HFT, HFTX, HFT 2.0, two each per speaker; and DBA.
What in your mind represents real technological advancement.
To be a real advancement the technology must improve the sound quality. Just extending the bass or the high end can't be call an advancement if it doesn't sound better. If the bass goes " lower " but is muddy or the highs go higher but are " bright and forward and irritating " then that does not improve the listening experience. So the question is what improvements make a speaker more enjoyable to listen to.
52 responses Add your response
Lower distortion. Loudspeakers often distort hundreds if not thousands of times more than the rest of the audio chain put together. They can suffer from box distortion and / or breakup distortion. In a perfect world one driver could effortlessly cover the entire 20 Hz - 20 kHz. And the cone/ driver material would be infinitely strong and weigh next to nothing. We really need another Ed Villchur type breakthrough like the one back in 1954. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edgar_Villchur Or failing that, perhaps some form of Digital Signal Processing trickery can help make the sonic illusion feel more real. I can't help but notice that live coverage of a Formula 1 race on television now looks remarkably similar to that of a PlayStation 4 game! At some point on the road to virtual reality they might even become indistinguishable. |
You don't need to change the speaker. Use my Schroeder Method of Interconnect Placement and hear for the first time what a speaker can sound like if the link hasn't been screwed up by an industry using a poor link (single IC) for decades. See the thread on the Cable forum that bears my name, and read my articles at Dagogo.com; the first is the Audio Blast: Schroeder Method of Interconnect Placement, and the second is a brief review of the Audio Sensibility Y cables. The Schroeder Method is a do at your own risk activity, though no harm has come to equipment to date, and perhaps there never will be. But, it is not yet vetted for all systems (Concern has been voiced by some over use with class D amps). If you have a concern check with your manufacturers. I am not interested in answering questions from people who have not done their homework. Please read the articles and posts on the thread before contacting me. I believe all pertinent info will be provided. Imo, the Schroeder Method is far beyond most suggestions you will have presented on this thread. It has the capacity to transform the performance of practically any passive speaker (active speakers will lose out on this, as they eschew external links; too bad, because they could be improved dramatically). I have no interest in arguing my recommendation. |
Definitely DSP. Room Perfect, as just mentioned with Lyngdorf, Anthem Room Correction, Dirac. To be done well, room correction often takes a lot of processing power. We're already starting to see the big tech companies (Google/Amazon) incorporate DSP into their cheap speakers. The Google Home Max has this. As time moves on, I suspect this will become the next frontier for better sound for audiophiles AND the masses. It's often said the elephant in the room IS the room. I bet/hope we will all soon have the benefit of Google's cloud servers crunching out the numbers for us and applying DSP room correction. |
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Soundsreal I was not harsh just 180 out of phase with one way broadcasters.... speaking of driver breakup, I could not agree more with Ralph, we are just now getting affordable ( if $50k of capital investment is affordable for small speaker manufacturers? ) laser scanning tools to show driver out of phase behavior, which is 100% trash |
Breakthrough for me was giving up my multi component rack of separates and buying a Peachtree Nova 300. Built-in superb DAC, unprecedented specs (111db SNR) 300WPC @ 8ohms, stable from 4>16ohm, USB and optical inputs all in one small beautiful component. Best smooth yet punchy sound ever, my component buying days are over! |
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The advancement is here but is yet to be fully utilized. For some time now it’s been possible to accurately correct all dynamic speaker distortions, in both time and frequency domain, but thus far high end speaker manufacturers have resisted from releasing a magic correction box that would eliminate distortion - with pre-distortion. Reasons are obvious I suppose; Specifically, money. When people discovered that a dsp corrected (relatively) cheap speaker sounded indistinguishable from a corrected expensive speaker........ |
mark There have been tremendous improvements in DAC's and I think many recording companies are now realizing that they need to record with a higher level of integrity Not just more bass but cleaner, more focus, better separation of voices and instruments, better sound depth and width. I like DAC's but I have not started streaming with Tidal. How is the music selection? |
arty To your point you might take a look at this company, and check out their technology. http://wilson-benesch.com/geometry-series/ |
+1 markalarson I would add that the 5g networks and ever increasing bandwidth/ data transfer of digital information will allow easy streaming of large volumes of information/data. MQA gets around this a bit, but once this happens full uncompressed music of the highest resolution will be streamed. Heck very few new automobiles offer CD players because of streaming and I think that will be the wave of the next decade. |
