After the last post, it has come to our attention that some people still do not know what the $295K Coltrane Supreme speakers are.
Nor what we mean by competent, nor by capable.
First, we do not use the word ‘best’, because by ‘best’ most people mean that the speakers work and that someone – with likely limited experience in the high-end, corruptible ethics, or whose vocabulary is limited to about 10 words – somewhere, likes the speakers sound better than the sound of other things they have heard and so they grunt out ‘best’ or ‘blows me away’.
By COMPETENT we mean they do the thing speakers are supposed to do… i.e. convert the electronic signal they are given into sound in a way that is actually faithful to the signal they are given.
No, most speakers DO NOT do this. They try to make impressive sound in response to a signal, whether that signal is impressive or not. They try to be enjoyable, or engaging, or coherent, or dynamic – both to 1) compensate for the anticipated problems the manufacturers anticipate their speakers will have to deal with vis-a-vis upstream components, and 2) to cater to the natural desires of humans to enjoy / brag about / talk about overly emphasized aspects of music (and of life in general) [i.e. people do not mind, for awhile, something that is too sweet, too dynamic, to detailed, too big breasted… but it will get old and it is almost certainly fake].
An example of competency? Well two actually.
First, the 2.5 inch diamond midrange handles all frequencies between 1200 and 8000 Hz. So in a large sense, the Supremes are able to achieve the coherence, imaging and soundstage of a single-driver speaker, using the best [conventional] driver known to man or woman.
Second, the active bass is powered by a [included] 2000 watt / channel solid-state amp. Compared to other speakers with powered subwoofers [big Von Schweikerts, YG Acoustics, etc], and closest competition price-wise [Focal Grande Utopia FE, Acapella, Kharma Grand Exquisites] the two dedicated towers of 6 10inch high-resolution ceramic woofers, with phase and volume control to adjust to the room] has the ability to render DETAILED bass. Yes, it can sound impressive when your teenage son’s friends come over – but, and this is what is amazing, it can also sound real. Like real instruments. Or rather, it just reproduces the electronic signal it is given by the upstream components. It will sound natural on jazz, and tight and electronic on Techno and ethereal on classical movements recorded in large halls.
Yes, some people want that BOOM boom big boom box sound with marginal detail or structure for the bass frequencies on every track of every kind of music. And the speakers above try to do the best they know how within the limitations imposed by the speaker’s design [and certainly, people put the most gawdawful amps on them that exacerbates this, esp. at shows]. But for people who want a little more, who have the wherewithal and desire, you can choose to have a competent speaker that allows the music to sound like music, even below 100Hz.
By CAPABLE we mean that the sound coming out the speaker is not only influenced by upstream components [most are, though some, still sold as high-end audio speakers, are not] but the sound is almost completely determined by the upstream components. Capable is really 1) having no [little] sound of its own and 2) having no [minimal] limitations on what kind of signal it can reproduce.
An example of capable is the ability to render decay properly [as determined by the input signal]. With the latest Emm Labs players (XDS1, TSD1/DAC2) and Nordost ODIN cable (and top flight components) the background is so black, and there is so much control over the signal, that the decays in each note are almost orgasmic. If you have ever strummed a REALLY good acoustic guitar, or hit a key on a really good piano, you know about decay. These are the kinds of instruments musicians are using, why aren’t you hearing it on your system? It is one of the most delicate aspects of a note, and one most audiophiles have had to ignore. For many years we blamed the source media, but we were wrong.
The point is that most speakers are incapable of rendering this kind of decay [which, by the way, the $60K Coltranes can also do].
Maybe this, and the 100s of things we do not have time to talk about, like inner harmonic detail and color, evenness of treatment of all kinds of dynamics from 20Hz up, etc. that we have heard with everything from the Lamm ML3 and Audio Note On-Gaku and Kegon Balanced, to Edge NL Reference amps] is not important to you, personally. Maybe you like to put ketchup on everything you eat. Me, I like to taste the actual food [music]… but then again Neli puts hotsauce on everything that is green.
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Sure, we all enjoy speakers that are cheaper or have lots of flaws here and there – often because of a few individual strengths which we treasure. Most of us even enjoy our measly car stereos to some extent. That is not the point. The point is if you want the ability to stop worrying about how your speakers are Mucking up the sound of all this great gear you have, and want to worry instead about how there are people in this world that have way way more LPs than you do, then these speakers can do that for you.
