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Michael Fremer's system

Do you agree with his choice ? What would you change ?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H07NpWk_Xf8
inna
lohanimal
659 posts
 
@robd2 made an interesting point about the records with the room acoustics.
My concern with large speakers in small rooms is the issue of bass. Simply put when we go lower in HZ the wave becomes longer - that is why bass is so hard to damp and control. In addition to this a small room simply won't go low -I though that is a scientific fact (or have I got that wrong?) - I always thought the whole point of large multi driver speakers is largely their dynamic range - in particular the bass.
sevs
301 posts
 
MF system makes me uneasy about everything I think I know about hi-end: I thought that I have an excuse for Not going after Wilsons because I cannot afford one of those castles in Malibu Colony... But...   coming from the Academy mind-set I have this "the authority" variable. And Mikey is The Authority to me, so unless I can walk into his den and get unimpressed, there is not much to discuss. 
As a sidetracking note: the Dude looks amazingly fit for an audiophile: I followed his ramblings 15 years ago and reverted back to analog, after watching this interview I am thinking about extra workouts ;-)

dodgealum
1,398 posts
 
I haven't heard MF's system but have heard quite a few megabuck systems in inadequate rooms (too small, large, irregular, bright, ETC) to know that he is not getting anywhere near the sound he has paid for in that space. I would posit that a system costing a quarter as much in a dedicated room sized to the speakers would sound twice as good. I'm sure many of us have been around long enough to recall how Stereophile and TAS would periodically profile the room and system of each reviewer so that readers could reasonably contextualize their conclusions. This should be standard practice--not a solution to the problem of reviewer/listener bias/preferences but it would certainly go a long way to helping all of us make purchasing decisions where an in home demo is not an option. 
bdp24's avatar
bdp24
9,421 posts
 

The video reveals that Mike is much more passionate about LP's and phonograph playing equipment than the rest of a system. As to the size of the room and bass reproduction, though the area he has the speakers in---back behind the aisles of LP racks---appears rather small for the Wilson's, the room itself is not that small. If the LP racks were to be removed from the room, it might appear much larger.

I don't know how much those LP racks affect the propagation of bass frequencies, but I believe that is more determined by the dimensions between the room's walls---left-to-right and front-to-back, and perhaps it's floor-to-ceiling height. It may be that the long bass waves just pass over and around the racks, as if they weren't there. But the position of the speakers so close to the corners of the room can't be a good thing.

geoffkait's avatar
geoffkait
23,365 posts
 
Please bear with me a second. Not only is it bad for the sound to have SO MANY records in the room - or CDs, or books, any media - but it has NOTHING to do with absorption of Acoustic Waves or any such thing. The odd thing is that some of us have known about this for a very long time, at least 20 years, yet the average Joe Audiophile never heard of it. That’s probably why I have Advanced Audio Concepts in my name. 😃 It’s a Peter Belt (RIP) thing. Stereophile magazine even has two of Peter Belt’s products on their recommended components list. Come on, people! Wake up and smell the coffee! ☕️

“The great sound was in the room the whole time. You just couldn’t hear it properly.”

Machina Dynamica
Advanced Audio Concepts
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