What Should I be Listening For?

Holydoc

Have not heard the Focals or have read much about them. The B&W 703 was what I was listening too at the store. They would run about 3K with the center. Funny that the salesman showed me a B&W center and yet you say that there is not a matching one. Hmm... I will have to research what he was trying to sell me. Forget the D series. I cannot touch them on my budget. The only Paradigms that I was able to test were the monitor and studio series. Both reminded me very much of my RTi12's.

I have been actively viewing AV123. Their mutual respect of Polk design and the use of the same tweeter as the LSi makes me wonder whether I would be better served with the Polk LSi rather than the Onix Ref 3 speakers. The rockets worry me since the matching center is as big as a volkswagon.

Very important that the front stage is timbre matched. Any speakers without a matching center is useless to me.

Klipsch speakers just will not work for me. I have looked at many and known blew my skirt up.

Joey_V

Doc,

The 703 does not have a matching center because the center of the 7xx series does not have the FST driver that the 703 uses. I, and others on the BW forum, feel that they are not timbre matched and this discussion frequently pops back up on the BW forums. Go to htguide.com and look for the BW Club there. Be careful though because a lot of those guys are high rollers and they have BW systems to match... might make spending the $5K a lot easier if you get my drift. You can get the 703 for a lot cheaper on the 'gon... or go up to the 804S for less than a new 703 on the 'gon as well.

None of the Klipsch speakers really work for me either, but I always felt their lower Synergy line was ok and the THX is ok for movies alone, not music. Easy to amplify as they are very efficient. And easy to move around, atleast the THX, since none are floorstanders.

As you know, the LSi15 are killer in their price range, but dont forget the Onix Rockets from av123, those are good too.

Alrgith, got to go to work.... see ya!

Joey

phipiper10

I'm not sure this is ground breaking but seems like a good basis to me.

See the 5th article down. The other stuff is ok too!

http://www.genesisaudio.com/html/frameset-info.htm

joeparaski

TN_Polk_Lover wrote:

I would highly recommend to everyone to get the book "The Complete Guide to High-End Audio" Third Edition, by Robert Harley. He is the Editor-in-Chief of "The Absolute Sound" and "The Perfect Vision" magazines.

The third chapter (40 pages worth) is "Becoming a Better Listener". He does a good job of explaining the terms that audiophiles use in describing systems. In each chapter devoted to a particular subject, for example, speakers, he describes what to listen for and points out how a better speaker will sound in relation to an inferior speaker, using specific attributes, such as imaging, soundstage width, soundstage depth, "air" around each instrument, individual bass notes sounding distinctly seperate as opposed to blurred together, etc. He recommends specific recordings to help test different aspects.

I put this book on my Christmas wish list that I made for my wife and daughter. I had seen the book advertised in the Audio Advisor catalogs I get. My daughter ordered it from Amazon.com. This is a fantastic book.

Then, at Mr. Harley's recommendation in his book, I ordered from Amazon "Master Handbook of Acoustics" fourth edition, by F. Alton Everest. This book is also very good. I really love Physics and have always enjoyed studying things like heat, light, sound, etc. This book explains alot of things about sound and does so in terms that most people can understand. There is some math involved, but if you have even a basic knowledge of some algebra, you won't have any problem with it. There are entire sections devoted to how to treat your listening room for better sound, the best dimensions to build a room for sound, etc. Some of the material is devoted specfically to treating a recording studio, but even alot of that could be applicable to a home listening room, including proper building techniques to control sound from getting into (or out of) the room, including HVAC systems, etc.

BTW, I have no affiliation with either of these books, no commercial reason for recommending them. I read both of them straight through without putting them down,they were that good to me.

I guess the best thing to do is take a CD you are familiar with and listen to see which one you like best.

As Mr. Harley explains in his book, if you try TOO hard to listen for specific things, your brain will actually become fatigued and you will sometimes wind up frustrated trying too hard to hear differences. He has a whole section in Appendix "The Role of Critical Listening in Evaluating Audio Equipment Quality." which is a paper that he first presented at the 1991 Audio Engineering Society convention in New York. He explains why "blind listening tests" don't work very well and most of them are flawed in the way they are done. There are apparently some members of the AES who are very stubbornly stuck in the "all amps sound the same, all wire sounds the same" camp. He presented this paper to debunk their reasoning and their methodology.

For example, Mr Harley said (I'm paraphrasing, of course) that in any blind test that the "all sounds the same group" conducts, if any of the participants start to show an ability to tell the difference in whatever is being tested, they assume it is a fluke and that the statistical sampling size (number of times the items are switched) is increased to the point that fatigue sets in to everyone involved and the test will then seem to prove their assumption.

He says that you should limit your analytical listening time to shorter periods, and don't forget to just relax and get "lost in the music". After doing this in different listening sessions, comparing 2 things (speakers), for example, which system let you enjoy the music more. Which one was more emotionally satisfying. Did one system seem to fatigue you or did you have a sense that you could have just kept on listening forever and not get tired? etc. etc.

Well, I don't want to get into copyright infringement, so I'll stop, but everyone should buy Harley's book.

Well I just received my copy of "Complete Guide to High-End Audio" in the mail from Amazon.com That is one big-**** book! How on earth did you read that STRAIGHT THROUGH without putting it down? You didn't sleep for 2 days? :eek: :eek:

Joe

TN_Polk_Lover

Joe -- well, I did put it down to sleep and eat, but basically, I got it for Christmas and had extra time on my hands since I was off work a few extra days. It was so interesting to me that I really didn't want to do much of anything else. And, since my daughter bought it for me for Christmas, it made her happy because she felt, for once, she had got me something that I really wanted.

Hope you enjoy the book. Let us know if you found it as good as I did.

Robert