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Two audio components no one really talks about

1. The room

2. Your hearing

First the room. I have bookshelf speakers in the living room with a sub and I love the sound it all creates (won’t go into detail about specs, not the point here). It’s beautiful and I love it. Then I have a system in the basement and the sound is completely different. The living room gives an open and spacious sound and moving the same system to the basement gives it a focused and not spacious sound. The tones and detail is good just not as grand a sound as in the LR. Secondly, the sound was horrible in the basement until I put the speakers against the long wall. My point is the same system in two rooms sounds completely different and a choosing a different wall made a monumental difference but still can’t match an open room. I’m a Vandersteen owner (basement system) and i know all about speaker positioning and optimization. There has got to be diminishing returns on a sound system when your room is limited in what it can do with the acoustics. 
 

Hearing. I recently had a hearing test and found I had hearing loss (a couple of decibels) in the mid frequencies (low and high were fine) and that it wasn’t due to age or damage but rather something I was born with. So what I hear and what you hear is different. I’m sure most of us have variations in our frequency responses. So when someone gives their endorsement on a amp or speaker or whatever, that sounds good to them and might not sound good to you. There is something to be said for tonal adjustments and for me in the 1kHz range. The point here is you need to decide what sounds good to you and you might not like that component someone swears is the best. 
 

I’m always amazed and the amount of money people drop on systems and maybe they don’t need to spend that much money due to limitations mentioned above. 
 

It’s not a fun topic but you have to admit there could be a lot you can do with the room to make the sound better. But maybe there is nothing you can do and no amount of money on equipment will change that. 

doogabayne

Showing 1 response by flasd

flasd's avatar
flasd
89 posts
 

In total agreement about the room, even the slightest correction with treatments makes a major improvement as does figuring out how your speakers respond to placement, toe in, etc..

I personally found by switching from bookshelves, (Triangle Comete’ EZ’s), to dipoles (Maggi .7’s), I was able to enjoy music again. I went back to listening rather than hearing what the speakers were and were not doing.

As we age and after years of exposure to loud sounds weather we produced them or were from some external source, adjustments in our listening must be made to accommodate our hearing and the rooms we grow into to get us back to how we think things used to sound or should sound.

One thing to I need to keep in mind as I go crazy chasing how I remember things sounded, is back in the day I heard music, today I critically listen and my current speaker choice, room correction and the advice I often get from fellow posters here on Audiogon has allowed me to continue enjoying this hobby as long as I don’t look at my credit card bills… LOL

As for Hearing & Listening…

Not to change the subject but… How many times has the wife come in at the part of the song you’ve waited for and starts talking and thinks you hear what’s saying, then says you’re deaf for not responding? … LOL Didn’t hear my wife because I was listening to the music….

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