This subject about Roy’s revelation was brought up some months ago. So really there’s nothing new here.
And though the concept has the appearance that Roy is performing some due diligence, it also seems a bit silly at the same time. Do speakers sound different based on amplification? Yes. But speakers also sound different based on cabling, outlets, fuses, plugs, connectors, lifters, racks, as well as other components, etc. IOW, if Gregory’s revelation has merit, then why would he limit his repositioning of speakers only to amplifier changes?
But here’s where I think Gregory’s hypothesis doesn’t hold water. Though speakers will reflect everything up the chain, they simply cannot perform at their optimal unless there exists a superior interface or a superior acoustic coupling with the room itself. IOW, a speaker’s input signal may be electrical but its output is acoustical and therefore, its greatest dependency is its acoustic interface with the room.
And though Gregory may think he’s been enlightened to a new revelation with his ingenuity, I suspect the only real revelation is that his speakers’ prior placement/positioning were not as superior as he initially suspected.
That said, my limited experience leads me to think there exists one single absolute superior placement position for a speaker within a given room for that speaker to perform at its absolute optimal - think pitcher’s mound at the ball park. While there also exists an infinitesimally less superior speaker placement positions, think infield, outfield, ball park, parking lot, etc such that a speaker performs at less than its absolute optimal for that room.
Proof of this is that there exists a very real type of acoustic noise floor threshold established by the quality of this interface between speaker and room. When the interface quality is improved, we hear more bass notes and the bass notes we’re already used to hearing become tighter, deeper, quicker, more well-defined, etc. Not to mention that the more superior this acoustic interface, the more balanced, rich, warm, and flat out more musical the entire playback presentation. And vice versa when the speaker / room interface quality is worsened. This is all regardless of electronics up the chain because this speaker/room interface is acoustical in nature, not electronic.
Hence, I suspect when Gregory moves a speaker after an amplifier upgrade, and if the movement causes genuine improvements, then he most likely is simply placing the speakers a bit closer to the optimal pitcher’s mound position.
And though the new amplifier might improve bass and other sonic characteristics, if Gregory moving the speakers because of the new amp causing a genuine improvement, I would also suspect that if the old amplifier was re-installed, the sound would still benefit from the latest speaker movement.
Just as Lavigne mentioned, for many of us, locating a genuinely superior speaker placement position can take weeks, months, even years. Besides, how could one ever truly know that they’ve actually found THE optimal speaker placement position anyway?
Should we always be seeking our speaker’s optimal position within its room for optimal levels of musicality? Absolutely, as that’s what this hobby is all about. But given Gregory’s hypothesis and in light of the above, I have my doubts that Gregory possessing a superior knowledge of speaker placement and/or its import and since accuracy and stability would seem crucial to any product review, I would think the time to reposition speakers is not during a product review.
In summation, I’m inclined to think besides the possibility of creating yet one more preconceived narrative, Gregory is doing little more than potentially compromising the integrity of his reviews when he acts on this concept during an amplifier evaluation. Which if true has the potential to mislead readers into thinking the amplifier under review is potentially something other than his review might claim.
Again, because changing cables, outlets, racks, other components, etc, will all cause not-too-dissimilar sonic changes at the speaker, I’d venture that if Gregory takes his hypothesis seriously, he should be entirely consistent by moving his speakers every time he ever made any change to his system. Simply because speakers are incapable of discriminating between which objects are causing them to sound better. Whether it’s an amplifier or anything else.
A bright shining lie? Quite possibly.
