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Speaker Asylum General speaker questions for audio and home theater. |
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Speaker Asylum General speaker questions for audio and home theater. |
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In Reply to: Is my problem B&W and would Vandersteen be the answer? posted by klgraha on November 8, 2003 at 11:47:40:
I hate to point out the obvious, but if the speakers are getting on your nerves then they are not the right speakers for you (you seem to already know this).The N804s have a peculiar (sound) balance that some like and some detest. The speakers have an exaggerated form of B&W's typical voicing: dry, overdamped (small sounding) bass, very laid-back upper bass and lower mid-range, forward, elevated sounding upper mid-range, sucked out presence band, bright treble. In my opinion this voicing is like a recipe with too many ingredients: the elevated upper mid-range response enhances detail, the presence band suckout provides the (artificial) sweetener, the bright treble enhances treble detail, and the laid-back lower mid-range ensures that the speakers always sound "polite." I dislike the overly artificial "flavor" of these speakers.
For a more natural sound, you might also investigate the Shahinian, Audio Note, Harbeth, Spendor and Jean Marie Reynaud lines of speakers. The Spendors (and Harbeths) make an interesting comparison with the B&Ws. All these speakers share the same BBC-derived DNA, but Spendor (as well as Harbeth) have stuck much more closely to the broadcast monitor original designs (like the LS-3/5A).
Superficially, the voicing of the B&Ws and Spendors bears a measured similarity, but Spendor are using much higher quality drivers. Spendor uses very high quality Scanspeak soft dome tweeters that simply sound a lot more natural than B&W's dry and edgy sounding aluminum domes. Furthermore, the Spendor polyprop mid-range drivers produce a flatter and more accurate (broadcast-quality) mid-range response. B&W's kevlar drivers on the other hand begin to flex (and break-up) in the upper mid-range which adds distortion and peaking to their sound (superficially enhancing detail but also fatiguing - as you have noticed).
Despite the differences, the rough outlines of the sounds are similar, as is the case with most British (BBC-derived) speakers: dry and polite sounding bass and mids; polite, sucked out presence band (known as the BBC-dip). The B&Ws differ only in their aggressive, harsh sounding treble and upper mid-range, which result from the aluminum dome tweeter and kevlar driver respectively.
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Follow Ups
- Solution=investigate other speakers - layman 11/8/0322:33:42 11/8/03 (0)
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