Natalie -
I see that your audio passions run deep and if you thought I was arguing against in-home auditions, well that would indeed have been abhorrent advice.
I appreciate your post because it made me reflect on ways for Kthomas to more reliably extrapolate from the showroom to his listening room (see below).
Natalie, I'm not at all against in-home auditions. I'm quite comfortable delivering or shipping speakers to customers for in-home auditions and do so regularly, but 30-grand speakers are typically difficult and expensive to ship, and there is the very real risk of shipping damage. I have shipped up to 16-grand speakers for audition, but frankly it's much less trouble and expense on both our parts for the customer himself to do the travelling.
Believe it or not, I'm trying to do exactly what you suggest - namely, "get real". Realistically, how many 30-grand systems is Kthomas going to be able to take home and audition? Chances are he doesn't have local dealers for all or even most of the brands he'd like to consider. I'm trying to offer him a useful listening strategy for evaluating speakers that he will have to travel to hear.
The tests I have described will reveal a great deal about a speaker's potential, and also about its interaction with the room. Where you and I may differ is that I believe there is a useful correlation between how a speaker sounds in a showroom and how it sounds in a well set-up listening room.
Let me give you an example. Suppose you are shopping for a piano. The timbral differences between a Steinway and a Yamaha are inherent and not room-dependent, and can be reliably evaluated in showrooms (or concert halls, for that matter). If you prefer the sound of the Steinway, that preference will almost always be independent of the room the piano is in. Only in a very poor-sounding room might the room itself determine which piano sounds better, and in such a case room treatment would be called for.
Just for the record, the most expensive pair of speakers I ever purchased were bought completely unheard. I'd only gotten one word-of-mouth recommendation, and had read no reviews. But I had spent years as an amateur speaker builder and student of psychoacoustics and knew enough to be able to tell what the speakers would do from studying their website. It was not only the best purchase I ever made, but eventually my love for these speakers inspired me to cross over to the "dark side" and become an audio dealer. But needless to say, I don't recommend anyone else buy without an audition!
Kthomas -
Natalie's post caused my wheels to start turning again, so let me pass on a few more thoughts.
I've had customers transport their amplifiers, preamps, and even DAC's when they've come for an audition. You might consider doing this if you decide to travel.
I presume you're familiar with the sound of your equipment and your room, but before you go out auditioning it might be worthwhile to focus in on the sound of your room a bit. Wait until no one is home (so they don't send the men in white coats after you), and walk from room to room talking out loud and focusing on the sound of your voice. This will give you a feel for what different rooms sound like. Of course the room you want to concentrate on is your listening room. Also, do the hand-clap thing in your room, to get a feel for how hand-claps decay. These two tests will give you a good sense of the sonic signature of your room everywhere except in the bass. But since you've obviously already had speakers in there, you probably have a pretty good idea of the room's bass characteristics.
Just before you travel for an audition, re-calibrate your memory of your listening room's sonic signature by doing the talking and clapping again. Hey if you need to do it while people are there, pretend like you're talking to someone on your cell phone as you walk around the room.
When you fly on the plane (or drive a long distance in the car) to the audition, wear hearing protection. Otherwise the nerve cells at the base of the hairs in your cochlea can be slightly bruised and fatigued by the long noise exposure, and your hearing acuity may be degraded.
In the dealer's showroom, before you begin to listen to music, do the talking and clapping tests. This is just so you get an idea of how comparable that room's sonic signature is to your room. For example, in an overdamped showroom the highs might be a bit softened, but by knowing in advance the different sonic signatures of the two rooms, you can make an intelligent allowance and evaluation.
Also, if you have gone to the trouble and expense of travelling for an audition, you have every right to ask the dealer to re-position the speakers (within reason) to approximate the way they will be set up in your room. Indeed, hopefully you have discussed your room situation with the dealer in advance. In my experience the room is usually among the first things brought up, either by the customer or myself.
Natalie's right in an ideal world - listening in your own room with your own gear is more reliable than listening in a dealer's showroom. The premise of my posts here is that not every speaker genuinely worthy of your consideration is going to be readily available for an in-home audition, and even if they all were, you'd still want to reliably narrow the field to the top two or three contenders before going to the effort to get them into your home.
