Big speakers, are they really the best way to get great sound?

@phusis +2 😎

Mike

OP,

My personal journey away from flash and towards realistic musical reproduction began with the observation that an upgrade would improve the music on my test disks and make much of the rest of my music sound worse. This initiated a two decacade odyssey of learning what real acoustic instruments sound like and their venue. It includes ten years of season tickets in 7th row center seats in the symphony. A seat where I could carefully listen to the subtitle echos around the symphony hall… arrival times of instruments in front and back. Also, solo piano, violin, and cello had their sound holes pointed right at my seat. The recording mikes when they recorded for publication were very nearly over my head. Hundreds of concerts are very informative. 
 

From the symphony and lots of small acoustic jazz concerts… and listening to individual pianos and cymbles made me realize that most HiFi systems are tuned for detail and slam. So the perspective was all wrong… the venue was overemphasized and often the mastering techniques. Going through my memory of all the speakers I had heard over the years, Sonus Faber stuck out as very different sounding… ones that I felt sounded like the real thing. 
 

So, over the last fifteen years I proved my hypothesis about Sonus Faber… and started with used, then new Olympica, and now my Amanti… and while I started with a Audio research preamp and phonostage, I upgraded those and added all Audio Research components. Now, when there is a crescendo in a symphony… the rumbling bass of combined instuments comes as a huge wave… instead of a slap over a microsecond. The venue details are there, but you have to turn your minds eye to listen for them, instead of having them hit you in the face. 
 

Also, all kinds of music sounded better as I made this journey… instead of some getting better and some worse. When I listen to my system, I listen to the music, not the system… the snappyness of the treble, the bass slap… I am emotionally connected to the music… not the system. I get to listen three hours a day, and have to drag myself away. My old reference… highly detailed / slam system would get boring after an hour. 

I consider myself extremely fortunate that, in my listening room, I don't need any room treatments, nor do I think I need any. My living/listening room is connected to my dining room, which is connected to my kitchen. It measures 16.6" W X 34.6 D, with cathedral ceilings in the living room/dining room. The kitchen floor is uncovered, all else is carpeted.

I use two 12" Dual Concentric Stereo drivers, one 15" subwoofer, and two 12" subwoofers. Nothing is being overdriven (the nice thing about subs is they're volume is easily controlled). My room seems to have the right amount of clutter to help keep thing easier to adjust.

I also have a multi-channel system lashed in, and it has all worked out very well for me, which I am extremely grateful for.

Regards,

Dan

 

What is it about a local context of a large system + listening space that makes you deduce the observations made here translates into a general characteristic of other, similarly-ish sized systems - the astronomical price of +$1M? - does that make it a representative for all larger sized speaker setups? If anything it goes to show price in itself doesn’t tell you much about the potential at hand (as you have indicated yourself), also not knowing about the hardware specifics, nor the overall implementation acoustically or otherwise.

Why the secrecy - what’s so important to keep the lid on exposing the speakers at play here? It’s just your opinion - calling out über-expensive speakers + gear for sounding less than ideal shouldn’t be a more precarious matter than saying the same of less expensive speakers. I take it there’ll be no red dot placed on your forehead for spilling the beans, as they say.

While the speakers I had the pleasure of hearing definitely seemed to not portray what I felt were the same level of specific detail and intimacy that other smaller systems I have heard can; I do agree that a generalization cannot be made. I do not believe I was trying to say that ALL large speakers fall down in this way, although most that i have heard certainly do. What would be point of disclosing the speaker in question, besides to feed your curiosity? It is a model that has- and is receiving the highest in hype and praise (as it should for its asking price!) To many on this forum, I suspect they would consider it to be SOTA, which just goes to show the variety in tastes.

As to what I hear live, I am an ex-pro studio musician, so i have had some exposure to the ’live’ unamplified sound... mostly fairly close up, although also many times in large halls. This is where I come from as a 'frame of reference'. What is your 'frame of reference'?

mulveling, that piece of Swiss transistor Soulution cannot compete with VAC Statement even in the wildest of fantasies. Besides, not all big speakers are created equal in terms of how they perform in relatively small rooms. Don't know about present but Kevin of VAC used to own JM Labs Grand Utopia.