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 1 response by oliver_reid

Question: when FR graph such as those above show the db level at, say, 1khz, does the measured response include any other frequencies - such as resonances introduced by the speaker?

Also, I assume, the graphs alone do not reflect phase consistency between a fundamental and the harmonics typical in music, or differing decay rates for the fundamental vs harmonics. I believe these factors are critical for imaging and musical realism.