RMAF 2011 – Silbatone, Sound and Fashion
This room played modern tube equipment on old Western Electric 757 speakers from 1947.
These speakers sound very different from most speakers of today. The resolution was much less than average, the notes ended a little too quickly, lots of midi-dynamics, but minimal micro- and macro-dynamics.
But the sound was immediate and very, very honest. – by which I mean that nothing was exaggerated and the sound was very predictable [lots of speakers sound different if a note happens during a complex passage versus happening during a quiet passage].
Silbatone preamp
Silbatone amp
So, as the world turned and the decades passed by like cars on a train…
So some companies built speakers with lots of resolution, some with notes that decayed slower and were ‘warmer’, some added lots of micro-dynamics (ceramic drivers) or macro-dynamics (big tall speakers with lots of big drivers)… AS IF many of these companies tried to address a weakness in this classic design while ignoring its other weaknesses and ignoring its strengths.
So now we have a plethora of flavors, a veritable Wall-mart of flavors, some even fashionable for a year or two, and only a very few designs that actually improved on this original by doing many things better, and very few things worse.
Anyway, that is what I think is the attraction to so many people when they listen to this system – and those like it. Its like a body-builder who only worked on their biceps for 64 years seeing a Olympic gymnast for the 1st time. It’s like ‘uh, maybe some of the ways we have been doing things have gotten kind of to the point of grotesqueness…?’
Very interesting take on the WE 757A.
I agree it is an “honest” loudspeaker and that is why it was good at its job as a studio monitor. And, yes, it delivers a vastly different presentation from the crowd of modern speakers at the show.
Many listeners fell in love with this old girl…too bad 757s are insanely rare and offer no possibility of more than a weekend fling for most of us!
I often wonder how much of what we call “resolution” is an artifact of speaker technologies. No doubt there is more detail coming out of many speakers than was in the original musical performance!
There is actually quite a bit of information in the 757 sound but it is integrated into the music instead of boldly foregrounded the way modern speakers tend to do things.
Maximum everything–dynamics, detail, bandwidth — does not necessarily add up to maximum musical enjoyment. Balance is key.
We brought these seldom-seen classic speakers to RMAF as “food for thought” and I thank you for giving them a thoughtful listen.
Joe Roberts
Silbatone
Thanks Joe, … and for the food? it was very nutritious.
I think we are more or less in agreement – although I also enjoy very much a very different kind of sound, hyper-fidelity even :-).
But the idea that maybe there is ‘more detail than in the original musical performance’ got me to thinking about hyper-fidelity versus the original musical performance … and the relationship between them:
http://audiofederation.com/blog/archives/877
Take care,
-Mike