Why are there so many wooden box speakers out there?


I understand that wood is cheap and a box is easier to make than a sphere but when the speaker companies charge tens if not hundreds of thousands of dollars for their speakers, shouldnt consumers expect more than just a typical box? Are consumers being duped?

Back in the 70’s a speaker engineer found that a sphere was best for a speaker. A square box was the worst and a rectangular box was marginally better.

The speaker engineers have surely known about this research so why has it been ignored?

Cabasse is the only company doing spheres. Should wooden boxes be made illegal

kenjit

Still waiting Kenjit for proof of what you claim to have said, done or built. Tired of the flapping gums unless you can’t handle the truth.

You really have no standing ...

The only thing you have proved so far is thespeakerdude’s point.

"It is better to be thought a fool, than to open your mouth and remove all doubt."

If the shoe fits ....

 

Kenjit: Cervantes in another, much lesser format, and completely devoid of wit.

@dill 

I'll have you know I am the inventor of the KSS speaker system (Patent pending). Perfect best of both worlds system comprising diffraction less sound field and boxless sound technology. Wood is best for the fireplace not making speakers. If you want to hear your drivers and not your boxes you will need to do something about it Dill, you have been warned. 

Surprising his “ID” was not as developed as one might of expected, whereas the “Ken” was quite pronounced.

"I'll have you know I am the inventor of the KSS speaker system (Patent pending)."

Don't believe it for a second. We all know you are just yanking our chain. Give us a link to your "speaker system" You do know about links, don't you? 

But you’ve been warned. By all means tread carefully!

Hey, I found the fabled KSS speaker system!
All you need is a square wooden box.

All the best,
Nonoise

@Dill

I remember your speakers Dill. They were small boxes mounted on a pair of stands in what looked like a fairly small room. This is not what you call a high end speaker system. If you want perfect sound you must have 20hz to 20khz reproduction. Yours will only go down to about 100hz and even then its already rolling off. The wood used in those boxes would be better off in the fireplace than for trying to get high end sound out of it. Speakers are not instruments Dill. The boxes are supposed to be silent. You only want the drivers to move. You have a lot to learn.

Dont you think its time to improve your speakers?

"They were small boxes mounted on a pair of stands in what looked like a fairly small room." - I do not have stand mounted speakers.

"If you want perfect sound you must have 20hz to 20khz reproduction." - There is no such thing as "perfect sound", it is subjective.

"You have a lot to learn." - no doubt, however it won’t be from you, I listen to the ones that know what they are talking about.

 

 

I listen to the ones that know what they are talking about.

There is no right or wrong though thats the problem you have Dill. You even said so yourself just now. So how the hell would you know who to believe? Is it the proponents of open baffle? Or the ESL? Or the closed box? or the ones that champion reflex, sealed or transmission lines? Is it going to be Harbeth with their resonant cabinets? Or the Magicos with their horrifically dense and solid boxes? Spheres or boxes? constant directivity? or not?

You have opened up a real can of worms havent you Dill, just in time for christmas.

The answer is simple and has been pointed out to you for quite some time, post after post, thread after thread, month after month: It's the speaker you like listening to. 

Perfection is a chimera, a red herring, a ploy to troll by and which seems to give your life meaning. You need to get a life without sucking it out of others.

All the best,
Nonoise

@nonoise 

It's the speaker you like listening to. 

A speaker is not an instrument. It is not supposed to sound like anything. So if you have a preference for one speaker over another then one or both of them must be WRONG. 

The goal of this hobby is to find the RIGHT speakers and dismiss the WRONG ones. Anybody that thinks otherwise is WRONG.

@kenjit  

Everyone would love to see your system. It seems obvious you won’t list it but the question is why not? We all enjoy looking at other peoples systems that’s part of the fun on this forum.  It doesn’t matter what level it’s at. 

"There is no right or wrong though thats the problem you have Dill."

- I have no problem as I am neither right or wrong.

"It is not supposed to sound like anything. So if you have a preference for one speaker over another then one or both of them must be WRONG. The goal of this hobby is to find the RIGHT speakers and dismiss the WRONG ones. Anybody that thinks otherwise is WRONG."

- Do you read what you type? That is the most ridiculous thought you have spewed to date and that is saying something. Lay off the scotch and get back on your meds. BTW: I have found the right speakers and you sir, are WRONG.

Both my room and the speakers residing in it are box shaped, yet I do not somehow feel doubly cursed.

BTW: I have found the right speakers and you sir, are WRONG.

Have you heard of something called a mistake? Audiophiles are WRONG all the time. They think they hear something which either doesnt exist or is NOT what they think they're hearing. I've made the same mistake multiple times. This hobby is not easy Dill its not for amateurs. If you think you can get perfect sound out of a wooden box, then you are completely WRONG Dill. Serious audiophiles spend millions of dollars and their entire lifetime searching for perfection. Many of them never find it. So dont you dare claim that you have found the right speakers and expect me to believe you. What you mean to say is that you have found something you are able to tolerate but they are riddled with flaws and you are willing to tolerate those flaws because you have no other options. 

The first step towards PERFECTION is to listen to your speakers and then write down a list of all the things which are imperfect about them. Do it Dill and then come back. 

In the real world, I’m a marketing guy, As a partner in a regional shop that has prospered through all the changes in delivering marketing communications over the last 37 years, our team knows one thing for sure....perception is reality. The entire process of branding, clarifying the difference between features and benefits and various calls to action is based on encouraging consumer choice. The process is elegantly simple "Why chose to spend my time or money, or both, on a specific product or service?"

