic-loudspeaker-history

 

I am unable to evaluate speakers by reading some measures and i dont think what is published in the official specs is anyway all that matter...

Many great speakers were made in the past 50 years...I owned Tannoy dual concentric gold speakers and they can rival many other box speakers of today...Or even magneplanar BUT IN THE RIGHT ACOUSTICAL CONTROLLED ROOM...I know because i prefer my Mission in my dedicated room which are less sophisticated than my Tannoy to big magnepan in a bad room which i listened to with a friend...An no question that big magnepan in a dedicated room are top, even over the Tannoy probably...

Speakers is one thing, but people must not forget the room importance...Speakers EXIST in their room, not on a specs sheet or in a reviewer room... 😁😊 A room must be dedicated to a speaker and acoustically treated and specifically controlled for it only...it is what i learned how to do in the last 2 years and this is not very well known in audio circle by the way....

Not surprizing because it is complex and impossible to do in a living room...And it takes me months for the mechanical tuning non stop ...I am retired... 😁😊 But trust me for any speakers there will be no relation between the sound quality BEFORE and AFTER the mechanical control in place ... Passive material treatment is good but not enough...

Acoustic is NO LESS important than even speakers design...For now....

I choose my actual speakers Mission Cyrus 781 because they were a deal at 50 bucks and anyway the top of the Mission brand....

 

No doubts in my mind because speakers are very complex and of various type and materials there is always continuous innovation around the world... But the time between an innovation and the necessary publicity to make them well known is calculated in years not in months...

Then i am sure that there exist many revolutionary design unknown of most of us all around the world in small companies..,They come and they go...But they can stay a legendary well designed product at relatively low cost and be replaced in the public favor by other good products...

Think about the SPICA speakers... Who remember them now?

i am sure they are not less good now like in the years  80 where they were very well reviewed...I look for some before the Mission Cyrus deal i take.... 😁😊

To be frank i dream to buy one pair some day, not to upgrade because i am satisfied with the Mission Cyrus but now i know how to dedicate a room acoustically around any type of speakers, i want to try a new type of speakers and dress the room for them....A kind of acoustical challenge...

https://spicaspeakers.com/specifications/spica-reviews.php

 

 

Anyway i will not upgrade my Mission speakers.... It will be mission impossible because of the high price i will pay for upgrading this 30 years design with a wonderful bass...And cabinet design well done for sure...

With heavy damping and 2 set of springs on each one of them i am in heaven...

I am anyway very curious about new technology for speakers and i dont doubt that some new technology exist already unknown to us....Anyway we must listen to a speaker to evaluate it... A new technology CANNOT be known by many people in his first years.....Except for very well known design with ton of reviewers like Tannoy or Mission which we can buy without listening them before like i did with total confidence......By the way it is me who redacted this short impression of the Mission which was confirmed by another audiophile... 😁😊 Take it with a grain of salt, reviews means something in great numbers...And even if positive can put you on a bad track anyway....

 

 

 

 

 

Right!

And all Speakers are not designed equal for sure...

Inside of a certain minimal quality cone response domain it is certainly possible to improve at high cost. but better clarity and less cone distortion, so great it will be, will not nullify the minimal lower cost design working especially in a passively well treated room and in a mechanically controlled one...An improvement dont nullify something or all design  from which it improve upon  ...

All aspects of sound are not only frequencies response accuracy of the speakers but also the room response to the speakers and a part of the superioir clarity and except for better dynamic and better timbre accuracy gained whith better working cone design , there exist also, imaging, soundstage, listener envelopment, which depend also nore of  the room response itself  and not only from the speakers response especially if this higher end cone is not in a well treated and well acoustically control room to begin with...

Then in S.Q./price ratio acoustic treatment and acoustic mechanical  control is better improvement  than just higher end speakers in a normal room,  compared to speakers of a less costly design in a highly controlled room ...

The better bang for the buck is always acoustic in my experience.... Some vibrations control, and decreasing of the electrical noise floor with many simple solutions will help also greatly...

All that is a simple calculus S.Q./price ratio ... Acoustic is always the main factor for me up to a pont...Bad or not so well designede speakers cannot for sure be redeemed by  room acoustic... 

Just focussing on the speakers is probably good for the OP. But deciding between passive and active is worthwhile. If the OP has speakers already, then just staying with those seems like the most cost effective.

They can always look at room treatments and room correcting amps/DSP, which may be a better bang/buck.

 

interesting video! thanks !

Interesting! thanks...

It all depends on the price bracket you're looking in.  There have been quite a number of innovations in materials used in drivers and cabinets, and in driver and cabinet construction.  But these only "trickle down" slowly.  

And then there's bending wave technology.