The High End continues to be dominated by planar speakers? Really? What is that observation based upon - other than wishful thinking that is. Maggies - which I call Magoos - are all DOA - no life, highly colored, homogenize all signal to sound the same, no bass, and NO dynamics. The darn things cannot image - no matter how they are setup - a really cheap speaker that sounds really cheap.
Electrostatic speakers? Can be quite nice - but again they struggle with producing bass - unless one uses a hybrid approach such as Martin Logan - and while the BIG SOUND LABS can produce bass they darn things are as large as a barn door - and really visually are over powering. Hardly worth having - unless you live in a barn of a room. Then when you consider the rising impedance of a 'stat you have a situation that can end up with highly colored sound - as though the tweeter is at times dead - and at other times somewhat working. Good midrange, acceptable imaging, nice soundstage - but the rest? Missing in Action.
For the record - planar speakers don't dominate anything - they are niche product at best and their adherents are all zealots with very selective hearing.
I am absolutely a lover of Planar drivers, from my Magnepans to my Infinitys.
the best speakers I've ever heard were all or partial planars, either magnetic or electrostatic.
Are these suggested colorations in the recording process intentional or unintentional? Can you listen to a piece of music and know definitely if the coloration was done on purpose or accidentally?Ditto .. I've always thought that it's probably speed that they have over cones .. they're really light and quick ..and a coherent plane .. I know that I for one, appreciate their accuracy in the middle ranges !!
A truly accurate speaker is hard to find .. and just when you think that maybe your speaker is colored, you put on a truly well recorded piece. The music comes alive, and you realize that what you've been hearing are colorations in the recording process ..
Nice to know, Reddog, that you won't be bidding against me on my next planar purchase...For the record - planar speakers are niche product at best and their adherents are all zealots with very selective hearing.
I disagree. My speakers do all of genres of music equally well as doing HT equally well. I don't want to own a speaker that only excels in a couple of genres. This tells me that the speaker designer did not perform due diligence in their design of the speaker.A lot of what speaker we prefer is based on what we listen to.
I know for jazz, its hard to beat a good set of smaller two ways and a
50 wpc tube amp. Try that with 70's rock, and you have a massive
FAIL. Pick a good all rounder, and you find things that fall short
on many recordings. A $$$ speaker might handle the duty better,
OR may not. I had 7 sets of speakers at one time. I now have 1 set
And am trying not to go nuts again. I do however still have 4 sets of
Headphones (go figure) . There is no perfect speaker, just ones we can live
with within the budget.
Try a call to Vertek/ XTC...The Guy is a genius. He could set you up with better parts and more intelligent crossover design. He has been in the business for almost fifty years and there no one better in the business . His name is Guy Veralrud and is in Grass Valley Calif. He has designed the best speakers in the world OEM. Fact!wished
I disagree with your assessment. Tolerances have become much tighter, advancement in materials have ushered in better quality drivers with far less variance in their production runs than were possible back then.The best changes have been in the quality of the drivers and crossovers. One could take an older top end model and redo the crossover and blow any new speaker away. The reason is That with few exceptions. .the quality of the materials used for the drivers were better back when rare earth materials were more readily available. There are several excellent company's offering the ability to redo the speakers. The difference is astonishing.
I'm finding it very easy to be happy with even fifty year old speakers. Maybe I just don't want to spend the big money for the new state of the art.I reckon I'd have to spend a WHOLE lot of $$ to equal the satisfying sound of my 30 year old Infinity RS6's and their EMIT tweeters.