What if a high end speaker measures really badly?

@andy2 - That’s kind of a weird graph, I think the bass response is incorrect, it’s way too flat to be real.

On another note, I’m afraid I’m going to have to disagree with you. The two times I’ve heard those speakers I was completely unable to listen too them. They sounded much like the Triangles to me and painfully bright.

I know many Thiel lovers here will disagree with me, and that’s fine, I know I’m in the minority. I have to wonder if their charm isn’t at lower listening levels or if I made the mistake of listening with too much toe-in?

I'm reading @audiokinesis but avoiding commenting when I just don't know what I'm talking about.  Honestly my experience with very poor measuring speakers is rather limited so I yield the floor. 🤣

Asked another way, if this is a high-end speaker, then is there anything we can objectively point to besides the price tag as "high-end?"

PS - I should point out here that I think we sometimes make the mistake  of auditioning speakers at different volumes than we actually listen to at home.  If you listen loud, audition loud.  Otherwise, spend most of your time listening at the volumes you normally would.

Kind of related to this is that a well treated room improves low-volume listening and decreases listening fatigue.

@amtprod  I think @audiokinesis  was making some of those arguments, that some of these deep valleys may not actually be something most of us would become aware of.

No, if you like the sound of speaker Y vs. X buy Y, absolutely.  The one caveat is that long term and in room listening matter more than short term auditions. 

I don't think you can fix the nulls with DSP at all, but mid-treble I think could definitely be cleaned up at least a little. 

I also don't necessarily think perfectly flat is great, but allow for some discretion in bass bumps, and treble lifts.  So, if we squint and really apply major smoothing to the chart these speakers they do seem to be inspired by Fletcher-Munson curves and could be excellent mid-volume speakers.  Perhaps that will alleviate the otherwise poor (for a 3-way) sensitivity ratings?

@deep_333  illustrates the deep, deep chasm between DIY builders and kit makers, modders vs. the high end industry writ large. 

"How can a speaker maker offer such poor performance for so much money" they ask, and sometimes I have trouble defending some models.

Measuring per specific room is important. That gives a consumer an idea if these speakers will match his/her room.

This is an area where I think Vandersteen does it exactly right.  Uses an active woofer with built in EQ and a low pass filter for the amps.  In hotel rooms this delivered exceptional bass in a tiny room.

PS Everyone says "listen to these before you buy. My point is you may not catch these dips in a 15 minute audition.

@carlsbad2 

Yes, exactly. With a little experience, and a lot of misspent money/youth you’ll realize how extra-sexy speakers which reveal sounds you’ve never heard before, won’t actually last long in your listening room.

Oddly, where these speakers do measure well is in the horizontal dispersion. I’d expect they have an excellent and wide sweet spot, though not a very tall one.

I don’t think we can say much of anything about that graph, and the others presented here without knowing the level of smoothing applied to the raw data.

@bruce19  True, but the problem here is that, if anything, the graph was not smoothed enough! 🤣 Are you suggesting maybe this speaker is far worse than it seems?

My point is, we know at least that those deep valleys are not due to over-smoothing.

I think the up/down peak/dip jogs are artifacts of the enclosure design, which is apparently a transmission line/port hybrid. 

@audiokinesis Ahhh! Thank you, I missed that in the article.  That explains why they posted the inner design of the 2-way as well.

The Alta Alyssa also seems to be radically oddly designed.  In the case of the Adam it's almost as if the designers have deliberately introduced some comb filtering into the frequency response, kind of a hard thing to do if you are paying even moderate attention in crossover theory class.

Perhaps the radically different response curves make the speakers sound more detailed and make the reviewer go through their entire album collection again to hear what they've been missing.... 🤢

Sorry, that's a bit of a cliche I read when speakers are deliberately ragged. If the peaks and dips are not audible, as @audiokinesis suggests then I wonder why and how they went through all the trouble to introduce them in the first place? 🤣