Assuming all variables are the same, including the same music, room, loudness, etc...., I have found when listening to towers like you are, I tend to prefer more "volume filling" speakers over "higher detail". I believe the speaker manufactures favor more detail as the price goes up, and sometimes this does not go well with our expectation regarding "filling the room" or "thick" vs "thin", etc... For example, I like towers with big bass and if I do not hear that, then, the speaker goes down on my list. Speaker synergy is also something we hear, and if a speaker favors highs, mids, or bass depending on our expectation we may or may not prefer that.
Preference for speakers that are half the price. Has this ever happened to you?
Hello everyone,
A retailer near my home has some ex-demo Sonus Faber Aida 2 speakers for sale. I went to listen to them, and to my surprise, I preferred the sound of the Sonus Faber Il Cremonese Ex3me, which cost half the price of the Aida 2 when new. The amplifiers were the same (The Gryphon), which cost much more than the speakers themselves, and the location was basically the same (I even listened to them in two different locations).
I wonder how it's possible that I prefer the sound of speakers that are so much cheaper (even if they're not cheap!). Could it be that the amplifier isn't right for me? Or something else?
Is this something you've experienced before? Have you ever heard very high-end speakers that you found inferior to cheaper speakers? I'm hesitating to ask to go back and listen to them again.
Thank you for sharing your experiences.
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Thank you very much for your feedback and experiences, which help me see things more clearly. I thought it was a unique opportunity to buy the best Sonus faber speakers at a “more reasonable” price (we're talking about speakers with a list price of $160,000...). Maybe they're not right for me after all. Or maybe I'll ask to listen to them a second time to be sure. In any case, I really appreciate getting all these responses so quickly. Thank you again. If anyone else has any other experiences to share, I'd love to read them (and even better if you've already heard the Aida 2...). |
@audiozx Speakers like any other components can take months to break in . Also getting their position right in your room takes time too. I bought a new pair of passive ATC SCM 100s earlier this year and they have been a nightmare. One channel overpowering the other but have now come good and are excellent. Took six months......arrgh! |
My understanding is that the Aida has rear-firing drivers. Imo this calls for somewhat different set-up priorities than for speakers which only have front-firing drivers. First, you need a fair amount of reflection path length so that the output of the rear-firing drivers doesn't arrive too soon. This implies a fair amount of distance from the front wall. I'd suggest five feet at least, and more would be better. Second, you do not want the wall surface that the rear-firing drivers are facing to be absorptive because absorption of the short wavelengths (high frequencies) will ruin the spectral balance of the rear-firing energy. You want its spectral balance to be similar to that of the first-arrival sound even after it has bounced off the front wall. Third, you do not want that rear-firing energy to be too loud. The shorter the reflection path length, the less loud you want it to be. There is a "sweet spot" loudness where the rear-firing energy is wholly beneficial, but any louder than that and clarity starts to be degraded. If the Aidas were a bit muddy compared to the other speakers, then I would suspect one or more of these factors was in play. I have not heard the Aida, but have some familiarity with multidirectional speakers. Duke dealer/manufacturer |
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