Should a reference speaker be neutral, or just great sounding?


I was thinking about something as I was typing about how I've observed a magazine behave, and it occurred to me that I have a personal bias not everyone may agree to.  Here's what I think:
"To call a speaker a reference product it should at the very least be objectively neutral."

However, as that magazine points out, many great speakers are idiosyncratic ideas about what music should sound like in the home, regardless of being tonally neutral.

Do you agree?  If a speaker is a "reference" product, do you expect it to be neutral, or do you think it has to perform exceptionally well, but not necessarily this way?
erik_squires

Showing 4 responses by mozartfan

i prefer to buy used save at least 50%+


You will hardly ever find SEAS MTM/ 2 way with Excel drivers for sale used. Those are keepers, 
Sure there are K's of speakers used,,,but is our objective a  good cheap price,,, or  should our goal be <superior> sounding. 
??

Neutral, no color, Not warm. 
This is  a  great speaker,,, I am about to upgrade my Thor xovers,, with new Mcaps, M resistors , This should make the Thors the best sounding speaker for its size, budget in the world. 
Look fora  YT vid comming soon,,,parts are on order. 
Madisound  will build the new outside the cab xovers. 
Seas Meets Mundorf. 
The WOW factor should be off the charts. 
The caps in there now are the old legendary Hovland Musicaps , Huge yellow 10uf's.  X4 and 8uf's X2. 
Gonna run 10uf Silver Gold ,. each retails for a  wopping $220 each,,got a  pair used off ebay for $230. Just ordered a  pair of Silvergold EVO oil 8uf, as each Millennium take's 18uf capacitors, so 1 Supreme silvergold 10uf + 1 EVO silvergold oil 8.2 uf, the resistors will be Munedorfs Ultra R-Resist Foil. , $17 each. 
YT vid comming, new wires on drivers, taking out the copper flat wire will employ navships silvercopper 20 ga. 
= could be explosive. 
I will finally find out just what potential  the Seas Excel have,, plan to send a  video to Jadis, SEAS, Madisound and Mundorf. 
Just bought a  new mic for my vlog cam. 
Everyone’s “reference” will certainly be different

There is of course some subjectivity in Reference,,
Objectivity also exists when employing world class components. 
Seas Meets Mundorf. 2 world class labs. 
No, Seas meets Mundorf Meets Jadis, 3 world class labs. 
all 3 are truly reference components, 
Not opinion, thats objective facts, read the reviews. 
We will never hear nor achieve it. Get over it.


No no no, You completely miss my point.
Neutral = the least distortyion/coloring. 
Look B&W are world famous, folks adore B&W, 
My opinions does not count, I really hate all B&W's,. The sound is british and very colored,
Like dark grey, brownish, smoky, hazy,  just way too dense in midrange. which is where 80-90% of our music lies.
Neutarl is The Ideal,, and we seek  as close as we can attain to that goal,, 
Look my new xovers are in the works for the Seas, Lets see what Mundorf does to the Excel. This might be a winning team = higher up Mt Everest. Sure I will not attain that peak,,as i do not have K's of $'s to buy what I know will bring me to that peak,,and thats not my style,, I am not a  materialist, 
Once the xovers  are completed and then its onto the Vishay Zfoil resistors for the Jadis DPL preamp, 
Maybe a  few new resistors for the cayin CD17 Mark1, and I'm done. 
Thats my ideal, and I'd say its a  Class A Reference system, which equals others costing XXXXX as much.
Throwing money at this hobby does not always equate with high fidelity. Lets get that straight now.  and stock components are , nothing more than stock, average parts, In order to raise the bar you have to gut the unit and employ world class parts. 
Upgardes with world class parts,  are critical for superior neutral hi fidelity. 
Your average speaker lab, installs average parts = never will be a  world class speaker.
Lets get that straight now.