Regardless of the technological differences between speaker designs and specs, it all comes down to listening. Many of smartest people in the hifi industry agree that the single most important link in the audio chain is the loudspeaker. It creates the sound wave you hear, right?

Just IMO, but it’s obvious that there is no perfect speaker, just like there’s no perfect microphone, perfect recording or perfect electrical amplification chain. The best speaker for any individual is the one that makes the sounds they want to hear. That reality is colored by everything involved including the sonic characteristics of a speaker and the colored reality of listener’s preferences.

To be honest, this really is a trolling question in the face of a wave of "heritage speaker" popularity. The current sales demand for attractive looking throwback big baffle speakers now being produced by the likes of Harbeth, Mission, JBL, KLH and Wharfedale is unassailable testimony that these two and three way wooden boxes are perceived by a wide range of stereo buyers to be pleasant, musical, well priced and a nice match for Mid Century Modern home decor.

Are they super transparent? No. Are they the best imaging speakers out there? No. Do they require a narrow range of amp styles and power to be enjoyed? No. Are they successful popular products? You bet.

Which brings us all the way around. Perception IS reality. Big box speakers are not only OK, they are all the rage around the world for a significant segment of hifi listeners. If only those among us with Golden Ears are buying, the home audio business would die, so I’m rooting for wooden box speakers to rock on.

Signed,

Happy Wharfedale Linton Heritage owner with some old 1980s pro audio amps :)

I’ve said it before. 
 

The kenidjit is cheapening this forum. A forum that is meant for discussions about high end audio, bettering the sound of your system and then there is the sales part of the forum, which is also about the sale of high end audio. 
 

again, imagine this is your first visit to this site, and this is the first thread you see. 

 

Kenidjit should be made illegal. 
 

And it’s so obvious, there is no system for him to post. 

Of course, for the ultimate reality we go to "live" concerts where - in the case of much music the sound on stage is emerging from...box shaped thingies called stage amps or stage speakers.

They need a better lock for the cell he keeps escaping from. He's so proud of himself...

All the best,
Nonoise

Kenjit hurled: "The first step towards PERFECTION is to listen to your speakers and then write down a list of all the things which are imperfect about them."

Ok done, easy, sophomoric exercise. I found nothing imperfect about my speakers, I also found they where not perfect either. So, since nothing is perfect, I can't find them perfect. BTW: neither can you ...

The first step towards PERFECTION is to listen to your speakers and then write down a list of all the things which are imperfect about them. Do it Dill and then come back

^That^ is not a bad exercise…

However the grill or box colour, the material and the shape of the speaker are more things that I would suspect an interior decorator, or Feng Shui master, would care about.
They do not, by definition, affect the sound.

@Dill

I found nothing imperfect about my speakers, I also found they where not perfect either. 

That just means you need to improve your hearing before you start improving your speakers. How do you expect to enjoy the benefits of better quality speakers if your hearing isnt good enough? Or perhaps your room is so bad that any differences are just being obscured? Find yourself a good speaker tuner locally and get them to come round and listen. 

However the grill or box colour, the material and the shape of the speaker are more things that I would suspect an interior decorator, or Feng Shui master, would care about. They do not, by definition, affect the sound.

Of course perception plays a role too. So youre wrong. All those things can affect the sound you hear indirectly. 

Of course perception plays a role too. So youre wrong. All those things can affect the sound you hear indirectly. 

However… I am not a Feng Shui master.

They certainly have affected the sound that you hear.
As you see the shape, and you know it must be bad.

More Kenjit crap: "That just means you need to improve your hearing before you start improving your speakers. How do you expect to enjoy the benefits of better quality speakers if your hearing isnt good enough?"

- I don’t "need" to do anything you could possibly suggest. I enjoy listening to my system. The music is more important to me than the components. I will never listen to your poor advice. BTW: What is your make believe system?

The Youtube channel "Real World Audio" has an interesting bit about real wood "live" speakers and their potential benefits. "Live and Dead Cabinets Both Alter the sound" is the Youtube title.

The standard line is that real wood cabinets generate too much resonance - much more so than plywood or MDF. However, the author argues that real wood speaker cabinets can be very useful for producing the tone of wooden musical instruments if tuned properly.

Some years back I was scouring Ebay for one of those CF series Klipsch speakers designed by a young Ray Delgado, and one of the listings included a photo of the inside where it was clear that the cabinet was made of solid quartersawn white oak - a thing not often seen even in the early 1990"s. The CF series was not generally successful because it "didn't sound like Klipsch." My question is still "what did it sound like?"

However, the author argues that real wood speaker cabinets can be very useful for producing the tone of wooden musical instruments if tuned properly.

The problem with that is every song you play through them will have a wooden tone. The speaker should reproduce a wooden tone if the recording contains that. Otherwise it should not. Its WRONG

 

The problem with that is every song you play through them will have a wooden tone. The speaker should reproduce a wooden tone if the recording contains that. Otherwise it should not. Its WRONG.

Says you.

Post removed 

Kenji is back ! Don’t you know he will never go back. The Kenjo is back.  don’t you know that he always smokes crack. 
 

anybody know what song I’m parodying? 

@kenjit 

Late to the party here but…Great musicians playing amazingly beautiful sounding music do not play in spherical inert halls.  One of the worlds Best Sounding Halls is the BSO (Boston Symphony Hall).  Basically a wooden box …like my Cornwall IV speakers.