Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion The Water Cooler M80s (or 60s) outside?

Some interesting points have been brought up here as to 'what' is the 'correct' sound, this is probably why it's hard for people to audition speakers because they are not necessarily sure what to compare them to, except other speakers. Using Stevie Nicks as an example once again, are we wanting to reproduce her "live" performance as if she were playing in a properly setup concert hall or are we looking for the type of sound as if she were singing, standing in front of you with no amplification/electronics?

That's why I find the debate about which speaker is better to be far off target in most cases. Low level listening does not inform the debate, yet spurs it on. At high levels, most speakers or amps start to add something that is not there at lower levels. Speakers that don't do that, or not as much as the A/B test subject, are better. At easy listening levels with good equipment it is almost impossible to say one is more accurate than another to the original source.

But when Stevie's voice starts to sound shrill at 105db on system A, while on system B the tonal quality of her voice stays consistent (even if not, in actually, more accurate to the original) while gaining volume, then you know B is a better system.

Well, it sort of makes sense. But...

Having played a good quality acoustic guitar for years, I know what acoustic giutar is supposed to sound like. There are qualities that all acoustics share that are immediately identifyable on good speakers. I think the same applies to the human voice.