What a great thread! Very educational.
From "my" point of view and experiences I no longer use the 20 to 20K benchmark for selecting a speaker.
In the late 70's I was 'spec crazy'! I would not consider a speaker for purchase if it did not boast the 20 to 20K spec in it's literature. What I learned was some of the speakers that claimed this did not sound good to me. Some speakers with worse published specs sounded much better.
I now listen for tonality, timbre, image, richness of musical texture (the rosin on the bow sound) and ease of use.
My most memorable example was purchasing McIntosh speakers based on the superb specs in their brochure. After getting them home they were good but not great.
I traded them in on a pair of AR-3a's which did not have the published bass performance but had better, more realistic sound.
Today we are fortunate to have such a great abundance of fine speakers. Also, until we can get speaker manufacturers to conduct speaker tesing in the 'EXACT' same way to include the same test lab, we will never be able to fully use published specs to make our purchase selections.
"LISTEN WELL"
From "my" point of view and experiences I no longer use the 20 to 20K benchmark for selecting a speaker.
In the late 70's I was 'spec crazy'! I would not consider a speaker for purchase if it did not boast the 20 to 20K spec in it's literature. What I learned was some of the speakers that claimed this did not sound good to me. Some speakers with worse published specs sounded much better.
I now listen for tonality, timbre, image, richness of musical texture (the rosin on the bow sound) and ease of use.
My most memorable example was purchasing McIntosh speakers based on the superb specs in their brochure. After getting them home they were good but not great.
I traded them in on a pair of AR-3a's which did not have the published bass performance but had better, more realistic sound.
Today we are fortunate to have such a great abundance of fine speakers. Also, until we can get speaker manufacturers to conduct speaker tesing in the 'EXACT' same way to include the same test lab, we will never be able to fully use published specs to make our purchase selections.
"LISTEN WELL"