elduderino

I recently read a post which recommended doing side-by-side listening to some full-range speakers at a Circuit City.

I have recommended in the past to listen to woofers in a similar scanario, but this kinda bugged, me, and I was thinking about why, so I decided to write a long post about it that might be irritating to people who don't like to read long posts.

LONG POST! Read at your own peril!

About 10 years ago I was tasked with developing a speaker and amp program for a big-name company who wanted to move into speakers and amps. I was dealing with the US representative for a Taiwanese speaker manufacturer who at the time was making for Kicker, Blupunkt, and some others. This guy was very smart, very experienced, and used to work for a big HU company before going out on his own.

When I was specifying coaxials, I got down to talking about off-axis frequency response. Most drivers are spec'd at on-axis, 30 degrees off axis, and 60 degrees off axis response, and in the highs especially, the response rolls off a lot at the high end. I wanted to make sure these sounded good in a a car.

He told me that since most big chain store demo boards aim the speakers right at you (on-axis) and many of the speakers usually go at eye level (instead of down low), that a speaker that was engineered to sound good down low and off-axis would sound terrible in a demo board.

He also told me that if a speaker sounded bad in a demo board, it never sold, REGARDLESS of how good it sounded in a car - especially at Circuit City and Best Buy (many companies dream of getting their product into CC and BB). It was a rule in the business that you designed for the demo board, because it had to sound good enough to sell and to get installed - and that's it. I have since confirmned this with a few speaker designer consultants and elsewhere.

So basically, here's the takeaway: Most speakers that are sold to big chain stores were NOT designed to sound good in a car - they were designed to sound best in a demo room board. Big companies - Pioneer, Sony, and to a degree even Alpine and some of the US speaker companies - have to take this reality of business into account. I mean, the salespeople at a BB or CC can't overcome that objection - heck, I'd have a tough time.

So any speaker that's available in a nationwide chain store, or is made by a company that wants to be - is suspect in its desgn simply from commercial considerations affecting performance results. Smaller companies that don't have that kind of product placement as a concern will make speakers that sound better most of the time.

Just something to consider when you're thinking about speakers - good speakers always sound better in the car than in the board.

Jonesi

Wow.. Well stated and I never would have thought of this scenario until you pointed it out..

I worked for Sprint back in the day and was a rep for Best Buy.. I know they also use the higher end video cables and other equipment to enhance the pictures on their high end tv's etc and degrade the quality on the lower end models to encourage the purchase of the more expensive equipment.. Crazy stuff that goes on behind the scenes..

phipark

Never thought of that. Good heads up.

jlukja

I had heard about this somewhere before. Good reminder, elduderino.

So now this begs the question. How does one shop for speakers? I mean if you want to listen to the speakers they are 99% of the time mounted on the demo board. Speaker sound and nuances vary but how do you believe your ears unless you can actually demo them in an enclosed environment mimicing the dimensions and speaker placement of your car? Do you eliminate the name brands right off the bat? Do you dig around to identify the design philosophy of each manufacturer? I know some companies actually have guarantees that if you don't like the sound you can get your money back (avincar being one). I can see that this SQ issue, and how to select a good system, can be very confusing. How about another post on the best way to go about selecting speakers. (and perhaps some music track recommendations for testing them).

jpswanberg

the best way i have found to audition speakers is to hear it in as amny places as possible and in as many cars as possible. at smaller stereo shops, i have found that many of the installers have their favorite speakers in their cars and have been very happy to show off their work (this lets you see what their installation skills are as well). The biggest problem i have found is that most installers are less concerned about imaging/staging than they are about bass and volume. after listening to many different speakers (id, speakerworks, focal, diamond audio etc.), i found that dynaudio suits my ears best. i have never hears dls, but being born in sweden, i am sure that they are great! when i trade in me 04 for an 06, i will have to drive up to el duderino to hear the dls. searching for speakers is a case when sometimes the chase is better than the catch. jps

jlukja

Excellent idea. Thanks. Imaginary rep points for you.

dark inspire

awesome post! ive always worried about that, so whenever we buy speakers we make sure to test them in the car for a bit, because there really is a difference.

i agree w/ jps as well, hearing the speakers in as many places as possible really helps, and unfortuantely most of the guys who build systems are focused on bass and volume rather than balance and roundness.

DerrickM

Yes, excellent post! I did exactly this last time around: I bought some speakers that sounded really good in the shop, but was never happy with them after getting them installed.

esk

I was checking out speakers at Tweeters and I thought the MBQuart QSD 6.5 sounded great compared to the other speakers. I can't help thinking if I was to put these in the TSX the sound might deteriorate. Not to mention I have doubts about the metal tweeter and I would have to get the 5.25. The salesperson also let me listen to JL speakers he installed in his car. I thought his system sounded worse than the TSX stock system. The tweeters were mounted on his door and they were very bright. The JL speakers didn't sound very good in the store, but after listening to the MB Quarts, nothing else did either.

nbagadio

Can this be a sticky?

Jonesi

Already is..

GermTheWorm

Great post! with that said any suggestions on what speakers to buy or how to tell whats best for you?

zidenx

iTrader: (1)

Best way is to listen to them. Your opinion on a set of speakers could be different than another persons.

Head out to a few audio shops and listen to what they have set up.