Jazz Aficionados Only Please Reply

[Ron Resnick]

This is a question for audiophiles whose primary musical interest is jazz. For the purpose of this question I will define "primary musical interest is jazz" as "spending more than 70% of your total music listening time listening to jazz music."

If, but only if, you spend more than 70% of your total music listening time listening to jazz music, then please kindly respond to this poll.

Thank you.

PS: I do not satisfy the criterion so I am abstaining from participating in this poll.

 

[LL21]

Hey Ron,

Interesting...will you be doing similar polls for other kinds of music? Large Scale Orchestral, Deep House/Electronica, etc.

I also personally have always had a priority as to what I 'calibrate' a system towards...even if I dont spend most of my time listening to it. For example, piano solo is a big one, so are jazz female vocals...but I play a lot of deep house/electric as well as a lot of soundtracks by composers like Hans Zimmer or Mark Isham who use a lot of deep electronics in their work.

 

[Ron Resnick]

Interesting...will you be doing similar polls for other kinds of music?

I don't know. Let's see how this poll goes first.

 

[LL21]

I don't know. Let's see how this poll goes first.

Fair enough.

 

[carl13]

I enjoy listening to my favorite Jazz station WBGO through an Andover Songbird connected to an Andover Spinbase.

 

[Hi-FiGuy]

Planar excel at jazz, especially small club live gigs.

 

[wbass]

Both Magnepan and Klipsch! Horn speakers are great for drums and, well, horns. Planar seem to do ambience really well. You can hear that reverb Rudy put on all the Blue Note horn players clear as anything.

 

[the sound of Tao]

My primary listening is largely jazz Ron at about 45 per cent, classical close at probably variably at about 40 per cent and then RnB, soul and electronic make up the other 15 percent... though sometimes total listening classical overtakes jazz depending on what speaker I am listening to and where I’m at in life. I didn’t vote with my love for musical range and exploration I could never be a 70 per cent dominantly more monocultural listener and have always been drawn to reasonable musical diversity.

The new larger quintet horn I now have (8 x 15 inch woofers and widebander horn) is especially great at jazz and classical at all scales from large to intimate, the smaller trio horn still with 4 x 15 inch woofers (and especially in its new modified larger OB form) is killer good at rock and dance music and is more like the illegitimate love child of a high end system and a proper PA system. The large panels on the Magnepan 20.7s also do it all and what you are driving them with will likely tilt or shape that listening preference tendency but the photo realism that they can do when set up well is hard to beat on opera, and the big lovely rosewood boxes of the Harbeth 40.2s are glass half full easy listening and I find largely genre agnostic. I’d say my approach to choosing speakers has as with the rest of the system always been about opening up access to more music. If you just love some very specific music then it’s easy to tailor your system that way.

I do think if a system is rubbish at a particular genre then you are less likely to spend time listening to that type of music. So is it the egg or the chicken, does the system lead us to types of music focus or does the type of music we are innately drawn to continue to the shape the nature of the system... I’d suggest that these things are most likely intermeshed at any rate.

 

[Ron Resnick]

My primary listening is largely jazz Ron at about 45 per cent, classical close at probably variably at about 40 per cent and then RnB, soul and electronic make up the other 15 percent... though sometimes total listening classical overtakes jazz depending on what speaker I am listening to and where I’m at in life. I didn’t vote as I could never be a 70 per cent almost monocultural listener and have always been drawn to reasonable musical diversity.

The new larger quintet horn I now have (8 x 15 inch woofers and widebander horn) is especially great at jazz and classical at all scales from large to intimate, the smaller trio horn still with 4 x 15 inch woofers (and especially in its new modified larger OB form) is killer good at rock and dance music and is more like the illegitimate love child of a high end system and a proper PA system. The large panels on the Magnepan 20.7s also do it all and what you are driving them with will likely tilt or shape that listening preference tendency but the photo realism that they can do when set up well is hard to beat on opera, and the big lovely rosewood boxes of the Harbeth 40.2s are glass half full easy listening and I find largely genre agnostic. I’d say my approach to choosing speakers has as with the rest of the system always been about opening up access to more music. If you just love some very specific music then it’s easy to tailor your system that way.

I do think if a system is rubbish at a particular genre then you are less likely to spend time listening to that type of music. So is it the egg or the chicken, does the system lead us to types of music focus or does the type of music we are innately drawn to continue to the shape the nature of the system... I’d suggest that these things are most likely intermeshed at any rate.

Which of your speakers do you feel reproduces most realistically the sound of a saxophone?

 

[the sound of Tao]

Which of your speakers do you feel reproduces most realistically the sound of a saxophone?

The horns (first the larger horns and then the trios as they both have the edge in dynamics and the advantage of being driven by SET)... followed by the Magnepan 20.7s. The Harbeths are good to be driven and fleshed out with SET but then a bit held back by their box.

 

[Joe Whip]

A full 90% or more of my listening is to jazz. For my money, dynamic drivers are the way to go, places you right into the club for live recordings. Of course, YMMV.

 

[Ron Resnick]

A full 90% or more of my listening is to jazz. For my money, dynamic drivers are the way to go, places you right into the club for live recordings. Of course, YMMV.

Hello Joe,

What was the process or decision underlying this view?

Have you investigated and auditioned horn loudspeakers in the past?

Have you found horn speakers unappealing as a topology overall?

Is it that "for [your] money" X dollars spent on cone speakers gets you better sound quality for the reproduction pf jazz instruments than X dollars spent on horn speakers?

 

[jeff1225]

I have 5,000 jazz records. There are many speakers I've enjoyed my jazz records with, including Maggies and horns. Unlike most rock recordings, the majority of jazz albums are recorded live, they are live performances in a studio. In my opinion your system needs the, dynamics, explosiveness and a large surface area to capture the live nature of most albums. Sealed speakers or small drivers tend to struggle here.

 

[bodhisattva]

Which of your speakers do you feel reproduces most realistically the sound of a saxophone?

for jazz listening i am not at 70% and, therefore, did not vote in the poll.

however, as a data point: i listen with non-compression loaded horns and my opinion is that of all the instruments most commonly used in jazz, it is the horns -- saxophone, trumpet -- where the speakers really shine.

notes: 1) most of my jazz listening is to recordings from the later 1950s to mid 1960s. so, the recording techniques and quality of that vintage may have some influence on my observations. 2) amplification is, of course, SET.

ymmv

 

[Joe Whip]

Ron, I have listened to every type of speaker imaginable. I have been to hundreds of jazz shows, mostly in small clubs. I have sat in the front row hearing some of the best horn players, bassists and piano players. To these ears and the processor between them, dynamic speakers get me closest to the live experience. Very dynamic, robust, detailed bass but no bloat, realistic piano and drums. It is all there in my room with modest priced equipment. When I listen to Ben Webster, Coleman Hawkins, Scott Hamilton, et al, I hear a round three dimensional silky horn. Listening to some great Ray Brown recordings, when he hammers the bass, I almost jump out of my seat. Check out the Live at Starbucks on Telarc, especially the last track, Starbucks Blues. Thrilling, just like live. I got to hear Ray Brown live. This gets damn close. Hope that answers your questions. And yes, only dynamic speakers do this for me.

 

[Ron Resnick]

Yes, Joe, that answers all my questions. Thank you!