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Are your speakers designed for your listening taste and hearing ability?

It occurs to me that speaker manufacturer’s and designers in many cases design their speaker ( and its subsequent sound) to the expected ’typical’ buyer. IME, a lot of high end speakers are designed to appeal to the consumer who has a certain amount of ’hearing loss’ due to age! This might sound odd, but I think that there are a lot of a’philes who have reached a certain age and have now two things going for them..1) A large enough wallet that the expense of the speaker isn’t really the issue and 2) a certain amount of high frequency hearing loss. This circumstance leads to designers and manufacturer’s bringing out speakers that are a) bright, b) inaccurate in their high frequency reproduction and c) not accurate in their reproduction across the frequency spectrum ( some may be tipped up in the highs, as an example). My impression is that a certain technology catches on--like the metal dome ( beryllium or titanium, as an example) and the manufacturer sees a certain public acceptance of this technology from the --shall we say-- less abled in the high frequency hearing dept, and the rest is as they say...history. Your thoughts?
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Showing 1 response by larry5729

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larry5729
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I must have listened to 30 speakers before I purchased mine.  I almost purchased a pair of Martin Logan Motion 60's.  I went back to the dealer three times and the last time there I listened for two hours.  Thank God I did because I discovered I would develop ear fatigue from the ribbon tweeters.

I do wish there would be a way for consumers to listen to speakers in their homes before they purchase them.  In my case, they sounded much better at home.

I think it is very important to spend at least two hours listening to a pair of speakers before purchasing them.  It is also important to play some of the music you like to play.

I do think adding a pair of REL S3 SHO subwoofers transformed my system.  I really like their high level connection because they act like additional woofers to extend the bass smoothly.  They are tricky to dial in.  I was surprised by lowering the volume to about 40% solved the boomy bass problem.  I also noticed how they took some of the load off my tower speakers to help them play better in the mid driver and tweeters.  Voices sure sound better like Diana Krall.  I would imagine others have noticed this.  Lucky for me, my room acoustics are so good.
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