New amp and speakers, what to consider.

[Mikeandvan]

I got a Sugden A21a with phono stage and recent service for £650, it'll arrive next week, hopefully not bashed about by a courier. I swapped out my ANJs with my valve amp for the Sx2s, and the sound is much smaller, reedy treble, the ANJs are much more expressive, really flesh the sound out. Of course I didn;t buy Sx2s to use valves, but thought I'd give them a try. They seem to accentuate drums, not really a balanced sound, but I'll give them a chance with the Sugden before I write them off. I probably should have went for something bigger in the Neat range, as one thing I am enjoying is their more rhythmic presentation with rock music.

[Macca]

I'm going to suggest you stop buying 'designed by ear' speakers like the Audionotes and Neats.

I know they do it for some people but I don't think you're one of them.

[Lawrence001]

Could be a good idea. I guess you can look at ASR for a good rec

[Macca]

Could be a good idea. I guess you can look at ASR for a good rec

trouble is they rarely test anything you can get very easily in the UK as they rely on people sending in their own speaker to be tested.

I still think Wharfedales are the answer to all Mike's problems. Old ones or new ones. Not the Delta 30 though.

[Lawrence001]

What about Q Acoustics, Concept range maybe?

[Mikeandvan]

I'm going to suggest you stop buying 'designed by ear' speakers like the Audionotes and Neats.

I know they do it for some people but I don't think you're one of them.

I wasn't aware of the Neat sound at all, not that I'm writing them off yet, wait until I get the Sugden, but you could be right, neutrality really does make sense doesn't it?

[Lawrence001]

Designed by ear are less likely to be neutral since that's what most makers aim for by measurement isn't it?

[walpurgis]

Speakers are inherently not neutral. The recipe is a balancing act between colourations and response anomalies etc., it's never perfect.

Goodness knows what speakers designed without a human actually having listened to them sound like, it must happen I guess.

The perfect speaker will never exist............well, the perfect anything will never exist!

[Bourney]

I got a Sugden A21a with phono stage and recent service for £650, it'll arrive next week, hopefully not bashed about by a courier. I swapped out my ANJs with my valve amp for the Sx2s, and the sound is much smaller, reedy treble, the ANJs are much more expressive, really flesh the sound out. Of course I didn;t buy Sx2s to use valves, but thought I'd give them a try. They seem to accentuate drums, not really a balanced sound, but I'll give them a chance with the Sugden before I write them off. I probably should have went for something bigger in the Neat range, as one thing I am enjoying is their more rhythmic presentation with rock music.

Did you buy the Suggie from Sean in Notts Mike? If so, hes a decent fella who I've met a couple of times. He bought the proac d15s he's selling from me.
Not sure Suggie will give you what you want through the Neats though, its those long throw drivers that have a looseness about them to my ears.. reckon thry need an amp with a lot of grip. Be interested to hear your findings. Those Proac D15s I had would have worked with the Sugden though.

[Macca]

Speakers are inherently not neutral. The recipe is a balancing act between colourations and response anomalies etc., it's never perfect.

Goodness knows what speakers designed without a human actually having listened to them sound like, it must happen I guess.

The perfect speaker will never exist............well, the perfect anything will never exist!

Yes all speakers have compromises and no speaker is perfect.

But... the problem with 'listening' to a speaker to judge its efficacy is what do you use as programme? Just because a speaker sounds good with one recording, or ten recordings, does not mean that its flaws will not show up with a recording you did not listen to. So unless you have the time to check the speaker with every recording ever made you're likely to produce a speaker that enhances some recordings but makes others unlistenable.

If you come across someone who is obsessed with 'recording quality' you can bet a pound to a penny that he is using 'designed by ear' speakers. Or his listening room is a virtually empty highly reflective box.

Designing a speaker based on solid engineering principles means it will give an even handed treatment to every recording you play. Recordings are not mastered on speakers that were designed by ear.

This is something that has been extensively researched and it has been found that 75% of people prefer the sound of a properly engineered speaker. You can design a properly engineered speaker without listening to it as part of the design process. It will sound good because there is absolutely no reason why it wouldn't.

That does leave 25% of people who are looking for something different however. Which is why designed by ear speakers tend to have a cult following. But they will polarise opinion, you will either love them or hate them. If you mainly listen to a particular genre of music and that plays to the strengths of the speaker then it will work for you better than the jack of all trades speaker.