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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
michaelgreenaudio's avatar
michaelgreenaudio
1,019 posts
 

Reference in HEA is fairly generic and weakens the origins of "reference" or "referencing" music, which was started by going from the Live room to the Control room to the Playback room.

I've seen High End Audio try to use musical production terms from the very beginning. Cute but not reality as far as the production of recordings and playing back goes.

As said above, your room is more your reference than your speaker is.

mg

millercarbon's avatar
millercarbon
12,531 posts
 
Thank you. I wasn't going to be the one to point that out but you are right, my room is the reference. Especially now with my modded Moabs.
mozartfan
2,143 posts
 
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. 
mozartfan
2,143 posts
 
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. 
psag
517 posts
 
For a great recording, you want a neutral speaker. Any speaker can sound good, given a recording with complementary flaws. But to have the highest percentage of good listening experiences with audiophile recordings requires a neutral speaker.
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