My Journey to find the "perfect" speaker... - Page 3

Originally Posted by treemed67

Just recently I started for the first time thinking about multichannel audio and video, and wild idea started haunting me: What if I can incorporate both?

Then a few months ago I was introduced to a few incredibly enticing reports from a Munich 2007 High-End Show. They were talking about a new speaker that sounded perfect in every parameter possible. I will be attending Rocky Mountain Audio Fest in Colorado this coming weekend just to have a chance to hear this speakers!

I will be intentionally mysterious in this post about the speaker maker as a teaser but will be reporting in a week if I truly find that they meet the hype they generated in such a short time. If all these reports are true, they would meet every single parameter of a perfect speaker, right down to relatively affordable cost. And they would be perfect for audio and video based system.

This is from a few reports:
Upon entering, we were the only visitors and took a seat facing two ...loudspeakers...
...Well, some eight minutes later we had tears in our eyes and a warm feeling in our solar plexus. ...Above all, things were so intensely musical that it was downright scary.

The gentleman introduced himself as.... and asked if he might explain a little about his speakers. For years he has been struggling with the sound of loudspeakers. As a musician and composer -- he is a pianist -- he wanted to get the sound of a piano right when reproduced with other instruments. He had experimented with classic piston drivers, electrostatics, magnetics, NXT flat panels and more to finally come up with a better solution.

There was no breakup, no smearing, no annoying highs, just the music filling the room. And there was no such thing as a point source. There was simply imaging but not as you know it, i.e. without typical pin-point stereo effects. The sound was merely there filling the room. Forget about soundstage in the sense that musician A is exactly there and on his own. Yes, he is there but simply as part of the remainder. Wandering about the room did not disturb this imaging either. The front-to-back perspective remained consistent and locked.

This experience proved so overwhelming that we jumped at the opportunity to audition a pair of the largest... loudspeakers in our own Rotterdam environment. ...has developed a truly new and affordable full-range musical instrument that plays music like the real thing. The top model is 10,000/pr euros.
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Anyone knows which speakers they are talking about?

Originally Posted by hifisponge

...but for now I, like many others here, have wives to live with that don't want the main living room to look like a recording studio. And yes, I know there are attractive options for room treatment, but this really isn't the house or the room to invest that sort of effort in.

Originally Posted by hifisponge

If you don't tell me I might throw-up with anxiety! Not dynamic drivers, not ESLs, not ribbons . . . what the hell are they using? Lasers? No, sharks with lasers strapped to their heads! At least let me see what they look like!

Originally Posted by treemed67

Another report from well known audio veteran on these mysterious new speakers:

“Most written descriptions of audio equipment and the sound they produce are viewed as clichés. That’s not the intention of the writers of course, but that’s the way it turns out. All the typical descriptive words such as ‘staggering’, ‘awesome’, ‘jaw-dropping’ and so on have become devalued by overuse or inappropriate use. So we won’t be using any of those words here nor indeed during our demonstration. Instead we’ll stick to the facts.

What you will hear is quite literally a world first: A new and unique full-range loudspeaker system. No ribbons (even though we love ribbons), no electrostatic devices (even though we love those too) and no cone drivers or subwoofers. Moreover no hype and no tricks. Promise!

For most people, how we achieve what we achieve is probably interesting for only a short while, if that. If you want to know the details come and talk to us. You might however be interested to note that there are no teams of laboratory bound white coated boffins here. Instead we have a distinctly intriguing combination of a world-renowned concert pianist and an audio engineer with over 25 years experience working with panel loudspeakers.

We have all the electronic measuring equipment of course and the wide-ranging know-how necessary to properly understand the subtleties of loudspeaker design. But we have also allowed ourselves complete freedom to think about psycho-acoustics in new ways, and then apply the appropriate technologies to achieve our goals.

The sound of our loudspeakers has all the positive attributes of the classic designs we grew up with, the ones we all know, love and respect. But we also achieve something extra - difficult to define in words. It is the sort of visceral excitement that comes from any music heard played live by accomplished musicians. But now this is achievable at any volume level and listening position in any room. The traditional ’sweet-spot’ and specific volume requirement described as ‘realistic’ by some and ‘rather too loud’ by others are both startlingly absent.

