advertisement


What are the world's best speakers to bring the philharmonic into your living room?

It is very interesting: I often ask people who say it is no way possible to have somewhat like live sound in a living room, details about their affirmation, which means to analyze and compare much more in detail the "live sound", but no answer comes.
 
Philharmonics live :

1. Absolutely incredible dynamics without any trace of any distortion.
2. It doesn't matter if it is very quiet or loud, you just hear all details.
3. The sound of all instruments is always warm, natural and detailed.
4. The whole space is filled with sound, you don't have to seat in a sweat spot.
5. Bass of big drum (1m diameter ?) or timpani is so deep, you just feel it in your body, it is probably lower than 20Hz.

and, and , and ...

There is no speaker which can reproduce it. With one large (active ?) speaker it is better, but it is still VERY far away from original.

Even if you will get very big active speakers with high quality electronics and best possible source, than you will not get any recordings which are not compressed or processed in some way.
Sound engineer has to make one recording, which you can hear in your car, in your kitchen and through your hifi system. Sa already at the begining everything is destroyed.

For me the best recordings of the classical music have been made in sixties. RCA Living Stereo, Mercury Living Presence and Decca Legends are good examples.
 
Philharmonics live :

1. Absolutely incredible dynamics without any trace of any distortion.
2. It doesn't matter if it is very quiet or loud, you just hear all details.
3. The sound of all instruments is always warm, natural and detailed.
4. The whole space is filled with sound, you don't have to seat in a sweat spot.
5. Bass of big drum (1m diameter ?) or timpani is so deep, you just feel it in your body, it is probably lower than 20Hz.

and, and , and ...

There is no speaker which can reproduce it. With one large (active ?) speaker it is better, but it is still VERY far away from original.

Even if you will get very big active speakers with high quality electronics and best possible source, than you will not get any recordings which are not compressed or processed in some way.
Sound engineer has to make one recording, which you can hear in your car, in your kitchen and through your hifi system. Sa already at the begining everything is destroyed.

For me the best recordings of the classical music have been made in sixties. RCA Living Stereo, Mercury Living Presence and Decca Legends are good examples.

Good Post!

Louballoo
 
I did, he's wrong.

Whenever I've heard Maggies demonstrated they sound nothing like that description, even the small ones.

Yup, me too. From the 1.7s on up, classical and orchestral is superb through Maggies IME. I think the poster's 3.3's are quite an old model? The latest generation 1.7s and 3.7s are pretty stunning, especially for the price.
 
re ATCs, what natural timber will be there when the signal gets through the array of cheap OP-amps....?

ATCs are used in many professional live applications, including Sydney Opera House, as already mentioned, and other venues you might have heard of, such as The Royal Opera House, London, Wigmore Hall, and the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles.

So if there was ever a speaker to bring the phil to your sofa, it's ATC.
 
Philharmonics live :

1. Absolutely incredible dynamics without any trace of any distortion.
Many people have measured with an sound level meter the peaks at the listener position during concerts and rehearsals. The highest peaks are about 105 db(A) at the listener position (not on the stage!). Very many Hifi systems can manage that. Some, with bigger loudspeakers, can mange that also without distortion.

2. It doesn't matter if it is very quiet or loud, you just hear all details.
I bet that during the loud tutti of a big orchestra you wouldn't be able to hear what several instruments are playing. Actually depending on the recording on many hifi systems you hear clearer certain instruments than at live performances.

3. The sound of all instruments is always warm, natural and detailed.
I agree with warmer and more natural but detailed not often. What is heard much more in detail is the projection of the instruments in the hall. The acoustic of the concert hall is on the recording something that has not much to do then the one at the listener position during the concert. There are some systems that can reproduce well and in good details the characteristics of the hall recorded on the media but this will never be the same as the one on live performances. Is this so important? Anyway for those who are used to go to different halls can relativate this aspect.

4. The whole space is filled with sound, you don't have to seat in a sweat spot.
Well especially big systems do fill the space with sound. I must say this point is for me very important and everyone who visit me noticed this and was impressed I heard though several very big hifi systems which are able to to that.
Having a sweet point or not has not much to do with "filling the whole space wit sound". I just wonder why is it so important not having a sweet point: anyway even in a concert hall you sit in a place and don't move. Or do you walk around, turning your head around when they are performing?
With certain acoustical changes in your listening room it is possible to enlarge the sweet point a bit. Most of it depends though on the characteristics of the loudspeakers.



5. Bass of big drum (1m diameter ?) or timpani is so deep, you just feel it in your body, it is probably lower than 20Hz.
Definitively not: it goes to about 32 Hz. Timpany goes down to about 70 Hz. There are many big systems where you feel the lower frequencies in your body much more than in a concert hall. But also speakers like Tannoy do that job, for me not in a natural way.

There is no speaker which can reproduce it. With one large (active ?) speaker it is better, but it is still VERY far away from original.
You will never be able to get the original. But there is no original: if you move 4 seats to the right, to the left behind or in front in the concert hall, it will sound anyway different.

Even if you will get very big active speakers with high quality electronics and best possible source, than you will not get any recordings which are not compressed or processed in some way.
Sound engineer has to make one recording, which you can hear in your car, in your kitchen and through your hifi system. Sa already at the begining everything is destroyed.
Still you can come close to a realistic perception. In any case there should be a bit of compression in classical music: the position of the microphones are much more closer to the instruments than any listener. I hope your ideal is not to hear an orchestra 2-3 meters away form the performers.

For me the best recordings of the classical music have been made in sixties. RCA Living Stereo, Mercury Living Presence and Decca Legends are good examples.
I don't have any big issues with recordings, also modern ones. Most of my x thousands of CDs play on my system with great dynamics and enough details. It is certainly a question of what system one has.
 
Yup, me too. From the 1.7s on up, classical and orchestral is superb through Maggies IME. I think the poster's 3.3's are quite an old model? The latest generation 1.7s and 3.7s are pretty stunning, especially for the price.

The value in the UK is excellent considering they are imported from the US.

The biggest plus to my ears is the scale, lack of obvious compression and hardening when played loud, plus they let the sound breathe.
 
re ATCs, what natural timber will be there when the signal gets through the array of cheap OP-amps....?

Most op amps are 'cheap' because they are produced in huge quantities, just like resistors, transistors, capacitors, and in years gone by, valves.

So following your logic, all hi-fi and recording equipment will be bad because it contains these 'cheap' things, in quantity, at least somewhere in the chain.

I don't think you've thought your argument through.
 
Once again I'm tapping into the PFM brain trust for some opinions.....

For what its worth I believe that speakers are optimized for certain types of music and the hardest of all music to reproduce in the home is large scale classical. I also believe that once you have resolved the speaker dilemma all the rest of the gear is relatively easy.

So my question is. What are the world's best speakers to bring Beethoven, Mahler and Bruckner into your living room? Not just the dynamics but also the warmth and breadth that symphonic music takes in real life.


Cheers, from Sunny Alberta


Louballoo
Acoustic Insight Focalstage floor stander with new Jordan drivers unfotunately not available for another 3/4 months.
 
Some people are having sex with rubber doll and they are claiming it is the same ;)

My god, now I know why you don't have a clue what's going on on live concerts (see your affirmations such as
Bass of big drum (1m diameter ?) or timpani is so deep, you just feel it in your body, it is probably lower than 20Hz.
Absolutely incredible dynamics
....).

Man, get off drugs and sexual excitements when you are at live concerts. It's not sex.
 


advertisement


Back
Top