A fellow audiophile, who also happens to be a friend and good customer, has a blog which he calls
A GUIDE FOR THE DEDICATED ANALOG AUDIOPHILE
He recently made an attempt to hear for himself a speaker that others had spoken of highly. He was able to take part in two demos at the homes and offices of “passionate” audiophiles selling the speaker in question — stereo showrooms being a thing of the past — as well as lots of other high-end equipment.
Let’s just say that all did not go as well as Robert had hoped.
On the bright side, he now has a newfound appreciation for the listening skills, or lack thereof, of some of the folks in our hobby.
This youtube demonstration of the speakers is worth watching, or at least skimming through, which is about all I could manage. I’ve added some of my own comments at the end of Robert’s review which you may find interesting.
One quick note: the monstrous Legacy Whisper speaker system I used to own had a similar design, with four 15″ woofers per side in an open baffle array. It did some things I have never heard any other speaker do, and the free-air design no doubt was a big part of its remarkable ability to move air with great speed and authority above a hundred cycles or thereabouts.
Below that, not so much, which turns out to be a problem that is very difficult to solve.
It was fun while it lasted, but it had too many shortcomings, shortcomings its little brother, the Legacy Focus, I discovered to my endless joy, did not have. The Focus sounds right to us in every way, which is why it is our reference speaker and will likely remain so far into the future.
I freely admit that there are surely better speakers in the world. I just have not heard them.
In order to do the work we do, our approach to audio has to be fundamentally different from that of audiophiles who listen for enjoyment. Critical listening and listening for enjoyment go hand in hand, but they are not the same thing.
The first — developing and applying your critical listening skills — allows you to achieve good audio and find the best pressings of the music you love.
Developing critical thinking skills when it comes to records and equipment is not a bad idea either.
Once you have a good stereo and a good record to play on it, your enjoyment of recorded music should increase dramatically.
A great sounding record on a killer system is a thrill.
A Heavy Vinyl mediocrity, played back on what passes for so many audiophile systems these days — regardless of cost — is, to these ears, an intolerable bore.
If this sounds arrogant and elitist, so be it.
We set a higher standard, and price our records commensurate with their superior sound. For those who appreciate the difference, and have resources sufficient to afford them, the cost is reasonable. If it were not we would have gone out of business years ago.
Hot Stampers are not cheap. If the price could not be justified by the better sound quality and quieter surfaces, who in his right mind would buy them? We can’t really be fooling so many audiophiles, can we?
(Although this guy sure is fooling a lot of people, a subject we will discuss in more depth soon I hope.)
Our approach to equipment and records is explained in more detail below, in a listing centered around an early pressing of a Ted Heath Big Band album from the Fifties that knocked our socks off. The right record at loud levels on big speakers can do that.