Lets start with this analogy. Clothes are manufactured and sold according to different sizes, colors and styles . Human beings are then required to choose their style, color and most importantly, size. Not infrequently, the size you choose may either be too big or too small. In some cases, it may be neither too big or small but it might still not fit you very well. The reason for this is because size is not just a single number but a range of different factors are involved. If you take a pair of trousers, there are obviously many measurements you can take. You can measure the length, width diameter etc.
Now the problem is, clothing companies are very sneaky. They know that there is no way they can custom make an item for each and every one of us. That is the only reason they are made according to standardized sizes.
The way the speaker industry works is similar. They make various speakers. Some use paper drivers, others use alumimium, or any number of other materials. Most are made of wood, others are made of concrete or carbon fibre. Some are tuned flat as a pancake, others have a bbc dip. Others have a peak >8khz. Speaker companies do not custom tune their designs to our ears but they custom tune them to the designers ears and then expects some of us to be pleased with that particular tuning.
Audiophiles choose from the variety of designs on the marketplace.
The problem is, despite the hundreds if not thousands of different speaker designs in the marketplace, there will never be enough designs to satisfy each and every one of us perfectly. Each of us has a unique requirement when it comes to how a speaker sounds. To compound this problem, our needs change over time. When we are in our teens, we might want more bass and treble whereas once you start losing the top end as you get into your 40's and 50's you will want more highs to compensate. Once you're beyond the age of 70, you are never going to be happy because no speaker can correct or cure severe hearing loss.
So the point I'm making is that the reason we are all on the speaker merrry go round is that the speakers on the marketplace are NOT CUSTOM TUNED TO YOUR EXACT HEARING requirements.
The reason KEF LS50, and kii audio or revel or whatever gets rave reviews is because, there will always be a few people that are satisfied with the way the speaker sounds. But this only happens by chance and very infrequently at that.
For the rest of us, we are the ones searching for a sound that doesnt exist in the marketplace. The speakers on the marketplace are close but not an exact match hence we can never be happy.
Back in the 70's speaker engineers thought that the flatter the response of a speaker the better it would sound to ALL of us. Eventually this theory lost poppularity and speaker companies began creating speakers with all sorts of responses that were NOT flat.
But we are now again starting to see a renewed interest in designs with a flat response with more and more speakers coming out claiming to be as flat as a ruler.
So in conclusion, do not be fooled. Do not expect to achieve happiness with any of the speakers out there. Chances are, none of them will satisfy you. Even if you do eventually find a speaker that does suit you, it does not mean it existed all along, it might just mean that your hearing needs changed in such a way that one of the speaker designs on the marketplace became suitable even though it wasn't suitable before.
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