Any familiar with Vienna The Music?

So it's got a Gundry Dip? I'm more inclined to believe it was designed in owing to the fact that a lot of folks out there like that kind of curve/voice. I've never come across a speaker with a 2kHz dip that didn't sound "pleasing".

I heard some of the Vienna line at CES 2010, they entered in my top-10 best sounding room list.. I found them in a price range where some serious competition is present thou....

I've heard Maxx 2s in only 2 systems. One driven by a really good SET amp (very, very nice) and another driven by a once hyped SS amp (not pleasing at all). So perhaps it might be the exception?

I've heard the Musics. Yes, they do have an upper mid dip, and like Jack, I suspect it is deliberate, not driver break-up. They also, however, have a primary driver that is single point source which covers an extremely broad range (100 - 20k Hz), putting the passive crossovers out of the way, resulting in a really clean, coherent sound and some pretty remarkable imaging. I'd rather they didn't have the dip, but audiophiles like it, and The Musics are still way up there, in my estimation, with the best passive speakers. A bargain at $16,500 compared to most speakers that are really in their league.

The rest of the line is very strong as well, all the way down to the little bookshelf Haydens which can be remarkable in a smallish room with a REL.

Tim

I wouldn't care about the dip one dip - if the speaker sounded good. But the midrange sounds veiled and opaque to my ears. But I have been listening to electrostats for a long time, so that's what my ears are used to. And nothing can do the midrange like a stat.

ack said:

I have to get this off my chest, but... intentional or not, liked by consumers or not, I don't find such designs competent. For example, how would we as consumers feel if an upstream component - amp, preamp, source - was designed with such an intentional dip? Has anyone ever seen this anywhere else but speakers? Would anyone buy, say, an amp with a very steep 2kHz dip?

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Given that it is intentional, I don't think it is a competence issue. Has anyone ever seen it anywhere but speakers? Of course. It is neither difficult or expensive these days to produce components with very flat frequency response. So whenever a component has a distinct sound signature - when it is warm, euphonic, lively, forward, etc, it is a question of competence, manipulation or expectation bias.

Tim

ack said:

I have to get this off my chest, but... intentional or not, liked by consumers or not, I don't find such designs competent. For example, how would we as consumers feel if an upstream component - amp, preamp, source - was designed with such an intentional dip? Has anyone ever seen this anywhere else but speakers? Would anyone buy, say, an amp with a very steep 2kHz dip?

Click to expand...

When it comes to electronics, I'd be pissed. Transducers not so much. I'd be pissed because it would assume that the user has flat speakers which isn't really the case. Type in Gundry Dip in google and you'll find many fave speakers that have 'em. It would be a case of double dipping!

With transducers, the decision is made based on psychoacoustic studies that are accepted in not just the high end audio industry. What measures linearly doesn't sound linear even in a dB scale. If one were to look back at the history of the dip, it was designed into transducers to actually aid in intelligibility in pro audio remote applications and not necessarily to be pleasing. The welcome side effect is what the hi-end adopted. At it's worst a dip is a sin of omission.

My speakers are flat at factory settings but have the option of attenuation, which I use to create not a dip but a downward slope starting at the same range. The same can be done albeit to a more limited extent with something as simple as speaker and listening position changes. The ear is so sensitive between 1k and 4k that a 2dB dip can be a godsend in a room with less than ideal acoustics particularly in the same region. Of course this can be fixed passively and/or actively but really, that isn't what the general music lover wants to get into let alone their significant others.

Many wish for a loudspeaker that will work in rooms sans too much treatment or the need to resort to EQ. Those that have a dip have an advantage in this instance. Like it or not most people value basic pleasure over accuracy. The latter is a very small minority.