I see that your audio passions run deep and if you thought I was arguing against in-home auditions, well that would indeed have been abhorrent advice.
I appreciate your post because it made me reflect on ways for Kthomas to more reliably extrapolate from the showroom to his listening room (see below).
Natalie, I'm not at all against in-home auditions. I'm quite comfortable delivering or shipping speakers to customers for in-home auditions and do so regularly, but 30-grand speakers are typically difficult and expensive to ship, and there is the very real risk of shipping damage. I have shipped up to 16-grand speakers for audition, but frankly it's much less trouble and expense on both our parts for the customer himself to do the travelling.
Believe it or not, I'm trying to do exactly what you suggest - namely, "get real". Realistically, how many 30-grand systems is Kthomas going to be able to take home and audition? Chances are he doesn't have local dealers for all or even most of the brands he'd like to consider. I'm trying to offer him a useful listening strategy for evaluating speakers that he will have to travel to hear.
The tests I have described will reveal a great deal about a speaker's potential, and also about its interaction with the room. Where you and I may differ is that I believe there is a useful correlation between how a speaker sounds in a showroom and how it sounds in a well set-up listening room.
Let me give you an example. Suppose you are shopping for a piano. The timbral differences between a Steinway and a Yamaha are inherent and not room-dependent, and can be reliably evaluated in showrooms (or concert halls, for that matter). If you prefer the sound of the Steinway, that preference will almost always be independent of the room the piano is in. Only in a very poor-sounding room might the room itself determine which piano sounds better, and in such a case room treatment would be called for.
Just for the record, the most expensive pair of speakers I ever purchased were bought completely unheard. I'd only gotten one word-of-mouth recommendation, and had read no reviews. But I had spent years as an amateur speaker builder and student of psychoacoustics and knew enough to be able to tell what the speakers would do from studying their website. It was not only the best purchase I ever made, but eventually my love for these speakers inspired me to cross over to the "dark side" and become an audio dealer. But needless to say, I don't recommend anyone else buy without an audition!
Kthomas -
Natalie's post caused my wheels to start turning again, so let me pass on a few more thoughts.
I've had customers transport their amplifiers, preamps, and even DAC's when they've come for an audition. You might consider doing this if you decide to travel.
I presume you're familiar with the sound of your equipment and your room, but before you go out auditioning it might be worthwhile to focus in on the sound of your room a bit. Wait until no one is home (so they don't send the men in white coats after you), and walk from room to room talking out loud and focusing on the sound of your voice. This will give you a feel for what different rooms sound like. Of course the room you want to concentrate on is your listening room. Also, do the hand-clap thing in your room, to get a feel for how hand-claps decay. These two tests will give you a good sense of the sonic signature of your room everywhere except in the bass. But since you've obviously already had speakers in there, you probably have a pretty good idea of the room's bass characteristics.
Just before you travel for an audition, re-calibrate your memory of your listening room's sonic signature by doing the talking and clapping again. Hey if you need to do it while people are there, pretend like you're talking to someone on your cell phone as you walk around the room.
When you fly on the plane (or drive a long distance in the car) to the audition, wear hearing protection. Otherwise the nerve cells at the base of the hairs in your cochlea can be slightly bruised and fatigued by the long noise exposure, and your hearing acuity may be degraded.
In the dealer's showroom, before you begin to listen to music, do the talking and clapping tests. This is just so you get an idea of how comparable that room's sonic signature is to your room. For example, in an overdamped showroom the highs might be a bit softened, but by knowing in advance the different sonic signatures of the two rooms, you can make an intelligent allowance and evaluation.
Also, if you have gone to the trouble and expense of travelling for an audition, you have every right to ask the dealer to re-position the speakers (within reason) to approximate the way they will be set up in your room. Indeed, hopefully you have discussed your room situation with the dealer in advance. In my experience the room is usually among the first things brought up, either by the customer or myself.
Natalie's right in an ideal world - listening in your own room with your own gear is more reliable than listening in a dealer's showroom. The premise of my posts here is that not every speaker genuinely worthy of your consideration is going to be readily available for an in-home audition, and even if they all were, you'd still want to reliably narrow the field to the top two or three contenders before going to the effort to get them into your home.