To Neutral Speaker, or Not to Neutral Speaker...

That makes sense. ATC seems like a ‘reputation/performance’ company, not an ‘ads everywhere/image/lifestyle’ company.
.

 

It was said already - a flat frequency response sounds for human ears high pitched and shrill.
I was in speaker & HiFi Business many years and Heard- too much to believe in “neutrality”
Nothing is neutral. Not even near.
Already the separation into woofers and tweeters is an issue, as parts of the music reach your
ears and different times (Tannoy and now some KEF are different). Your ears appreciate a
coherent signal without phase and timing changes, means less work for the processor in
your brain (THAT is the fatigue).

Choose what you like most after a longer time, exciting systems can give you a lot of fatigue.

Just as a tip - try Tannoy for once, Eaton or Cheviot. Something is very right there ...

 

My main speakers are restored and upgraded Altec Lansing A7 theater speakers. While not a point source design like a dual concentric Tannoy design, they are by design, time aligned.

Are they neutral? Don't know, don't care...

They are nowhere near fatiguing, which works for me.

 

Oh, they are definitely not neutral, but for sure an awful lot of fun, would love to hear them
Same with my 1970 Monitor Gold (12inch), no fatigue, just fun

 

Mixing monitors typically are used in a Live-End/Dead-End settings and are placed extremely close to the person sitting at the mixing board ("True" Nearfield listening) so even if the studio is not set up in a LEDE arrangement the room boundaries have little to no influence on the sound. One purpose of this arrangement is to be able to hear an individual instruments subtle sounds and fine tune that sound and not necessarily listen to the whole like one does when they are in their home just enjoying their music. When the person at the mixing board wants to listen to the whole typically they move further out and might even listen to a more full range speaker since a lot of mixing occurs on two way designed speakers that will lack realistic bass. Most of what people listen to is upper bass to the higher frequencies with a lot of attention spent on the frequency range where vocals occur.

In a home stereo setting these types of speakers may not create the most ideal speaker sound since the typical listening distance is more mid to far-field. In addition non-ideal placement of speakers occurs along with rooms that are far from acoustically ideal. Most home listening takes place in a poorly treated room so the home speaker tends to be designed to be able to compensate for this. In addition I believe the masses of people who purchase speakers fall into either two camps; bass lovers or detail lovers equaling clear and extended high frequencies. The bass lovers purchase speakers that have that slight bass bump to extend the bass frequency further down the scale and give that big bass sound they are listening for, while the detail lover goes for a tweeter that can sound a little too extended and unbalanced to the mid-range. Again I am saying the masses who will go to box stores to purchase their systems not a SH forum members.

This leaves the true higher end speaker manufacturers trying to find the balance between these two camps. This is what most SH forum people are after. A studio monitor designed for mixing and to be totally flat will sound too sterile while the other end that is pushing one end of the frequency range is not neutral nor realistic to the sound of live music. When you throw in the listening environment it is almost impossible to know which speaker will be correct for you without a home audition. When someone asks the forum to recommend speakers, well this is subject to what sounds right to the person who is recommending a speaker. Their recommendation comes from that persons hearing acuity (older people or musician's hearing may be far from perfect), listening room, and preference in what sounds right to them. There is a good chance this may not match your hearing, room or what sounds good to you. Speaker selection is not an easy task. The only way to up your odds that you will get it right is a home audition.

I'm not saying asking for recommendations/help in selecting a speaker is a waste of time but be wary. I also believe most of the posts asking for recommendations/help in finding a speaker are to recieve validation for the speaker that the person is already leaning towards or to hel.

 

The mastering suite, on the other hand, can be quite a different environment than a tracking/mixing control room.

 

My head hurts.

 

I like to have relatively “neutral” sources and amplification and then choose speakers that have a sound I enjoy as well as making sure they are a good match to the room size.

I think all speakers color the sound to some degree in one way or another, so I might as well find some that excel in characteristics that match my priorities for sound quality.

 

Since some other ppl have fired up this thread again... here’s a Q for the ‘ATC-heads’ here:

ATC 19 Actives vs ATC 40 Passives — which one wins, and why?
.

 

After 40+ years of playing with audio I've learned quite a few lessons. One of these is that neutral is relative. Meaning there is no such thing as 100% neutrality.......every component, including speakers, will give a "colorization" to some degree. As a cured audiofool I have even given up the goal to achieve a completely neutral sounding set. Instead I found the right gear that matches, creating synergy and a colour that reflects my taste. In vinyl this is widely known an accepted, since everybody realizes that each cartridge and phono stage has it's own sound characteristics.
Of course, over these 40 years I've heard gear that sounds neutral, more or less, but I did not necessarily like it. As with so called Audiophile recordings, at least to my ears, it has a tendency of sounding clinical, sometimes even dull......as if all musicality has been sucked out of the recording.
So I'd say; just get the speaker that sounds best to your ears, and perform the best with your gear and acoustics.

 

Fascinating question, you would have to spend a fortune on amplification to approach what you get in an active configuration, but of course with the 40s you get a three way design.

If you get your source and amplification right you may appreciate the extra extension. However.....

You really need to hear this for yourself as the active 19s will have strengths that the bigger passives cannot approach.

What does your ATC dealer say? You know my bias / preference is for active.

I've only done this comparison with the models from 1994, so totally irrelevant and only posted something to bump your thread for you!!

 

Linn speakers haven't traditionally been speakers I think of as "neutral".

If you want neutral speakers for home use (you really don't!) buy monitors... but you won't enjoy them. My work speakers are a set of Dynaudio powered monitors which are great for evaluating records, but pleasure really just OK, if a little dry sounding. A friend of mine used to work for Meyer Sound and got a deal on a pair of HD1s. They were terrible when listening for pleasure... no imaging, no tonal saturation. Great bass... but... bleh. Fatiguing on bad recordings. Torture. That's work, not pleasure. Great if you want to figure which albums are the worst recorded in your collection , ruin the fun of pogoing to your favorite punk records and put them all in the trash instead.d

I'd forget all of your ideas about what is or isn't good. Hold other peoples opinions lightly. Make a short list of brands you are curious about, and find out where they are sold. Take 20 or so CDs/LPs/Digital Albums to a well-stocked audio store and just LISTEN. Decide what you like - what is pleasurable to you... what INCREASES your involvement and love for the recordings you have so thoughtfully curated and invested in.

 

Pre Kaber totally agree, anything Komri derived may well surprise a lot of listeners who knew the old school Linn designs.

Absolutely hold others opinions lightly (until you agree with and trust their opinion). The only important opinion is your own.

Better still are speakers that allow you to appreciate unknown music and understand genres you previously wouldn't listen to as well as making favourites shine.

 

Hi @Cyclone Ranger, happy New Year a year on!

Just unintentionally found your thread, so here is another bump.

Have you had a chance over the last year to have a listen to any of the speakers you were interested in?

 

[QUOTE="Just as a tip - try Tannoy for once, Eaton or Cheviot. Something is very right there ...[/QUOTE]

I can attest to the Tannoy Eatons being a very involving speaker - I'm not really sure what neutral should sound like in my room (albeit I did try a friends old harbs - can't recall the model - and they didn't give much pizazz) but their seperation yet cohesive and very wide soundstage all with a very wide sweetspot has me happily listening for 30+ hours a week. The better masters and/or res are clearly audible, but still are kind to Spotify or poorer recordings.

 

Neutrality is good if you listen to numerous genres. Cause everything will sound right.

Romantic speakers will not work for genres like hip hop, maybe classical, maybe even rock

 

most definitely!