How Speakers Make Sound

[Vladimir]

Oh, and don't you think that the owner of Harbeth might be somewhat biased towards more expensive speakers?

How much did your amp cost compared to your speakers?

£6K Vs £4.5K (Inc stands).

You could swap your amp for a far cheaper one with the same power output and it's likely you'll hear little difference, but do the same with your speakers and the difference would be far greater. Speakers are always the weakest link in any system. Compare the abberations of frequency response and distortion produced by any expensive speaker to that from, say the keenly priced Behringer A500 amplifier and you should be able to see the point.

Have you ever heard a Devialet - or know what it does to a speaker with SAM enabled?

That is DSP that comes before the DAC and the amplifier, we are discussing amplifiers. If you are in awe what properly implemented DSP can do, that is a different topic altogether.

 

[TrevC]

Oh, and don't you think that the owner of Harbeth might be somewhat biased towards more expensive speakers?

How much did your amp cost compared to your speakers?

£6K Vs £4.5K (Inc stands).

You could swap your amp for a far cheaper one with the same power output and it's likely you'll hear little difference, but do the same with your speakers and the difference would be far greater. Speakers are always the weakest link in any system. Compare the abberations of frequency response and distortion produced by any expensive speaker to that from, say the keenly priced Behringer A500 amplifier and you should be able to see the point.

Have you ever heard a Devialet - or know what it does to a speaker with SAM enabled?

I also have a Unison Research S8 Valve Amp which cost £5.5K some years ago and it sounds very different to the Devialet using the same source and speakers.

What has that to do with anything? My point is that loudspeakers that perform well are expensive, electronics is cheap. You appear to be making the point that you are seriously rich.

 

[TrevC]

I have an antimode on the sub, works very well but I won't use it as a red herring.

 

[Infiniteloop]

Oh, and don't you think that the owner of Harbeth might be somewhat biased towards more expensive speakers?

How much did your amp cost compared to your speakers?

£6K Vs £4.5K (Inc stands).

You could swap your amp for a far cheaper one with the same power output and it's likely you'll hear little difference, but do the same with your speakers and the difference would be far greater. Speakers are always the weakest link in any system. Compare the abberations of frequency response and distortion produced by any expensive speaker to that from, say the keenly priced Behringer A500 amplifier and you should be able to see the point.

Have you ever heard a Devialet - or know what it does to a speaker with SAM enabled?

That is DSP that comes before the DAC and the amplifier, we are discussing amplifiers. If you are in awe what properly implemented DSP can do, that is a different topic altogether.

Firstly, the Devialet sounds great without SAM.

Secondly, with SAM on there is a leap in overall SQ. The DSP implementation with a Devialet is dependent on the speaker you are using since SAM is calibrated to each particular speaker brand and model. Effectively, the character of the Devialet's output is matched to the scientifically measured performance of each speaker, this is done to control the speaker more effectively and therefore is still relevant here.

 

[Infiniteloop]

Oh, and don't you think that the owner of Harbeth might be somewhat biased towards more expensive speakers?

How much did your amp cost compared to your speakers?

£6K Vs £4.5K (Inc stands).

You could swap your amp for a far cheaper one with the same power output and it's likely you'll hear little difference, but do the same with your speakers and the difference would be far greater. Speakers are always the weakest link in any system. Compare the abberations of frequency response and distortion produced by any expensive speaker to that from, say the keenly priced Behringer A500 amplifier and you should be able to see the point.

Have you ever heard a Devialet - or know what it does to a speaker with SAM enabled?

I also have a Unison Research S8 Valve Amp which cost £5.5K some years ago and it sounds very different to the Devialet using the same source and speakers.

What has that to do with anything? My point is that loudspeakers that perform well are expensive, electronics is cheap. You appear to be making the point that you are seriously rich.

Hardly. I'm just reiterating what I said earlier, that in my experience, I have found that Amplifiers are more important than speakers to the overall sound of a system.

Of course, speakers have to be of a decent quality, relative to the Amplifier, and it's also about synergy between the Amp and speakers.

Over the years I have had Amps by Musical Fidelity, Audiolab, Sony, Alchemist, Unison Research and now Devialet - and they all sounded completely different to each other.

I have also had speakers by Monitor Audio, KEF, Sonus Faber, Martin Logan and Focal - and again they all sound different.

Whenever I have had a less expensive speaker on the end of a more expensive Amp, the Sound Quality has always been better, - not the other way around. I have also found that generally the more you pay, the better the results, subject to the law of diminishing returns.....

I'm sorry if my real-world experiences conflict with your view about speakers.

After much listening to many brands of speaker and Amp over the years, my view now is that the best SQ comes from essentially neutral sounding components and that is why I currently listen to the Devialet with a pair of Focals.

I also think it would be nonsense to pair a £139 Amp with £4.5K speakers.

 

[TrevC]

Oh, and don't you think that the owner of Harbeth might be somewhat biased towards more expensive speakers?

How much did your amp cost compared to your speakers?

£6K Vs £4.5K (Inc stands).

You could swap your amp for a far cheaper one with the same power output and it's likely you'll hear little difference, but do the same with your speakers and the difference would be far greater. Speakers are always the weakest link in any system. Compare the abberations of frequency response and distortion produced by any expensive speaker to that from, say the keenly priced Behringer A500 amplifier and you should be able to see the point.

Have you ever heard a Devialet - or know what it does to a speaker with SAM enabled?

That is DSP that comes before the DAC and the amplifier, we are discussing amplifiers. If you are in awe what properly implemented DSP can do, that is a different topic altogether.

Firstly, the Devialet sounds great without SAM.

Secondly, with SAM on there is a leap in overall SQ. The DSP implementation with a Devialet is dependent on the speaker you are using since SAM is calibrated to each particular speaker brand and model. Effectively, the character of the Devialet's output is matched to the scientifically measured performance of each speaker, this is done to control the speaker more effectively and therefore is still relevant here.

It would work even better if it also calibrated itself to your room, like this does. Works with any speaker too.

http://www.dspeaker.com/en/products/20-dual-core.shtml

 

[TrevC]

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I also think it would be nonsense to pair a £139 Amp with £4.5K speakers.

If it produces the same power at the same distortion as a far more expensive amplifier it isn't a nonsense at all. It does look horrible, I'll grant you. Needs a burka.

http://matrixhifi.com/ENG_contenedor_ppec.htm