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DSP and stores - Anyone else get the feeling they might be sweetening?

One thing I’ve been thinking about especially now that I’m streaming and have EQ at my fingertips, is how easy it is for a dealer to sweeten a mix. That is, alter speakers to sound differently in the store. One dealer would not let me play my own music, at all. That was a big red flag. I didn’t have anything troublesome, just some Diana Krall or something like that.

Another made my ears hurt with speakers others tell me are quite neutral.

In another store the speakers were wired out of phase and painfully bright. In this case it could have been in the speaker setup as they had external resistors.

Anyone else have these kind of quirky experiences in a shop lately?


Best,

E
erik_squires

Showing 1 response by gdnrbob

gdnrbob
4,409 posts
 
If I see acoustic panels, hell, that’s another sales opportunity!

Well, considering that trying to get a room in the best acoustic shape, I would think adding panels to be something encouraged. If it adds to the sale, it seems to make sense to me, both in terms of making the sale as well as an add-on purchase.

With regards to DSP, I concur wholeheartedly. If recordings are altered and that isn't disclosed, then there is no way to know how a speaker or system actually sounds. 
(Now that I think of it, just about all the dealers seem to be using music from local NAS's and whatever server they choose. It wouldn't be hard to tweak the settings to make it a bit juicier).
Bob
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