What if a high end speaker measures really badly?


You know, it's true that I feel listening is more important than measurements and that it's generally difficult to really tie together measurements with pleasure.  Below 0.05% THD do I care?  No I do not.  I really don't care. The number tells me nothing about whether I'd like the amp more or not anymore.

In this one memorable review for the Alta Audio Adam speaker, I really felt shivers go up my spine when I looked at the measurements, especially at ~$20kUSD.   This looks like an absolute hot mess.  Does it sound this bad though?  I certainly don't have the $20K to test that out myself. What do you all think? 

erik_squires

Showing 3 responses by cdc

Zu is a popular speaker that doesn’t measure that great. And they do not threaten to sue people about it either.

As long as it gets good reviews on how it sounds, I do not see that bad measurements matter much.

@botrytis

That is a valid point. It is interesting how one’s point of view affects the interpretation of was was written.

I was thinking more about the affect on "salability". That is where I was coming from.

Which is more influential, bad measurements or bad subjective opinion? My guess is the latter.