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Thread: Advice on a budget!

  1. #21
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    That's just it.....for some manufacturers, the goal is not accuracy.
    -curtis

  2. #22
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    What is interesting is Ascend has always seemed to strive for accuracy, and providing FR graphs of the speakers. Now after six years, it seems as though that some competitors are now following the same path. Although FR is not the whole ball of wax, it is definitely a nice trend.
    -curtis

  3. #23
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    Quote Originally Posted by curtis
    That's just it.....for some manufacturers, the goal is not accuracy.
    I agree and I stay away from manufacturers that do not, as a goal, attempt to reproduce, as best they can, within a certain price point, the music as it was live in front of an audience or in a sound studio.

  4. #24
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    Looks like my thread has been hijacked
    Anyway, i've just won a pair of Paradigm Atoms on an online auction, so i'll wait till they arrive and see if they're up to scratch. Looks like ascend won't be getting my money in the near future, regardless of whether their speakers have been designed for accuracy or not. AYBABTU.

  5. #25
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    Quote Originally Posted by rajacat
    In my opinion, speaker manufactures should try to reproduce the music exactly as it was originally recorded and not try to "improve" it in any way. Of course this is an ideal which is impossible to achieve but to deliberately introduce affectations to make it more palatable to certain listeners is unethical. So the studio monitors, acoustics, extraneous noises, headphone characteristics and any other influences on upon the original recording should be reproduced as accurately as possible by any speakers that claim to be of audiophile quality. "Whatever works best for you" is trite because it ignores the artists intentions and surely the artist must give his approval to the final master after the sound engineers are finished with it.
    In that case we should introduce legislation to outlaw tone controls, EQ settings, speaker placement and room treatment mods as well---any of those things could end up violating "the artist's intentions."

  6. #26
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    Quote Originally Posted by jargon
    Looks like my thread has been hijacked
    Anyway, i've just won a pair of Paradigm Atoms on an online auction, so i'll wait till they arrive and see if they're up to scratch. Looks like ascend won't be getting my money in the near future, regardless of whether their speakers have been designed for accuracy or not. AYBABTU.
    There's a thread on the AVS Forum where somebody did a huge 4-6 speaker in-home comparison which included the Ascends, Atoms, and Paradigm Studio speakers...that might be interesting for you.

  7. #27
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    Quote Originally Posted by Eddie
    In that case we should introduce legislation to outlaw tone controls, EQ settings, speaker placement and room treatment mods as well---any of those things could end up violating "the artist's intentions."
    I think you miss my main point. Speaker manufactures should strive to reproduces music exactly as it is "live". This is an attitude that raises the music to prominence not some perceived marketing strategy. The speaker buyer will then receive a neutral speaker which gives them a base point from which they can tweak according to room acoustics, amp characteristics, individual hearing differences and numerous other influences on the perceived sound quality.

  8. #28
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    Quote Originally Posted by rajacat
    I think you miss my main point. Speaker manufactures should strive to reproduces music exactly as it is "live". This is an attitude that raises the music to prominence not some perceived marketing strategy. The speaker buyer will then receive a neutral speaker which gives them a base point from which they can tweak according to room acoustics, amp characteristics, individual hearing differences and numerous other influences on the perceived sound quality.
    That's great...IN THEORY.

    In reality, nobody really knows what any particular piece of music "really" sounds like LIVE, unless you are lucky enough to have been sitting 5 feet away from Norah Jones singing a capella on an unamplified piano in some little cafe somewhere.

    The live music most people hear at concerts has been amplified which means both the amplification and the concert speakers can color the output. That's not even taking into account the room acoustics of the performing venue.

    IMHO the only people who are even remotely qualified to judge what sounds like "the real thing" or not are professional musicians who are in close proximity to voices and instruments on a constant basis.

    And there's only so much you can do to modify a speaker's sound anyways. I could play with my tone settings and speaker placement and room treatments all day long but I doubt I'd ever be able to get my Ascend 340s to sound like Cerwin Vegas for example. (Not that I'd ever WANT them to, mind you. )

  9. #29
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    Quote Originally Posted by Eddie
    That's great...IN THEORY.

    In reality, nobody really knows what any particular piece of music "really" sounds like LIVE, unless you are lucky enough to have been sitting 5 feet away from Norah Jones singing a capella on an unamplified piano in some little cafe somewhere.

    The live music most people hear at concerts has been amplified which means both the amplification and the concert speakers can color the output. That's not even taking into account the room acoustics of the performing venue.

    IMHO the only people who are even remotely qualified to judge what sounds like "the real thing" or not are professional musicians who are in close proximity to voices and instruments on a constant basis.

    And there's only so much you can do to modify a speaker's sound anyways. I could play with my tone settings and speaker placement and room treatments all day long but I doubt I'd ever be able to get my Ascend 340s to sound like Cerwin Vegas for example. (Not that I'd ever WANT them to, mind you. )
    Using your logic, I suppose really doesn't matter who designs the speakers because it is all subjective and there is no such thing as distortion because what may be distorted to one person might seem very acceptable to another. No such thing as a vocalists being out of key because its all subjective and we all have different ears. Why bother to tune your guitar? If it sounds good to you that's all that matters. I think it is the mission of speaker designers to bring music to the public that transmits, as closely as technicaly possible, the musicians vision. Of course, the audio designers has to make a living too.

    Of course amplifiers and audience ambiance will affect the end product but aren't their influence on the CD anyway therefore more information for the speakers to reproduce?

  10. #30
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    Quote Originally Posted by rajacat
    Using your logic, I suppose really doesn't matter who designs the speakers because it is all subjective and there is no such thing as distortion because what may be distorted to one person might seem very acceptable to another. No such thing as a vocalists being out of key because its all subjective and we all have different ears. Why bother to tune your guitar? If it sounds good to you that's all that matters. I think it is the mission of speaker designers to bring music to the public that transmits, as closely as technicaly possible, the musicians vision. Of course, the audio designers has to make a living too.
    Of course amplifiers and audience ambiance will affect the end product but aren't their influence on the CD anyway therefore more information for the speakers to reproduce?
    You're taking what Eddie is saying to the point of absurdity and then using the absurd to buttress your position. I understand what Eddie is saying and it's not what you have extrapolated.

    David

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