Great thread. I don't have any insight to add, I just want to share my experiences. I have tinnitus and the corresponding hearing loss that causes it. I don't need hearing aids yet but have a hard time with hearing conversations clearly.
Several years ago I converted my Magnepan 1.6's to active with a Bryston 10B, gutting the stock crossovers. First - there was a tremendous difference in everything musical, no big surprise with such a dramatic change. Second - I set about measuring to try to optimize the frequency response in my room going through most of the available crossover frequencies and slopes. I noticed a strange phenomenon. When changing slopes with a selected set of frequencies the various slopes would measure the same. That gave me a baseline. When I played music to tailor things to what I like to hear and changed slopes within the same frequencies I could hear a difference. Even though they had measured the same. Someone over at the Planar Asylum suggested it was group delay that was causing the sonic differences. Makes sense, but I don't know how to prove it.
Third - When having a non "audiophile" friend over for dinner I did an experiment with cables. My CD player has two audio outs so I hooked up a somewhat expensive interconnect to one and a modestly priced interconnect to the second. After switching back and forth between the inputs with a remote while listening to music I asked my friend if he could hear the difference and he could. He could tell me which input I had selected without looking. Now, he preferred the sound of the cheaper interconnect and I preferred the more expensive one so it's individual preferences.
Even with my hearing loss I could pick up the fairly subtle differences. Which was "better/more accurate" in both cases. I don't know. I just stay with the crossover settings and interconnects I like music played on.
FWIW
Jim S..
Several years ago I converted my Magnepan 1.6's to active with a Bryston 10B, gutting the stock crossovers. First - there was a tremendous difference in everything musical, no big surprise with such a dramatic change. Second - I set about measuring to try to optimize the frequency response in my room going through most of the available crossover frequencies and slopes. I noticed a strange phenomenon. When changing slopes with a selected set of frequencies the various slopes would measure the same. That gave me a baseline. When I played music to tailor things to what I like to hear and changed slopes within the same frequencies I could hear a difference. Even though they had measured the same. Someone over at the Planar Asylum suggested it was group delay that was causing the sonic differences. Makes sense, but I don't know how to prove it.
Third - When having a non "audiophile" friend over for dinner I did an experiment with cables. My CD player has two audio outs so I hooked up a somewhat expensive interconnect to one and a modestly priced interconnect to the second. After switching back and forth between the inputs with a remote while listening to music I asked my friend if he could hear the difference and he could. He could tell me which input I had selected without looking. Now, he preferred the sound of the cheaper interconnect and I preferred the more expensive one so it's individual preferences.
Even with my hearing loss I could pick up the fairly subtle differences. Which was "better/more accurate" in both cases. I don't know. I just stay with the crossover settings and interconnects I like music played on.
FWIW
Jim S..