I made a huge mistake. I listened to some Wilson Audio speakers...

[Joe Schmoe]

You can blanket a statement as such. There is no such as "the best driver that money can buy" in a general sense. There are drivers more suited towards specific design objectives -- and no matter what you choose -- a balance of compromises will be the case.

-Chris

When somebody buys existing drivers and builds a cabinet for them, that is DIY. Real speaker companies design their own drivers.

 

[3db]

I find that no matter how expensive of a system I listen to, or how good it sounds, my own system still sounds great to me when I get home. To me, that is "audio nirvana".

I tell that to myself too

 

[Joe Schmoe]

I tell that to myself too

I don't have to "tell myself" that, it simply does sound great regardless of what I compare it to (including the B&W/Classe "Abbey Road" reference system.) This is how I know that the $800/pr I paid for my speakers is the point at which the curve of diminishing returns becomes virtually flat.

 

[3db]

Diminishing returns

I don't have to "tell myself" that, it simply does sound great regardless of what I compare it to (including the B&W/Classe "Abbey Road" reference system.) This is how I know that the $800/pr I paid for my speakers is the point at which the curve of diminishing returns becomes virtually flat.

I think is a subjective factor depending on two things, a.) how one hears things and b.) how much disposable income one has.

I'm very happy with my current set of speakers as well and as I mentioned in prior posts, they would be the last thing I would consider upgrading. To improve upon their sound, I would have to spend a considerable sum of money on speakers to gain a noticeable improvement in sound. To improve their sound from what I have now, I need to replace my source components including receiver and DVD player.

 

[highfihoney]

For all the praise B & w is getting in this thread some people are forgetting the main thing,no matter how great the design is a speaker has to sound good,graphs & charts mean squat when it comes to personal taste in the way a speaker sounds.

Im not a fanboy of Wilson but im even less a fan of the B & W sound,great company,great customer service,great craftsmanship,great specs & response =terrible sound to my ears,just goes to show that good sound is subjective not spelled out on paper.

 

[WmAx]

For all the praise B & w is getting in this thread some people are forgetting the main thing,no matter how great the design is a speaker has to sound good,graphs & charts mean squat when it comes to personal taste in the way a speaker sounds.

Im not a fanboy of Wilson but im even less a fan of the B & W sound,great company,great customer service,great craftsmanship,great specs & response =terrible sound to my ears,just goes to show that good sound is subjective not spelled out on paper.

If you like monopoles, then the B&W 802D or higher, would be likely enjoyed greatly by you, if only you added a proper high quality equalizer. That is the beauty here -- superbly linear and without coloration. You add a simple contour to the signal and get what you prefer -- at ideal fidelity.

Personally, I can't stand a perfectly flat signal reproduction on the vast majority of commercial recordings. That means, even if I wanted to use a monopole, I would not like the B&W in it's unaltered state, despite it's superb performance.

-Chris

 

[Joe Schmoe]

If you like monopoles, then the B&W 802D or higher, would be likely enjoyed greatly by you, if only you added a proper high quality equalizer.

Why on earth would somebody buy speakers they don't like and then try to fix the problem with an equalizer? It makes vastly more sense to buy speakers you like in the first place, so that no such bandaid is needed!

 

[WmAx]

Why on earth would somebody buy speakers they don't like and then try to fix the problem with an equalizer? It makes vastly more sense to buy speakers you like in the first place, so that no such bandaid is needed!

It is not a band-aid when used within proper scope. The 802D is an extremely linear device with no audible resonance, as opposed to most speakers, which have audible resonances that distort timbre -- due to far lesser engineered cabinet systems for the most part.

However, an absolute linear amplitude response is not often favored for general commercial music, which typically has a presentation that is not from a natural perspective(close micing emphasizes high frequencies, and generally, most studio microphones used have upper mid and or high frequency emphasis on top of that, in addition to any further equalization that may be applied in the studio by the engineer during mixing, then later on by the mastering engineer in another stage). As many perceptual researchers discovered, most test subjects find the response of a slightly de-emphasized upper-mid/high frequency response, as measured at the listening position, as being perceived as more neutral. A precision equalizer allows accurate shaping of the response to one's personal preference. You can consider the B&W 802D as given example here, as being a blank slate, and being as such, is ideal for an equalizer.

It is a non-efficient method to attempt to find a speaker that is 'perfectly' balanced tonally to one's tastes; one can apply the balance themselves, and with great accuracy/precision with high quality equalization equipment. A far more productive (and accurate) process to achieve ideal preference.

-Chris

 

[Warpdrv]

Great thoughts.... I don't have a problem with using an EQ, as long as one doesn't have to use it to boost the hell out of a signal to get what you are looking to hear... small freq emphasis or cuts present no issues for me just fine.

In fact, I was glad to see that my pioneer had the built in EQ, as depending on some of the material that I listen too, the tweeter need to be dialed back a touch on my Paradigm Studios... usually depends on how they mixed the content... God knows that there are probably tons of Mixing Engineers that have flaws in their hearing, and don't mix everything perfectly...