Music

* hi-fi and jigsaw puzzles
I love giving hi-fi reccos but it is inherently difficult because we all hear differently and have different definitions of what sounds "right." as a result, there is a not insignificant amount of work that you need to do—listening to many, many speakers—before investing serious money.

at some point I'll write a much longer post about what you need to understand about yourself, your listening habits, your listening space, and your sonic preferences before investing in speakers. the decision process is quite personal: it's a jigsaw puzzle that nobody can solve on your behalf.

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recently I’ve been using llms to analyze and compare speaker measurements like frequency response, impedance/phase, lateral/vertical response, spectral-decay plots, and step response.

there’s a longstanding debate in audiophile circles about the importance of measurements (“objective”) vs. listening in-person (“subjective”) when evaluating speakers and components.

the reality is far more complex because speakers are both an engineering problem and a psychoacoustic one, all wrapped up in the deeply personal realm of music.

pictured below are Rockport Avior II speakers with a Jadis integrated amp. you can also see a bunch of Pass gear in the silver cases.

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doesn’t subjective experience greatly depend on the room setup too?

big empty room with no soft furnishings will destroy a lot of that quality listening experience no?

great question, thank you @heavygweit!

the room is definitely a big contributing factor, for sure. imo under-looked relative to its importance. many audiophiles spend six figures on their equipment meanwhile their room looks (and sounds) like a medieval dungeon.

that said, a big three-way floorstanding speaker won’t suddenly sound like a sonos bluetooth speaker just because the room sucks. so there are certain unavoidable physical realities: how big is the speaker cabinet and driver(s), how efficient is the design, how many watts are driving it, ported vs. sealed enclosure, horn-loaded vs. dome tweeter, etc.

the room can certainly change how you experience a particular speaker or component, but it doesn’t change its fundamental sonic characteristics. for example, if a speaker has a bright/harsh top end, an untreated room will accentuate this and make it sound even more harsh. but even the best treated room can’t make the tweeter sound natural if it’s inherently bright and aggressive.

posted a lil reply as a quote, can elaborate more if you’re interested :)

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posted a lil reply as a quote, can elaborate more if you’re interested :)

https://warpcast.com/matthewb/0xa8d92df5