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To me the continual refinement of a good design over time, instead of pursuing the latest, greatest notion simply for the pursuit of being first, has the best results. The latter is good for marketing. The former, done properly, results in a more refined solution. This is not just applicable to audio. I own multiple products from disparate industries, each of which has honed their offerings literally over many iterations and years. Each of them are leaders in their fields. |
I think a real advancement is the placement of the renderer in the DAC thus allowing a very simple file to be sent via options such as wifi to be sent to the DAC and then opened and played. The significance it seems would be that the music rendered is not required to be sent over the internet/wifi to the DAC rather simply the data. Any thoughts on this? |
I have a pair of Vertex in Burl Walnut finish from W.B. Other equipment: Pair of EKSC Eagle 11' monoblocks on Acapella Isolation Platforms & Acapella Couplers/Footers Sutherland Engineering N1 Preamplifier VPI HW19 modified with parts from Analog Emporium (George Merrill) RCC Plater Mat, 4-60 Durometer Decoupling Feet, with George's proprietary spindle bearing lubricant Ortofon TA-110 Tonearm w/ Cadenza Blue phono cartridge Custom made W7 Silent PC w/ M-Audio Delta 2496 PCI Soundcard for all digital signals Kimber Bifocal Speaker Cables 1.83M Custom Interconnects 5 Feet Length More info than you probably wanted but it is incredible. Cheers, perazzi |
What about the inexplicable (or simply not explicked) advances from people like Ted Denny and Tim Mrock? Read the breathless endorsements and accolades from the faithful followers of these obvious geniuses and you can see that a mere fuse, piles of "special" tiny aluminum dots possibly bombarded by quantum mojo, magnetic pads, or a $5,000 fuse box enhancer will simply make your rig transform into something you barely are worthy of owning. Nano things...carcinogenic graphene paste...directional fuses...are there still some people out there who question this stuff as illogical marketing scams preying on the sadly gullible? For shame! |
wolf_garcia "some people out there who question this stuff as illogical marketing scams preying on the sadly gullible?" Who comprises the sadly gullible is it those who have actually acquired, installed, and tested these modifications, accessories, and treatments or those who’s faith-based beliefs, notions, and convictions inform them that no such experimentation, inquiry, or testing is necessary, required, or desireable before making statements, pronouncements, and declarations about their worth, value, and function? |
geoffkait"Plus the CD vibrates and flutters like crazy. Sorry, the laser servo mechanism is useless." If you're CD servo is useless there is something, defective, faulty, or misaligned in your CD player component otherwise the CD would not track at all. |
It would in reality be physically impossible for the laser servo mechanism to keep up with the deviations of the laser from the nanoscale data spiral given (1) the extremely small width of the data track and (2) the lightspeed of the laser signal and (3) the extremely high speed of the CD rotation rpm. If you were able to view the spinning CD you would see it’s wobbling and fluttered like crazy. It doesn’t take a brain surgeon to figure out the servo mechanism is too slow to be able to correct the dynamic motion of the CD. It’s like trying to ride a bull like Bodacious or Widow-maker. 🐂 The laser servo and Reed Solomon Error Correction codes are two of the biggest scams ever perpetrated on a gullible naive and unskeptical public. |
wolf_garcia Your subversive anti-fuse "rant" for lack of a better word, has really set me off. Fuses are one of the most important "links" to more realistic audio, invented by none other then William Bickford in 1831, a land mark year to celebrate audio....you have blown my fuse and that is not easy to do......it is a slow blow 20 amp, recently upgraded with audiophile circuits. If you have any respect for William Bickford please retract your inflammatory and not totally accurate review. Thank you in advance......not prematurely I am sure. |
Subversive...yeah man! I'd like to hear comments from others on this thread as to why they DON'T embrace the hyperbolic Magic Tweak "rants" for lack of a better word...wait, here's a better word: Rodomontade...(what's another word for "thesaurus?") Plenty of things you tweak yer gear heap with actually do work and the more secure and rational designers are generally happy to explain why, but the rise of the salesman driven world of the "I don't care how my $500 magnetic place mat works, it just does" Faith Based fan should rankle anyone who respects at least a modicum of logic. People have actually claimed that a fuse mounted backwards makes their system sound "out of phase." No, it doesn't, it never could, and to claim it does tosses credibility out the window. Subversive? Only to those with the fertile (and often fertilized) imagination of the easily misled who crave a cult that warmly invites them to drop their scruples and join in...with a 30 day return policy. |