What really is the perfect speaker?

i've never had a chance to hear true horns unfortunately. probably for the best as my room isn't a good set up for them either.
i think it's telling though, that alon wolf's top tier magico ($ wise at least) is also horn based
 
If one is seeking to physically reconstruct perceptually, a virtual reality soundfield as David Chesky seemingly is, the imaginary "perfect speaker" would be only part of the puzzle.
Knowledge of how to encode/decode, would be 10x more important http://www.onhifi.com/features/20010615.htm

Now if you're simply seeking something "perfect" for you, choices abound. Many roads lead to Rome.

cheers,

AJ
 
Sorry, but I disagree with a definition based on a particular hardware or tight performance parameters. I have heard good and bad horns, electrostatics, panels, dynamic cones, stiff enclosuers, no enclosures, different bass loadings, different enclosure materials, different driver materials, ribbon tweeters, dome tweeters, diamond tweeters, internal bracing, no internal bracing, internal wiring types, capacitor types, complex crossovers, no crossover......and the list of designs go on and on. A perfectly measured speaker cannot account for it’s translation of an art like music. For example, I stay clear of teflon in anything. I know it measures well and is the cats meow in audiophile circles, but to me it sounds unatural. I don’t even believe the perfect speaker is the one that most closely mimics the live performance. Many a speaker designer has tried to duplicate the venue acoustics along with the detail of the instruments and vocals. These designs have had limited success throughout the years. The perfect speaker must reproduce music in a domestic environment. And do it with a limited amount of channels. Certainly no where near what a live performance does. And the speaker is at the end of a very long chain of events where thousands of things can go wrong. My hat goes off to the small handfull of designers that can pull this off. I havn’t heard the perfect speaker yet, but have come awfully close. I have high hopes.
 
Rob181 said:
And what speaker would that be & why...
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Two that recently come to mind are the YG Anats and the Graham LS5/8’s. The Anats (discontinued) do just about everything right and the Graham LS5/8’s simply sound absolutely gorgeous.
 
I have a pair of IRS v in built for purpose room yes it's funny a wall of sound no need to sit stand have to be ina locked head vice.
I think Genisis makes the best speaker on the planet but you need a room for those lol.
As for perfection non around but if you go for statement it's got to have most of it.
In my setup it's fault is mid bass weight it has it but cant have the weight of a cone in lower mids
But it does the rest great.
Moving the towers in or out gets me most of it even the groan of big strings on a rosin bow. But hear that same sound on cones and know what's missing. Servo woofers Fix most but chase low end sounds so a boot kicking ona stage can have a bit of a boom. Stuff like this is perfection none have.
Love ribbons , planners , horns. Don't know why but it is what makes me feel it's right.
Horns are great but fail at weight in mid bass too but are faster above it.
Stats are just too thin all over for me. Don't feel I am claiming I am a pro but it's still comes down to what makes us emotional.
My room is big as my speakers too but as big as it all is. It's still personal when setup right. Close your eyes and that one girl is right there 16 feet back.
Staging makes it real and mine can do some crazy 3D stuff like that cheasky guy says his tracks do this. But not much music has this.
It has depth , height , width too but it's not 6 feet front to back unless it's one of his tracks this is cool to hear.
 
Alrainbow said:
Servo woofers Fix most but chase low end sounds so a boot kicking ona stage can have a bit of a boom.
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Hi Al, "Chase low end sounds"?? What does that mean? Whatever "boom" you have is a function of your room/system, nothing whatsoever endemic to "servo" per se (yours is actually quite ancient compared to modern stuff like Rythmiks Direct Servo). The loudspeaker/room modal interaction dominates LF sound perception. Understanding of what is happening is key to solving any issues. Therein lays the problem.....

Alrainbow said:
Stuff like this is perfection none have.
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Unless you've heard every system on earth....:)

cheers,

AJ
 
Aj You have some good points but have you heard that servo system. ?? Servo driven woofers have sound type. This is not a fault of you consider all the good it does overall. It's just conssesions the best of the best has. And I am far from hearing all.
Dsp fixes things too as it sucks the music out with it lol. No perfeftion
as for my 30 year old setup stop by some time to hear how we good it was 30 years ago and how we have not gotten very far from them.
what I mean is a one time hit as it decays makes the servo chase the decay. It does not boom per say it just does just decay as it should. It's a simple test to try and most bass setups may fail too.
If you read my room below AJ I don't have phase or boom no matter where I am. But some sounds show signs of the tech used.
Your stuff is dsp right ? So dsp fixes all of this as it makes sounds not music lol
 
Alrainbow said:
Aj You have some good points but have you heard that servo system. ?? Servo driven woofers have sound type. This is not a fault of you consider all the good it does overall.
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Al, there are different types of servo systems. They all involve some sort of motion control, to get the drivers to more closely follow dynamic signals like music. A woofer is effectively a damped spring, that uses it mass and suspension to react/follow the signal. Due to the large motions needed at low frequency, this becomes increasingly difficult for a passive suspension system to handle without overshoot in both directions. Servos monitor that motion and corrects (errors) upon it. If there is a "sound" to that, then it would be greater precision, pitch and clarity. Not "chasing", whatever that is supposed to mean. However, woofer systems don't operate in free space. The room around it contributes as much to the sound as the bass system itself, so separating the 2 is impossible. At best, we hear the sum of both. I would not wager someone would be able to tell the difference between a modern servo system (Rythmik, Velodyne, etc) and a SOTA non-servo system via a controlled test (deception suppressed)...in a room.
I've heard too many "good" examples of both. My main reasons for liking say Rythmik servo, is that it offers as good clean, super deep output as any SOTA bling sub system, for reasonable cost. But as noted, getting great bass in a room goes far beyond servo/non-servo.

Alrainbow said:
Your stuff is dsp right ? So dsp fixes all of this as it makes sounds not music lol
Click to expand...
DSP is a tool in the toolbox. Far more important is to understand what causes bass issues and how to address. Yes, that can include DSP, but should be icing, not the cake. I prefer to address problems at the source, rather than to use a bunch of bandaids after the fact. Involving the radiation patterns of the bass, putting less sound power and coupling/excitement of room modes thereof (all repeatable/verifiable science based). Prevention better than cure method, YMMV. Servo and DSP just tools to that end.
Hope you had a good Thanksgiving.

cheers,

AJ
 
I think the perfect speaker is the kind unlocks the imagination, plays the music i like beautifully and has me listening to music I never previously enjoyed. They have to have enough detail to make me believe I’m hearing the little things,but not so much to ruin the average recording and they have to do it in my listening room without fussing about amps or cables.
 
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