In that sense the room is part of the transducer itself, yes, as the speaker cabinet supports the speaker driver, so do the walls and room size. Think of them as a system.
Pretty much, and I don’t think my stylish cardboard and wood-shavings condo is going to make expensive Totem Acoustic speakers sound their best… I had a pair of affordable Paradigm floor-standing speakers, but everything sounded hollow. They sounded great in the store, that happened to be a field-stone and timber construction with corner room treatments, etc
In my dry-wall and toothpick chamber, the sound just bounces around randomly. So then I got rid of the big speakers and got tiny QUAD ones, and that’s all I need. I can of course tell the difference from a premium setup, but I can’t afford a nice home.
I can also tell Angus steak from grocery-store all-beef hot dogs, but … money.
Your speaker strategy has to consider listening style (sitting, working, watching, ambient, etc.) and build from there: big stereo, small nearfield, flooded or point source, placement like height angle and and close or far to wall, audio style, resonance locations, materials in and on surfaces, etc…
So two big towers or a bunch of wee little Kantos can be great or lousy depending on all that.
Or you could just buy a couple of cheap pure silver speaker cables coated with gold and everything will be great.
I listen to QUAD 77-11L speakers from like a lifetime ago, and a cheap class-D thing from Aliexpress. It’s fine.
HugeNerd is correct, 90+% of audio quality is in the mic and speakers. Transducers make electro acoustics real, everything else is support.
Get really great used speakers cheap and an adequate amp just good enough to drive them. Your shit will sound excellent for anyone.
Well, I’d argue the placement and room are an integral part of it as well.
In that sense the room is part of the transducer itself, yes, as the speaker cabinet supports the speaker driver, so do the walls and room size. Think of them as a system.
Pretty much, and I don’t think my stylish cardboard and wood-shavings condo is going to make expensive Totem Acoustic speakers sound their best… I had a pair of affordable Paradigm floor-standing speakers, but everything sounded hollow. They sounded great in the store, that happened to be a field-stone and timber construction with corner room treatments, etc
In my dry-wall and toothpick chamber, the sound just bounces around randomly. So then I got rid of the big speakers and got tiny QUAD ones, and that’s all I need. I can of course tell the difference from a premium setup, but I can’t afford a nice home.
I can also tell Angus steak from grocery-store all-beef hot dogs, but … money.
Hot dogs it is.
Yeah the room is like a meta-cabinet.
Your speaker strategy has to consider listening style (sitting, working, watching, ambient, etc.) and build from there: big stereo, small nearfield, flooded or point source, placement like height angle and and close or far to wall, audio style, resonance locations, materials in and on surfaces, etc…
So two big towers or a bunch of wee little Kantos can be great or lousy depending on all that.
Or you could just buy a couple of cheap pure silver speaker cables coated with gold and everything will be great.