The best speaker system I ever heard was the ATC 150s with ATC subs we demo'd at a pro audio show with Bill Schnee and Doug Sax (the guys who recorded all those Sheffield Labs discs of years ago). It was in a room treated from the ground up to sound great. The speakers and the room they are in is the speaker "system" together as a team. You will never get the greatest speaker in the world without addressing your room, putting a properly designed speaker in it that does not have dispersion problems or high distortion drive units inside, and then using decent sounding recordings.
Sorry for the strong statement, I am new to Audiogon, I supply high end studio equipment to folks that record, mix and master the records you listen to and evaluate these systems. I have dealing with rooms and speakers for a long time. I deal with people and their systems they work on, all day. The goal in professional music is to spot flaws so they can fix them before you do. The room you record in is key to a great sound. The room you monitor in and the monitors you use are key. If there are flaws in room or monitors, this becomes a flaw in the recording that's there forever. For example, if a monitoring system has poor top end response, you will mix bright to compensate and the final record sounds bright. Same thing about low end, if the room or speakers are bass heavy, you lighten up on the bass in the production process and the record will sound thin without real bass extension. A good monitoring rig is key to this work and something that all top people work to achieve.
So when I hear people say "I tried 4 pairs of speakers and they all sucked", you know its probably the room at play. When they say "I tried this really obscure piece of crap and it sounded wonderful", you know the room they are listening in has some major flaws!
Brad Lunde
Owner of TransAudioGroup
