Klipschorn ten times as efficient as Audio Note's best

[Feanor]

...
The point is that you can't expect to appeal to more of the masses if all you do is insult their music. That spreads the very false notion that only certain types of music are worthy of a HiFi system.

True, I must concede. And that's a big reason I don't visit the local shop I mentioned. The big honcho there has nothing but contempt for classical music -- and other people's opinions in general.

[Feanor]

...
Also, I'm not really much a fan of 19th century romantics. My favorites are Russians like Prokofiev and Stravinsky along with Copland, Holst and Strauss. I also enjoy a lot of current film scores by Williams, Horner, Desplat and Zimmer.

Likewise, I'm not very fond of the Romanics in general with a few exceptions such as Schubert. I like the 20th century composers much better, notably Shostakovich and others such as Janacek, Bartok, Prokofiev. I have come increasingly to appreciate Schoenberg, and I particularly like the Elliott Carter whom I consider one of the greatest 20th century composers though he will never receive the public recognition he deserves.

[Ajani]

True, I must concede. And that's a big reason I don't visit the local shop I mentioned. The big honcho there has nothing but contempt for classical music -- and other people's opinions in general.

Whether you listen to Mozart or Justin Bieber, you should be able to audition the music you like and find the system that best suits you.

I remember going to visit Audio Excellence in Toronto and auditioning some Michael Jackson and Eagles on a pair of Maggie MG12s on McIntosh gear. Clearly I wasn't impressed with the sound and the dealer said I had the wrong type of music for those speakers. However, rather than just insulting my musical tastes he merely steered my in the direction of a different system he thought would be more to my liking - which it most certainly was (Revel Performa M22 on Musical Fidelity gear). Of course whether Maggies can or can't handle that type of music is another issue (I have no idea as that was my only experience with Maggies) but the point is that if the dealer had just done the typical snobbery of telling me that my music was crap, then I would not have even considered buying anything in that store.

[RGA]

I think he hit the nail on the head in that quote re classical music. One of the reasons our hobby fails to attract more persons is the very notion of audiophile approved music. I remember too well some of the snotty reactions I got from salesmen when I carried my favorite CDs (of popular music) to do auditions. As much as I respect the artistry in jazz and classical, I'm far more interested in how a system will handle Usher or Michael Jackson since those are artists I regularly listen to.

Well I had some of those reactions - at a store it is simply easier to quickly rifle through gear on music in 3-5 minuted chunks than a classical piece. If it can't do the dynamics of a "simple" rock recording what chance has it got on anything else? Well that was when I first started - now I always carry a CD case of about 40 albums from Beethoven (cause ever since a Clockwork Orange - I've been a fan) to K'NAAN.

To much myth and not enough listening in this industry. While Peter was here in HK I asked about the decision to play metal - Slipknott, Nightwish, The Evil Nine. He started this because on forums people said SETs could not do rock. Ie; hard hitting high level music. Having a teenage boy and the brilliantly knowledgeable Martin Grennel on staff who is very up on all the Indie underground bands in the UK (I suspect because he was a DJ) they began to play at ear splitting DB levels at audio shows - the chagrin of their competitors. Oh wait SET and "modestly" efficient speakers can in fact do that. Peter owning the most rare records on the planet and in high numbers and being a classical guru I was happy that he wasn't like those stuffy dealers who play nothing but strings at low levels.

The problem with doing that though is that a big chunk of the target market over the age of 50 (you know the audiophiles who have money) will be driven away from the room. You won't be taken seriously by your target market. I do because I like a room that will play any music at any volume level with no fear. (it's very uncommon).

I tend to listen to different things at different times - in the car I would usually listen to pop or Lady Gaga/Madonna type stuff - at home I would listen to jazz and classical - largely because most of the cars I owned had far too much noise of one sort of the other which really hurts classical's need for low ambient noise. Maybe if I had a Bentley things would have been different.

The thing with the synth is that it has unlimited dynamic range and unlimited frequency response. Some of the current artists will use it and few high end stereos are designed to cope. Soundhounds carries many brands but they'll tell you which ones suck at doing what - you'll notice they are now selling the Cerwin Vega CLS 215. A younger market needs a speaker that can handle what they listen to and it sure isn't the Quad 2905. That's not a slight - it's simply fact - the Quads do other things better but those other things don;t benefit any music at all except for the 3% of music Ken Kantor was talking about. If you listen only to that 3% then they're a good way to go - otherwise the CLS 215 for 1/15 the price is a better loudspeaker.

I never really understand why people get defensive over the obvious.

I think Audiophiles like myself have the biggest problem with buying audio gear - with one stereo system it needs to be able to do Slipknott to Sophie Milman, to Daft Punk, to Itzhak Stern, to Yo Yo, to Madonna, to AC/DC, to Jackson Browne to Beethoven's 5th, to Mahler, to Evil Nine - They Live (Original Mix) - YouTube

Ie; an all-rounder.

So most systems that can pound sound pretty terrible on classical music - speakers geared for pop/rock often have the JBL hump. A boom and sizzle quality that can be fatiguing in classical or jazz. Or to a lesser extent just unremarkable.

Speakers like the Quad which have all the hi-fi sound in the midrange just sound so very bad on anything amplified. I can excuse the speakers with the slight boom and sizzle since they tend to cost what the CLS 215 does. At $1k I can live with a lot of issues - and it has less than you would think. I remember the old D9 and the 215 actually sounds like a quality speaker more than just a boom and sizzler like the D9

Then to try and find a speaker that does both - well horns can do the scale and transients and impact of both classical and rock but most of the time I took issue with their treble which seems to blare at me - it's good and all but it's not good for long listening sessions and as much as I enjoyed listening to the Klipsches recently I wonder if I could listen to them for a whole hour and if I could relax to them. Perhaps that's not the point of them - since nighclubs use horns and they don't want you to relax.

Nothing against these horns but what is good for one venue may not be the ultimate at home - Lawrence Lok of Dagogo pointed out to me that he finds good speakers are the ones that have the ability to allow you to do something else while not being irritated with them in the background.

So now we want a chameleon that can be highly energetic and alive, can play anything top flight, can also be great as background music, can rock the house, but can have you fall asleep to them. Jeez.

The small panels simply don't cut it - small cheap horns tend to blare and don't cut it. Then there is the mainstream LE high mass variety that stores energy in the box with damping. They sound dead. They only come to life when you turn the volume way up - partly due to negative feedback amplifiers which simply cover their distortion tracks error correction ( a time smearing reactionary fix). You always know it's not quite right. Again on the cheap it's fine enough but far too much of this design is over $3 and it doesn't compete.