Ever discover cheapo speakers actually sound...


Ever discover super inexpensive speakers sound really decent when main speakers are out of commision?
I am using my main system worth over $30k to play list ~$240 street price $125 speakers, and they sound amazing.
This reminds me of the discussion of when would you get a better sound using expensive amps and cheap speakers or expensive speakers and cheap amps.
pedrillo

Showing 3 responses by sns

Pedrillo, I've always noticed your decoupling technique with the Merlins. I believe what you say about decoupling them as I hung a cd player with fish line from the ceiling some years ago, best isolation I ever acheived with a digital source.

Still, don't we voice our systems based on inherent isolation of certain components, ie. my speakers sit on a suspended floor, ie. resonate more than optimum. I then increase the focus on the rest of my equipment through various isolation schemes in order to balance out this greater than optimum resonance in the speakers. In the end I get optimum results from balancing resonances. On the other hand, perhaps not, perhaps you can only fully optimize your system by hanging all equipment in space, ie. optimizing each and every piece. I think I need an anti-gravity listening room :-)
I suspect Pedrillo is listening in the manner Almarg mentioned earlier. Pedrillo even states he has an optimistic listening bias.

I listen to bad recordings on my high resolution system using the same bias, you can find the good in just about anything if you seek it. He is simply listening in the musical rather than analytical mode.

This attitude is likely a result of diminished expectations as well. I've substituted inferior equipment into my main system a number of times, always somewhat surprised by how good it sounds. Expectation may be the primary driving force in determing how we listen, and largely influences our next move on the audiophile equipment merry-go-round.
Perillo, I suspect you like the MBL's imaging capabilities, much different from our Merlins. When I first went to my Merlins from my previous Alons (2 different models over many years) I was somewhat disappointed, they sounded closed in compared to the Alons. The Alons open baffle on the mids and highs give them a really open sound, larger and less defined images than the Merlins. I took me a while to get used to the Merlins, but now I love the way they image. I suspect I could go back to the Alons and again be very impressed with their imaging.

As for the Merlins, sounds like you're thinking there's something you're missing. Be careful of what you wish for, I have yet to hear a more coherent speaker, this kind of resolution and coherence is very rare. One improvement you may want to try is Duelund VSF in the SBAM. Wow! Read my impressions in my virtual system. I even think I have Bobby convinced to try them.