Some New Evidence that Generation Y May Prefer Accurate Sound Reproduction

[timmay8612]

A big problem is that accurate speakers are either prohibitively expensive for younger, less wealthy buyers (like me), or they aren't advertised heavily or sold at major retailers.

For me, a 256 or 320 mp3 is a nice compromise on quality vs. space. I don't even own a CD player, unless I were to use my computer or PS3 (born 1986).

 

[fredk]

You're out of touch with the times buddy - Newfoundland is hard at work in the offshore oilfields so that Ontario can be kept in the lifestyle to which they have become accustomed!

'Bout time! Now send me some screech and we'll call it even.

 

[tonmeister]

Dr. Olive, I would like to ask some off topic questions since people here often talked about how their speakers came alive with more power. In all those studies you linked, how did you take into account of the way different amplifiers would interact with different speakers? Did you just make sure you have more than enough power headroom for the speakers that were the hardest to drive, or you did something else as well? In terms of amplifier power, how much headroom would you have allowed for?

I figure that if the tests are to be conducted at an average SPL of 78 dB from 3 meters, then the sensivity of a speaker with say 87.5dB/W at 1m should produce just about the targeted 78 dB of SPL assuming no room reinforement effect. So if you allow for 30 dB of headroom power (or 15 dB for current), you would need to have 1024W (MONO) of peak power capability on hand, or less depending on how much room reinforcement you get in the non anechoic chamber where the listening tests are conducted. If you only allow for 20 dB of peak power headroom then any 200W mono block should be fine right?

Hi Peng,

Headroom is not normally issue with most of the loudspeakers we test at normal listening playback levels , and we ensure the amps are never clipping. But your numbers are about right.

Our standard amps are 150 watts per channel into 8 ohms that we can bridge when needed to deliver up almost 4x the power. If we need more power for a test where we are cranking the speaker we have access to larger Mark Levinson/Crown/Lexicon amps.

 

[tonmeister]

A big problem is that accurate speakers are either prohibitively expensive for younger, less wealthy buyers (like me), or they aren't advertised heavily or sold at major retailers.

For me, a 256 or 320 mp3 is a nice compromise on quality vs. space. I don't even own a CD player, unless I were to use my computer or PS3 (born 1986).

A similar question was just asked in my blog to which I answered. I think it is a myth that you need to spend a lot of money on a speaker that fills half the living room to get decent sound quality. The things that cost a lot of money are deep bass and high SPL. If you want that then yes, it's going to cost you more money.

If you are willing to compromise on those things you can achieve decent sound in a small form factor at a reasonable price. Sound quality needn't be an elusive luxury that only the rich can afford.

 

[GO-NAD!]

'Bout time! Now send me some screech and we'll call it even.

It's in the mail....

 

[its phillip]

A big problem is that accurate speakers are either prohibitively expensive for younger, less wealthy buyers (like me), or they aren't advertised heavily or sold at major retailers.

For me, a 256 or 320 mp3 is a nice compromise on quality vs. space. I don't even own a CD player, unless I were to use my computer or PS3 (born 1986).

I wouldn't say they're prohibitively expensive, it's just that people our age tend to spend our money on on other things - like computer parts, games, or consoles. Or we spend the money as we get it, rather than save for a nice big purchase or two. Most people I see who have really nice computers and/or game collections really cheap out on audio. People drop hundreds on upgrading mobos/processors and video cards every year or two, and buy dozens of games...but then they get a crap logitech speaker system, "gamer" headsets, and super cheap htibs. Say instead of spending $500 for a midrange cpu/mobo/gpu and $1000 for 20 or 30 games in a year, you buy speakers instead. I'd like to have some nicer speakers and all that, but I'd also like to have a lot of the other things I spend my money on, so speakers keep getting pushed back on the list :/ It's a lot easier for me to spend $100 here and $200 there rather than saving up a thousand or 2

 

[timmay8612]

I'm thinking in this economy, everybody I know with a few very select exceptions who is approximately my age cannot afford to drop $1-2k on audio, which unless you find a sweet deal on c-list, is going to be necessary to get into some decent. I'd call that prohibitively expensive.

 

[fredk]

A pair of Behringer 2030Ps gets you good audio for way less than 1K. Add a parts express sub kit to fill in the bottom end and you are still way under 1K.

The used market is also a good place to start if you have financial restrictions.

 

[timmay8612]

A pair of Behringer 2030Ps gets you good audio for way less than 1K. Add a parts express sub kit to fill in the bottom end and you are still way under 1K.

The used market is also a good place to start if you have financial restrictions.

This is the part where I come in. All the gear in my sig was had extremely cheap from craigslist or ebay. I think many in my generation either don't know what to look for, or have no inclination that there might be better or different options than what is at Best Buy. Much of this is ignorance. Because they've never heard good audio, its not something on their radar. Me on the other hand, I was ruined on good audio early

All that said, I think this kind of awareness for my generation is great. Music lovers should be aware of loudness wars, compression abuse, and snake oil HTIB (cough cough Bose) systems so they can A) make better consumer decisions, and B) get more enjoyment from their audio.

 

[tonmeister]

"Sound Quality is not a matter of personal taste "

I posted a new article that summarizes some recent experimental evidence where I tested a group of teenagers' preferences in loudspeakers and MP3 (128 kbps) versus CD music formats. This is just the beginning of a more thorough longer study, so the results are very preliminary. Still I thought it would be interesting to get some feedback.

I could find no evidence that these high school students preferred the "sizzling sounds of MP3" over higher quality lossless formats, as reported by Jonathan Berger. I also found they preferred the most accurate, neutral loudspeakers when given the opportunity to hear and compare them with something less accurate and neutral.

These results are not too surprising to me, but the media seems to have been reporting a different story over the past year.

Well, my study is slowly getting reported in the technology blogosphere and by a German blogger who writes: "MP3 Makes it Broken --or Not?" , but so far only in German since they seem to be more affronted by Berger's claims about MP3 corrupting the sound quality tastes of the current Generation of kids.

 

[MinusTheBear]

Even in the portable audio world you are seeing a shift to FLAC and Apple lossless and consumers are embracing it and why not? Manufacturers like SanDisk are really supporting the shift to lossless formats such as FLAC and offer convenient ways even in their most affordable players such as in the Sansa Clip+ to support the larger storage demand with FLAC with incorporating the use of external memory (MicroSD cards). You can get the 2gb Sansa clip+ and add a 16gb MicroSd card and in total will cost you around $50 - $60. Grab yourself a quality pair of headphones and you are good to go. Manufacturers are on the correct path with file and storage support as well as affordability - in time the dumbing down of audio will be all but dead.

Sansa Clip+

 

[Nuance AH]

There is very little treatment of the walls in the MLL,. There is carpet, lots of chairs, and diffraction from shelves, furniture,etc. The side walls are too far away for my tastes, and we are planning to change this in the next year.

In your opinion, how close is too close concerning the side walls, and how far is too far? I've always been curious what the ideally shaped/sized room would be for a typical 86-90dB sensitive speaker. Would you mind making a recommendation? I hope to be building a dedicated room down the road. Thanks.

I am sorry to hear about the loss of the software programmers. I very much look forward to the release of your software training program.