The Words We Use To Describe Audio
- Thread starter Flint
- Start date
Razz
Well-Known Member
I have the same type of love that cmonster has and not Flint. While music is art, I indulge in this hobbie because I find listening to an exceptional recording, on a very good sound system is the joy I am after. It's a treat to hear such a thing.. Music reproduced to a quality that only few get to experience.
jamhead
Well-Known Member
Perhaps there is an emotional state associated with certain songs from our past. Mean Streets.....maybe Heeman first heard this song on speakers, or a system, with the flying V frequency response...so to him, that's how this song is supposed to sound. But played through a system with a great frequency response, in a treated room, it lost that "excitement" he initially associated with the song. Now the song doesn't sound as good....it's not as he remembered it.
I love music on any system, but when I hear a song on a system that is sub par, although I still enjoy the song, I do think "I wish I was listening to this at home".
I love music on any system, but when I hear a song on a system that is sub par, although I still enjoy the song, I do think "I wish I was listening to this at home".
Zing said:
Yeah, yeah.
Seriously though. I'm not challenging you but is the argument for not using a monitor to listen to music that it sounds too much like the source? We wouldn't say that about a video display. We spend hours tweeking settings and maybe even hire professional calibrators to get the display to look as close as possible as the source. We don't say "I prefer my reds with slightly more yellow".
jamhead said:
I think you nailed it. Keith and I have talked about this several times and you explained very well what I had a hard time doing.
It's not the "sound" of the POS system in the truck that excites him. It's the music. Going from the truck to the HT is a shock to the senses and takes him out of the music.
Let's use Yamaha's NS-10's as example. If I were to build a studio for the purpose of making music, they would be a good choice. If I were to build a home theater, I wouldn't use NS-10's if Yamaha paid me and gave me a free set.Towen7 said:
If a speaker is designed for a particular use, I think it should be used that way and that way only. So if a nearfield studio monitor was made to be heard from a distance of 3 feet while creating music, why would I want to sit 9 feet from while listening to music.
Basically, it's the old adage "the right tool for the right job". I wouldn't use a piano hammer to drive a nail.
That's silly and the piano/hammer comparison is almost insulting. But I digress...
Does the sound quality change dramatically between 3 and 10 feet?
A Ferrari is made to be driven fast on wide open, twist roads. You'd drive one to the grocery store if you could.
A framing hammer (because the piano example was weak) is designed to drive framing nails, but they also work quite well with lots of other types of nails; roofing nails, ring shank nails, common nails...
I'm watching a documentary on the Smithsonian Channel. They talked about the invention of the cymbal in Turkey. It was designed to signal troops in battle. So... By your silly "it may only be used for it's designed purpose argument" it should not be used on drum kits.
Does the sound quality change dramatically between 3 and 10 feet?
A Ferrari is made to be driven fast on wide open, twist roads. You'd drive one to the grocery store if you could.
A framing hammer (because the piano example was weak) is designed to drive framing nails, but they also work quite well with lots of other types of nails; roofing nails, ring shank nails, common nails...
I'm watching a documentary on the Smithsonian Channel. They talked about the invention of the cymbal in Turkey. It was designed to signal troops in battle. So... By your silly "it may only be used for it's designed purpose argument" it should not be used on drum kits.
Technically, the term "nearfield" was intended to reflect the peak acoustic output and physical size.
As long as the output is sufficient, a nearfield monitor should be excellent as a home stereo or home theater speaker.
That said, there is a crap-load of poor sounding monitors available. Take the aforementioned Yamaha NS-10... that was a terrible sounding speaker from the very early days of what later became the nearfield monitor market. Tej were designed to be loud, no accurate or precise. However, just by chance music mixed on ten had a tendency to sound pretty darn good on every other speaker out there, so they became a very high demand speaker not for tier accuracy BU for the results people got when using them. That isn't the case with Mackie or Genelec or Focal or Tannoy monitors which were designed for accuracy and precision.
As long as the output is sufficient, a nearfield monitor should be excellent as a home stereo or home theater speaker.
That said, there is a crap-load of poor sounding monitors available. Take the aforementioned Yamaha NS-10... that was a terrible sounding speaker from the very early days of what later became the nearfield monitor market. Tej were designed to be loud, no accurate or precise. However, just by chance music mixed on ten had a tendency to sound pretty darn good on every other speaker out there, so they became a very high demand speaker not for tier accuracy BU for the results people got when using them. That isn't the case with Mackie or Genelec or Focal or Tannoy monitors which were designed for accuracy and precision.
Also.... using any speaker at close range can reveal all their design limitations, like baffle step, group delay and point source issues common in all multi-way speakers.
So, a nearfield monitor attempts to address these issues to hide them as much as possible. The improvements made for the exposure of nearfield listening typically improve midfield as well, making nearfield monitors great for home audio systems...
... if they can play loud enough.
So, a nearfield monitor attempts to address these issues to hide them as much as possible. The improvements made for the exposure of nearfield listening typically improve midfield as well, making nearfield monitors great for home audio systems...
... if they can play loud enough.
