Overkill at the cafe !!!

[GM]

maybe, but the last few shows..concerts , I went to see had almost no mids. a bunch of subs running well into the 3rd octive, and a bunch of tops straining down into the crossover range. sounded horrible. in controled enviroments and critical listening sessions, I would rather turn up the big rig and wander around the property, I live on 5 acres, where it sounds live, full, and effortlessly strong at just a few watts, a thousand feet away. try that with the bookshelf variety of 'hifi' speakers. im thinking they would sound week, tinny, and overworked into distortion at anywhere over 50 ft for sure. just my 2cents, whatever that's worth these days

I haven't been to any amplified shows in many years now other than be subjected to a duo with a guitar and drums blaring through some cheap JBL two way monitors on stands at a local large pizzaria, forcing us to doing take-out, so can't comment. I'm very aware of course of how big Altecs perform in the huge/outdoor spaces they were designed for, but it's not HIFI anymore than the anemic bass/overly bright sound of low efficiency bookshelf speakers being advertised as such.

You've really made the argument for me by comparing two extremes of conflicting weaknesses. HIFI was meant to bring SOTA sound reproduction to the home, so at least early on this meant studio monitors in furniture cabs for the most part. Tom Danley [DSL] is making great strides in bringing HIFI to prosound apps, but even these products haven't been all that well received in the home, smaller venues, so have begun making smaller speakers to hopefully bridge the gap.

BTW, compare your Altecs to some comparably sized DSL Synergy horns on your five acres and not only would they drown them out in sheer SPL, but would do so over a much wider, flatter BW at a higher speech intelligibility and with a way better power response over a much more controlled polar pattern to the point where one could just about call it a comparison between a '49 Cadillac and the latest high end BMW, Mercedes or similar. Time marches on whether we do or not.

GM

[Old Guy]

Cool Beans........ get it, it's a coffee shop, coffee beans???, ok maybe not. :-)

No worries...just expresso yourself freely.

[VolvoHeretic]

Ken Kantor AudioKarma Profile:

About ken kantor
Biography
(God), Loudspeaker Designer, Electrical Engineer and Media Technologist, Dir. R&D at AR Loudspeakers, Co-Founded NHT. VP Tech at International Jensen. Co-Founded Tymphany, Wrote for AUDIO, High Fidelity, AV Interiors, E-Town. Consultant to many brands.
Location
Northern California
Interests
Music, Painting, Photography, Writing, Travel, Cats. Complaining.
Occupation
President, ZT Amplifiers, Inc.
Signature
Playing dice with the Universe.

[zelgall]

You should also add that he claims to have designed the first high end mini speaker, the super zero. It's a small book shelf type about the size of a rogers LS3/5a, smaller than a JBL 18Ti, both of which predate the super zero.
Here's his resume: Ken Kantor resume

[Altec Best]

Had to post in that thread

[Phil-G]

Had to post in that thread

so did i boy, that kanter sure gets personal. he told me off, saying he liked the way his butt smells when it hurts in the morning.

[bowtie427ss]

I was just about to post in that thread when my girlfriend asked me if i wanted to help her shave, that was the end my posting interest. Then when i looked at it again today...............

[Phil-G]

told you not to dare me.
to me the came off as a spoiled brat. with a very limited maturity level. not sure i was blamed for the childish taunts or not, but i figured fight fire with fire.

[Altec Best]

Conchita Wurst - Rise Like A Phoenix (Austria) 2014 Eurovision Song Contest Winner - YouTube


Wtf ...........That's the last thing I needed to see today..I won't be right the rest of the day.

[tomt]

.



read something about kantor,

where he says that 'boston' is the center of the hifi world.

he went to 'mit', just like amar,

(see how that went?).

and here he is, still fighting the,

east coast v. west coast sound, marketing war.

and now sells class d amps from china.

how much more "east coast sound"

can he get?

(china sure is east.)

`````````````````````````````````````````````````` ``````

and now we come to this -

Sick Stereo Setups at San Francisco Cafes - Sprudge

but I’m still kind of obsessed with these mirrored plinths of loudspeaker awesomeness

that were hanging in the Embarcadero station.

They’re beautiful, and also clearly crunchy, in need of a power wash,

and probably only working to like half capacity.

and the picture -




for those that read this forum that have not yet been,

to the Embarcadero station, on the bart system,

this picture is of a light fixture.



`````````````````````````````````````````````````` ````

now for some better news.

all the underground sound system in the bart system was originally altec.

most still is.

quite a few 409's ...