For many years I have been working audio trade shows. From time to time I have the opportunity to spend a little time outside of the room I am working in to see other rooms and hear what's on offer. As I visited a number of rooms at a recent trade show I was struck by an interesting trend in a number of rooms displaying big and/or expensive speaker systems. I've been involved in exhibiting such products for many years, so I'm certainly a fan of ultra high end audio products. The trend I'm speaking of has to do with speakers that are impressive to listen to. They might have extraordinarily powerful bass, dynamics that knock your socks off, soundstaging as big as the whole outdoors, presence that puts performers in your lap, or highlighted and forward detail that grabs a hold of your ears and won't let go. Sure, I love great bass, realistic imaging, see-through transparency, and lifelike dynamics. But these many impressive speakers are skewing tonality toward one group of frequencies or another. Highlighting the sensational over the natural. Calling attention to themselves by performing impressive audio tricks. But I find these systems losing the balance of music's emotions and overall beauty. I don't have any problem with folks focusing on a particular aspect of sound that gets their motor running, but far too many of these "impressive" speakers are simply performing "high-wire" acts and missing the full essence and beauty of music. Has anyone out there noticed the same thing recently?
You're trade, I'm consumer.
I haven't been to a trade show for years. I think I've been to one store demo since I bought my speakers in December 2020 when I was building a new room. In that time I've heard one other hifi system, at a friend's house. I've changed my electronics since then, all based on loan equipment and one or two on reputation.
I went to in-store demos 2 or 3 times a year from say 2010 to 2020. I got to hear some of the speakers you talk about, one memorably awful one was Magico M3. The speakers I liked the most at these demo's were Wilson Sasha Daw. My wife preferred the looks of Wilson Sabrina, so we bought those. I listen to a wide range of music, from motets to Massive Attack via lots of chamber music, ambient, jazz, this weekend listening included Musique Concrete and Japanese folk music. I go to a lot of opera and ballet, chamber music and jazz. I'm a big fan of Baroque operas and oratorios, with about 5 or 6 in the diary, starting with Semele next week. Probably 90% of what I listen to is acoustic music.
Those speakers have been described on this forum as "not hifi". The sonic assault you describe does not exist in live music, unless it is heavily amplified. Even Massive Attack live was pretty tame (their fans are getting old). The biggest physical assault I've experienced was Hofesh Schechter (Political Mother), and replicating that at home would invite the police (and my windows have -60dB glass).
My speakers do exactly what I want with everything I listen to. The manufacturer has since produced Sabrina X and now Sabrina V. Thoughts of an upgrade have never crossed my mind.
I got to a happy place and am staying there. It's essentially a combination of the speakers and the room acoustic, which took a lot of effort to design. It may be "not hi-fi" to someone who wants to be physically assaulted every time they turn on their stereo. Good luck to them.
