| Re: Advice on assessing stereo components [message #61551 is a reply to message #61550] |
Mon, 14 December 2009 16:52   |
 |
Wayne Parham
Messages: 18726
Registered: January 2001
|
Illuminati (33rd Degree) |
|
|
I love those Technics SL1200 tables and would encourage you in that direction, sure. As for picking speakers, I suggest to follow your eays. The hardest part there, in my opinion, is what sounds good in a fifteen minute demo may not sound good at all after a few hours. So you're kind of stuck with living with your choice, but only after making the choice can you learn what living with it will be like.
One thing that may help is to study the various design philosophies. You can always evaluate a loudspeaker design based on its measurements. Of course, it can be argued that you first have to know what measurements are valid and what are less important. But I think most everyone agrees that one-axis response is a top priority, and many agree that smooth polars (off-axis) response with useful patterns and uniform directivity are very important too.
Distortion is an indirect measure of linearity, so whether or not you believe THD is important, knowing one speaker distorts less than another at a similar drive level tells you something. I prefer speakers with low second and third harmonics, as they sound cleaner and are less fatiguing. A speaker with higher distortion levels can make me feel like I have tinitis after just a couple hours but a I can listen to a very low distortion speaker through a whole weekend-long trade show and still feel refreshed.
|
|
|
|
Posting Rules
Members
Search
Help
Register
Login
Get a T-Shirt!
