Last night we had dinner at a friend’s house and we got to hear his new $200,000 speakers–yup, that many zeros.
I’ve heard his system many times with his previous DeVore 096’s and it sounded magnificent every time I heard it. (They used to be mine, they might be again)
Now, his new (very ugly, alien looking) speakers in place, after the mfr’s engineers installed and tuned and positioned over three days, he’s in love. Me, not so much.
I came away with an overarching sense that they just weren’t “fun” to listen to. Does that make any sense at all? I went thru various descriptors in my mind, “sterile”, “overbearing”, “stiff”, but the word that I kept coming back to was “fun”. They weren’t for me.
My question is: Does “fun” make sense in describing any part of our systems?
Counter-question: What else should qualify a system? Isn’t it the ultimate goal with our crazy hobby to have fun?
I don’t know about “fun” as an adjective but I might make a small observation that “break in” might be called for before a critical review?
Point well taken but they’ve been in place for months. And for 200 large, they ought to make coffee and wash my car right out of the crates.
Steve Guttenberg talks about fun… it is real. I loved my two pairs of Magnepans, but my Focals are definitly funner. I can articulate what that means too… more dynamic with punchier, deeper bass. Fun.
Peace
Bruce in Philly
I hear you about fun. You made me think of what is fun for me about my system.
I’ve come to the conclusion that I have a lot of fun with tube-rolling. I can roll tubes in my tuner, preamp(s), headphone amp, Monoblocks and EQ unit. And the different “modes” of the P10 increase the possible results of rolling. The EQ unit, the Decware ZROCK2, in particular makes rolling fun because turning an ebony knob incrementally transforms the sound.
Of course it can be maddening too at times. . . . Until I figured out how to “ride the gain” in my system (I can adjust gain at the DSD, preamp, EQ unit, headphone amp and Monoblocks. After a lot of experimentation I have the general tonal balance, dynamics and headroom adjusted really well and the tube-rolling is fun fine tuning.
And talk about fun, I got a Japanese cd (really cheap on ebay) in of this date today and it’s a lot of fun to listen to! (Really bright transfer though–listening with phase “Out” helps).
What makes my system fun for me is when I wake up in the middle of the night and start to think about what I can play on my system later in the day and how soon I can make that thought happen…
Yes, these things, in addition to having gigantic cabinets, are ported. There is no lack of bass depth, but I thought they had very little bass definition. Maybe that’s it.
When I sold my second system (sniff), one of the deciding factors which one went was that I was going nuts rolling tubes and spending a small fortune doing it.
Yes, that can happen. I’ve been lucky in that components I’ve used the last two decades share mostly the same tubes, and many of them are not the “sought after” tube types and not too expensive to experiment with.
And you can’t take money or tubes with you. . . darn. I was hoping there would be tube-rolling ahead and I could slip in some of my favorites, should be plenty of room.
Fun to me is the various emotions I experience while listening. Sometimes my heart elevates with expansiveness, other times it aches with sadness or empathy. There are times when I feel my endorphins kick in. I also experience a change in my facial muscles.
Rearranging or adding or auditioning new components is fun in a physical sense for me.
I don’t want to insult anyone and won’t ever. But, I value fun over sweet spots, openness, clarity, accuracy, responsiveness, voice accuracy, sweet bass, placement, separation, loudness and more. But I want all of that too, they are not a close second, but just as important.
Fun is the reason for spend the money we do. I like good sound, of-course…kind of obvious on this site, but don’t want to over think it. I have to think enough for a living.
I like having people over for cocktails and getting everyone dancing. At the end of the night they always say that sounded so good as was soooo fun! Music is a celebration of life, our systems make that celebration better.
You didn’t mention what those $200K speakers were…by any chance, something Gryphon?
Don’t want to say because I don’t want to make anyone who owns them feel criticized.
The first one is alien looking at first glance, but I think will become more appealing over time. I like the 2-tone finish.
The other one is just ugly and would eternally look alien.
Late at night when I am listening and thoroughly enjoying the music I also get a good vibe just from looking at the loudspeakers, all part of the illusion, I wouldn’t experience feelings of joy looking over at a couple of extraterrestrials with bad acne…
The room is usually dark when I’m listening, not enough light for me to see much let alone jet black speakers…I get the best listening experience when it’s too dark for my eyes to be distracted by anything. The white alien speakers I’d probably be able to see no matter how dark the room.
I have tried the dark room approach but I soon become fed up with that.
Doesn’t matter how dark the room is those abortions will still be seen far far away on the planet where they came from…