Quote:
Originally Posted by MtnHam
Thank you E-Stat for speaking up. I was starting to think there were no other Sound Lab enthusiasts on AA, hard to believe considering the exceptional quality of many members systems.
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Given the incredible diversity in the design and performance of speakers, it seems there are fairly few folks for whom coherency is a top priority. As for me, I have always been extremely sensitive to that sound characteristic. I will never forget the first time I heard the Dayton-Wright XG-8 MKI. While they had a somewhat rolled off top and not the best first octave bass, they immediately sounded real to me in a way I had never heard before. The sound field didn't vary in frequency specific patterns like most speakers do.
In 1980, I heard the massive IRS system at Sea Cliff and was quite impressed with the dynamics and apparent size of the sound field they could generate. Yet to these ears, it didn't speak with a single voice. A piano didn't quite sound like a single instrument. Even multi-way stats having frequency specific panels just don't provide the level of coherence to me that true full range designs do where they simply disappear. I am not a fan of the hybrids for that reason.
When I met Dr. West in Chicago, he shared a story about himself. Apparently, he suffered a kind of hearing damage some time ago. Not the typical loss of sensitivity or age based frequency range loss, but the ability to process the so called "Haas Effect". In a crowded room with many people talking, he has difficulty singling out an individual conversation. Similarly, with most multi-way designs our brains must combine blocks of frequencies each exhibiting different patterns of directivity, comb filtering, distortion and phase response to recreate a musical event. Single driver designs, on the other hand, don't require your brain to do this subliminal background processing.
To each his own. I have found my favorite dance partner with the Sound Lab approach exhibiting unmatched coherence, wonderful neutrality, wide bandwidth along with consistent and wide directivity.