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Thread: Considering Ascends... dumb question..

  1. #1
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    Feb 2005
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    Default Considering Ascends... dumb question..

    Hello!

    Nice friendly forum y'all have here!

    One quick question, When and Why would I not want to use accurate loudspeakers?

    Sounds silly I know, but why wouldn't all loudspeakers be designed to be very accurate and are there certain times I wouldn't want an accurate loudspeaker?

    -just a bit confused

  2. #2
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    I don't know why anyone wouldn't want an accurate speaker.

    It isn't easy to design a speaker with as flat of a response curve as Ascends have. That is why you will find so few.

    Some like the highs "tipped up" some like the mid-range emphasised and others like the bass accentuated.

  3. #3
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    I agree with Quinn that all loudspeakers should be as accurate as possible. Personally, all the golden eared audiophile terms like "lush, warm midrange" and "slightly rolled-off highs that sound like my (insert expensive brand name) tube amp" don't mean anything to me. It's mostly fluff. Wait, I misspoke......I think it's all fluff.
    - EVH III

  4. #4
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    It also depends on what you mean by 'accurate'. There are many speakers out there that are very good at reproducing minute details in music. So good that poorly recorded/produced music sounds quite bad. This is where someone has to pick their favorite spot in the trade-off spectrum (this is sometimes refered to as how 'forgiving' or 'detailed' a speaker is). Some will sacrifice the sound of their poorly recorded music so that their more well recorded items sound better, others would rather not. Placing speakers on that spectrum is difficult (partially because there are a lot of factors in play). I think it's safe to say that Ascends do a better job reproducing details than most typical consumer speakers, but not as well as many expensive high-end ones. Putting a finer point on it requires comparison with other speakers with your ears.

  5. #5
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    Perth, Australia
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    yo deftone, w'sup my haggo free-angler choco?

    One quick question, When and Why would I not want to use accurate loudspeakers?
    if you had a big steaming pile of BAD SOFTWARE. i.e. a lot of poorly recorded music, badly mastered dvd's, badly produced music/dvds. you get the picture. 'accurate' speakers (thumbs up for the ascends) are renowned for revealing every flaw and lack of detail in such bad material.. so my opinion is that the only feasible reason one could not want accurate speakers was if one wanted to never listen to good recordings on one's speakers.

    hope that helped

  6. #6
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    Just to follow up a bit on what Bamputin said... I've found that, compared to my previous speakers (which, admittedly, were no great shakes), the spectrum of fidelity in my music collection becomes *much* wider and more apparent. By that I mean the difference between a DVD-A, an HDCD, a 24bit remaster, a decently recorded 16bit standard CD, a low-fi hackjob, and a MP3, is truly discernible, to the point where I really don't want to listen to anything that doesn't do justice to the Ascends. This has changed my listening habits pretty dramatically, for the better I believe, but if your screen name bears any relation to your music tastes, Deftone, you may find yourself wincing at the hyper compression so rampant in Nu-Metal recordings these days... (e.g. my copy of the new Janes Addiction album stays in my car for this reason)

    Just my $.02 (you may want to PM Metalaaron, though, to see what he thinks)

  7. #7
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    Wow, another Jane's Addiction fan!!!!! I thought I was the only one left. Cool.
    - EVH III

  8. #8
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    Quote Originally Posted by Eddie Horton
    Wow, another Jane's Addiction fan!!!!! I thought I was the only one left. Cool.

    The first two albums are still their best. I don't care for the wall of sound style of the present album at all

  9. #9
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    Quote Originally Posted by Quinn
    The first two albums are still their best. I don't care for the wall of sound style of the present album at all
    Yeah... that's kinda what I mean by compression. No room left for dynamics at all, and the CD sounds like an MP3. But maybe we better start our own Jane's thread, 'cause we're hijacking this one...

  10. #10
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    Feb 2005
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    thanks for the responses.

    So if I understand correctly, for older recordings a less accurate speaker might be preferred but for newer better recordings accurate speakers are preferred?

    I have a lot of older recordings even vinyl, guess I just have to listen for myself

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