GeneL wrote:
Please tell me about the speakers.
I've been going along with a minimal JBL 4 small "satellite speaker setup and an Energy center channel speaker. The JBL subwoofer died a year ago. 
As I've said before, money is tight, but it looks like these might be a lot of speaker for a very reasonable price. That is if it's a good replacement for what I now have.
One good thing is that I could return them if I don't like them.
I'm wondering if I could get away with using them just as the front channel along with the Energy center speaker and keep the tiny JBL's for the rear channel? That's only because I don't see how I can fit them in where they'd have to be placed.
I really hate to say this, but I really want a B&W speaker system, but for now they are way out of my price range.
I spent years in the high end audio business, so I do look for good compromises with money being tight.
Maybe these speakers will give me a decent improvement and let me enjoy the sound better than what I'm now using?
Thanks for the heads up, eustacetilley!
Oh, dear, I'm about to get in trouble, because I too spent years in High End Audio, from design and construction, to testing and repair. Not Sales. Never Sales.
In my opinion, B&W went horribly wrong sometime in the early seventies, around the time that the 801s came out, and they've followed the fool and his money philosophy ever since. The Nautiluses, (Nautilii?), are truly vile. But that's only my opinion.
First, let's talk about transducers. We only have two to deal with these days- microphones and headphones/speakers. In the past, there were phono cartridges and tape heads as well. That era is gone, except for me; I can still bore anybody nearby silly about various phono cartridge designs.
The thing about transducers is that they transduce- they couple the world of electronics with the real world, and the only thing that all the electronics in the path should do, is to do their job, and not get obnoxious in the process. Being obnoxious is the job of the speakers.
We can control a lot of the end-tranducing bit, because if we wish, we can control the coupling environment. Sometimes, that ain't so easy. For instance, my Liquid Laboratory:
(That winch aft of the mast lifts the keel, which can be useful when stuck in the Big Muddy. Not my image, by the way, but close enough.)
The test conditions are such: there is only about 4.03 volts RMS in any direction to swing the speaker cones. Not an entirely artificial limit- that is what the amplifiers provide. It works out to about two watts, RMS voltage derived, into a very nominal eight ohm load. (This is trivial Physics.)
(Notice that I'm going to toss out a lot more numbers-the truth of the matter is that I'm not an Audio "Subjectivist"; I've earned the right not to be labeled as such. Those who take inordinate pride in being "Subjectivists" are Fools. They are technically lazy, and/or ignorant.)
The Liquid Laboratory is prone to all sorts of resonances. I took a lot of physical measurements, and all the calculations went bupkis. It just turns out that the "bassic" resonance from testing is around 87 hz. This is an extremely useful resonance, as we shall see.
As much as I love my little Celestion Dittons, they just won't fit neatly behind the Chainplate Struts. Also, two watts barely even wakes them up. They need and deserve a couple of magnitudes more clean wattage.
Yet they are good test speakers, even if they don't get very loud during testing.
There are a couple of other more interesting Liquid Laboratory resonances revealed during Celestion testing- one roughly centered on 440 Hz, the other at 220 Hz. They seem to be related to the Beam width, and would be sharper if the setee cushions were removed. The setee cushions stay.
For "White Noise" tests, 87.5 MHz did just fine, through the $24 Liquid Laboratory Test Receiver/Amplifier. (Too much more on that elsewhere.)
For test tones, this site is superb:
http://www.audionotch.com/app/tune/
Once the first pair of JBL LOFT speakers were set in place behind the Struts, facing aft, JBL Testing Commenced, and the Celestions went back to their rightful place- my Bedroom.
The Celestions are rated at 83 dB SPL, which is optimistic. The JBLs are rated at 89 dB, which is pessimistic. Anyway, those often tossed about SPL numbers are meaningless, because each number must be accompanied by a few paragraphs of test conditions, which nobody bothers with these days.
Subjectively, the JBLs get surprisingly Loud with only the two available Watts mentioned above.
Now in testing, I must point out that fans of Welsh Bass Baritones may be disappointed- there is a distinct lack of "Presence" with the JBLs at around 300Hz. (The Celestions behave themselves.) This is why speakers must always be tested under the conditions that they will be used in. There is about a few dB SPL dip at 300 Hz, which is related to the Liquid Laboratory Physics, the nature of ported speakers, and the woofer/tweeter crossover point. No matter.
I was never fond of Welsh Bass Baritones anyway.
For Spectra Analysis, I use iSpectrum. It's just good enough. (That, from me, is rather good praise.)
There are a distinct "Comb Filter" series of peaks above 1 KHz; this is not necessarily bad, although it should be noted for those who wonder why their speakers seem to be "Bright" with certain kinds of music, especially when it comes to Brass instruments. (There was a time, during the Acoustic Suspension era, that such resonances were acoustically damped, usually with layers of felt around the Tweeter(s).)
Enough with the test tones and white noise- the seagulls were already planning their splatty revenge. Let's get to music, which is the whole bloody point.
Nic Jones- "Bonny Bunch of Roses"
Boz Scaggs- "Loan Me A Dime"
Al di Meola- "Mediterranean Sundance"
Chick Corea- "Birdland"
Roxy Music- "Love Is the Drug"
Oh, a whole lot of Tull as well, and the original Moore soundtrack to "Bedazzled".
(The day after testing, the local Neddy Seagoon stuck his head down the hatch, and said, as far as I can remember, "That's some righteous Tull you were cranking yesterday.", and then quickly destuck himself. I was only momentarily perturbed.)
The JBLs did just fine, although with Scaggs and Jones, certain vocal weaknesses were noted. di Meola was just ducky- there is a lot of studio engineering behind those two faultless performances, yet the imaging stayed dead on, as it should.
But Roxy was just potentially panty-wetting glorious.
All that Teak and Fiberglass were in tune with the Bass line; I could Feel the music in the boat. Yes, literally- the Beneteau hums along at around 87 Hz. All with only a measly two Watts per channel.
I have another two channels available, it just reduces down as to where to put the new two LOFTs. Double-good, dBwise, but I should really deal with all that 300 Hz nonsense, eventually.
••••••••••••••••••••••
Now back to Mr. GeneL's situation...
I haven't a clue. The JBLs sound weak and insipid and all too colored in my Living Room, put on top of the old AR Towers. But it's a pretty big living room, and not much room coupling takes place, until things get interesting below ~70 Hz, where the ARs make themselves friendly.
Yet the JBLs still are terrific imagers there, and not
too obnoxious.
Everything reduces down to coupling- electronics to speakers, speakers to room, room to ears.
If the JBLs don't work out, and it should be evident from the start, because Speaker "Burn-In" is utter nonsense, just return them.
BTW, my Best to you, GeneL. I have been paying attention. This Speaker stuff is diversionary fun, isn't it?
Eustace