Bass extension is what you’d expect: Sustained thunder on organ notes yet capable of lightening fast transients as typified by a rim-shot in a smoky jazz club. The speakers go loud of course, but can whisper too. There’s a whole lot more, but you’ll know if our sound is the sound for you within seconds.

Finally, you’ll hear and see that our loudspeakers are modestly priced and can be driven by relatively small integrated amplifiers."
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Anyone knows what speakers he is talking about?

Originally Posted by Mudslide

It is your ears in your setup that must be pleased, not ours. The making of recommendations for your audition is the best we should offer.

Originally Posted by Mudslide

If you like, Nuance, I'd be glad to detail the specifics of the clean and dynamic performance and perceived excellence that I and many others have found in the Aerials over other brands in that price range.

Originally Posted by Mudslide

Instead though, allow me to just advise you again to audition, be mindful of your budget (which is why I recommended the 7B's over the 9's), your room acoustics (and treatments), and consider the ancillary equipment you'll be using (or acquiring). It's entirely possible that Hifisponge's amp section was a poor fit with the Aerials. That could be the reason for their lackluster presentation for his tastes. We don't know. It's possible that he wanted much more musical coloration from the speakers (which is why the Aerials sounded so very ....neutral...to him). We don't know. It could be the speakers interacting with his room. We don't know.

Originally Posted by Mudslide

So I'll reiterate. Listen for yourself and don't strain your brain or your budget () with this search of yours. There is a thrill in the chase, and that should be your focus. And I agree with Hifisponge. A perfect speaker does not exist. But I believe that one that meets your requirements does. It is perhaps not the AA's. But it surely could be.

Good hunting.

Originally Posted by Summa

I guess it's sort of my soapbox issue lately, but I think it's hard to get a real feel for what your speakers can do unless you take the room out of the equation to the greatest extent possible.

Originally Posted by Tim916

http://www.podiumsound.co.uk/homepage.html

Originally Posted by treemed67

Congratulations Tim on investigational mind.

Yes hifisponge, I'll certainly post a report. I'm very curious to hear if they stand up to the hype, as I have not heard speakers before receiving such a consistent praise. It would be great if they deliver on the promise. Perfect speakers?

We'll see...

Originally Posted by Jake Sm

As one who sells room treatments let me say that I greatly prefer passive room treatments to most electronic EQ solutions above the bass regions. This being said, the things that Hifisponge did do to his room ARE the sort of things I think of when talking about basic, room (and wife) friendly initial responses, or treatments, to a room with obvious problems. The brain though , is a remarkable filter and can also help identify speaker characteristics independant of the room by it's understanding and compensation for some of the rooms issues. A Viola player I knew once told me that while there were certain rooms she liked playing in more than others, there wasn't a room she'd played in where she couldn't tune her instrument or where she couldn't still pick out differant types of the same instrument played by others in the ensemble.
I have also seen some room treatments applied haphazardly , or applied incorrrectly so as to not be visually asymetrical or otherwise offensive and I often shake my head at good intentions gone awry when people have done much , but not done it well.
While not the case in some really offensive rooms, I still regard the speaker as being more important in personal selection and primary enjoyment then the room.....and just to be clear, there is potentially a lot more money in doing room treatments than in speakers, and while, in an FR way, more possible benifit in a perfectly set-up room , controlled for the listening position, I still think that the simple types of passive correction Hifisponge has done are the kinds of things that will take the larger negatives out of the equation for many people.

Originally Posted by treemed67


As analogy, I'm thinking about buying Pioneer Kuro Elite PRO-150FD 60". I really didn't want to spend that much on display, but when I started reading all these reviews and some of them claimed they couldn't find any shortcomings at all, and one reviewer said that even jaded reviewer like him got thoroughly excited, it made me a believer. Similarly, this promises to be technology where reviewers claim to be near perfect, or as perfect as we can imagine at this point. But they all say that this is in a completely new league compared to anything else ever made.