How important are speakers for your system?

[joyspring]

The people at Western Electric Bell Labs and The team at Altec Lansing with James B Lansing.Got it right the first time. Even 10 years after James Lansing left and tried to come out with something different and superior , He could not do it. So you have JBL with someting close which survived thanks to his insurrance policy. Evry thing else since has been imitations.

Believe me that is the truth. Klipsch Horn was a close second.I did hear the Bell and the Horn.
Altec A-5 still first and foremost.

I suppose you believe leeches and trepanation are preferable to modern medicine as well.

Had the engineers at WE and Altec followed your logic, perhaps they would have felt that wax cylinders epitomised sonic performance and there was no need to conduct any additional psychoacoustic research.

BobR

[LICORNE]

I suppose you believe leeches and trepanation are preferable to modern medicine as well.

Had the engineers at WE and Altec followed your logic, perhaps they would have felt that wax cylinders epitomised sonic performance and there was no need to conduct any additional psychoacoustic research.

BobR

No sir the wax cylinder was not part of the HI FI development . Tube Amps , Mag track films for recording: better than 16 bit 44KHZ CD your listening to. Somtime in the 30's the magic happened with the Shearer Horn. Ask guys like Doug Sax I'm sure he thinks the same way I do.

You need to look at the perspective of it all.

[joyspring]

No sir the wax cylinder was not part of the HI FI development . Tube Amps , Mag track films for recording: better than 16 bit 44KHZ CD your listening to. Somtime in the 30's the magic happened with the Shearer Horn. Ask guys like Doug Sax I'm sure he thinks the same way I do.

You need to look at the perspective of it all.

I'll make the concession that magnetic track does have the upper hand on 16-bit, 44.1 khz (or 48 khz for film) digital audio in terms of signal-to-noise ratio (by 6 dB) but ONLY with Dolby SR and properly set up Inovonics. At a 185 nW/m reference it still loses 3 dB headroom in the midband compared to 48/16 digital audio. I maintain a few Magnatechs and Rangertones and have done the setup and measurements.

Bandwidth-wise on the lower end, digital soundly trumps full-coat mag.

Now consider this practically speaking: make one analogue transfer (of which many occur during the sound editing process) and make the same statement. How's that for perspective?

Sure, magic happened in the 1930s with the Shearer horn no doubt. Magic also happened when we replaced our VOTTs with JBL 4675s kindly donated by the Edwards cinema chain in our university theatre/ dubbing stage as well.

Doug Sax is just one respectable opinion of many in the recording and mastering world. I can drop names as well - how about Walter Jung or the late John Eargle, the latter of whom is an Altec alum, Eastman grad, electrical engineer, past AES president and fellow and Grammy winning classical recording engineer?

BobR

[tomt]

I suppose you believe leeches and trepanation are preferable to modern medicine as well.

chemotherapy does kill faster than leaches.

unless one uses thousands of leeches, at the same time, ...


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on topic -

I think here on this forum are people with a lot of knowledge,

who can exactly tell me why same looking products are sounding different.

'Physics'

[LICORNE]

I'll make the concession that magnetic track does have the upper hand on 16-bit, 44.1 khz (or 48 khz for film) digital audio in terms of signal-to-noise ratio (by 6 dB) but ONLY with Dolby SR and properly set up Inovonics. At a 185 nW/m reference it still loses 3 dB headroom in the midband compared to 48/16 digital audio. I maintain a few Magnatechs and Rangertones and have done the setup and measurements.

Bandwidth-wise on the lower end, digital soundly trumps full-coat mag.

Now consider this practically speaking: make one analogue transfer (of which many occur during the sound editing process) and make the same statement. How's that for perspective?

Sure, magic happened in the 1930s with the Shearer horn no doubt. Magic also happened when we replaced our VOTTs with JBL 4675s kindly donated by the Edwards cinema chain in our university theatre/ dubbing stage as well.

Doug Sax is just one respectable opinion of many in the recording and mastering world. I can drop names as well - how about Walter Jung or the late John Eargle, the latter of whom is an Altec alum, Eastman grad, electrical engineer, past AES president and fellow and Grammy winning classical recording engineer?

BobR

Your university would have done better by updating the VOTT than replacing them with 4675's. The A-5 with mantaray horn is my preference. And it is with a lot of film projectionists that I know an have spoken to. Who have worked with both systems.

[Old Guy]

Old stuff is great, but it can't put out the sheer volume demanded in modern apps. I'd love to use old Altecs in a system...I couldn't afford the constant repair costs.

The LF limit in older speakers is pretty compromised too.

Take the cost of old speakers. Factor for inflation. THAT is the price of speakers that should be compared.

HiFi has gotten WAY cheaper. Don't make the mistake of comparing cheap new stuff to expensive old stuff.

Computer control of tolerances has turned speakers into commodities. Even a low end builder can make good stuff....IF HE WANTS TO.