The Speaker Presentation Trap.
13/11/2023 21:03
audioflair.co.uk
choicehifi.com
I have always argued that the voice is the sound we recognise the best because we are most attuned to it from our mother’s voice as a baby and onwards through life. Tones 0f voice, nuances being important to gauge mood, actors with distinctive delivery etc.
Consequently, I have always been beyond fussy about voice and the midrange. E.g. Croft amps, classic BBC speakers.
Whether a drum should sound tighter (very venue dependent) or a synthesiser more focussed in the original recording is neither here nor there if voices do not sound simply superb IMO.
For this reason, my speakers over the years have had to excel in this area. The V or U shaped frequency response curve seems absurd to me especially if you listen to vocal music…
Also, the prominent bass it requires is going to sound slower with more overhang than was intended. I prefer a fast, leading edge bass without the bloom.
And yet, I have been a little stumped lately how some recent speaker designs in shows have seemingly clearer, better defined midrange instruments than my favourite speakers but inferior, more synthetic-sounding vocals!
Then it dawned on me, when I was studying some speaker crossovers, that often the tweeter is tipped-up to give ‘better definition’. One demonstrator pair had 3 ohms less resistance on the tweeter than the original crossover diagram to impress the gullible. This ‘improves’ midrange definition and attack but tends to make voices sound less real, more robotic!
A manufacturer’s trick which banks on impressiveness over naturalness in vocal tone.
I have always argued that the voice is the sound we recognise the best because we are most attuned to it from our mother’s voice as a baby and onwards through life. Tones 0f voice, nuances being important to gauge mood, actors with distinctive delivery etc. Consequently, I have always been beyond fussy about voice and the … Read more…