A few observations...
As you can imagine, after shipping a pair of SongTowers to Craig for this blind listening test, I was eager to see the results. I concur with Dennis' comments that the test was conducted in as fair a manner as possible and I thought Nuance's comments were both well thought out, insightful and well expressed.
We shared the stage with some fine speakers by some very respected companies. Mark Shifter, for example, has set a high standard for speaker manufacturers selling direct over the internet. So I consider it a real honor just to be included in a group such as this. The fact that Nuance rated the SongTowers on top, albeit "just by a hair," is just icing on the cake. I could only have dreamt of this a few short years ago.
As for his scoring, the thing I found most revealing in his ratings were the SongTower's top scores in the first four categories (Definition, Continuity of Soundstage, Width of Soundstage and Impression of Width/Depth). Of the attributes judged, I consider these to be the most important.
A number of years ago (long before I built my first speaker), I was talking with an engineer for a very large retail speaker manufacturer. I asked him what it takes to sell a speaker in a retail environment. He told me that when people compare speakers in a retail showroom, they are most impressed with the depth of the bass and the detail in the high treble. The consumer will almost always choose the speaker with the brightest top end and the deepest bass. When I asked him about midrange detail, his opinion was that most consumers will not concentrate on this performance attribute until long after the purchase is made.
There is an often-repeated misconception going around that good music speakers do not make good home theater speakers and vice versa. To the extent that this is true, it is because speaker designers often trade midrange quality for bass extension (there is no free lunch in speaker design). When this is done, intelligibility suffers. And since intelligibility is extremely important in home theater applications (the midrange is where the dialog is), there is an element of truth to the argument. But it doesn't have to be that way. A speaker with great midrange detail and accuracy can excel in both applications.
After years of working in recording studios, I developed a fond appreciation for midrange detail and accuracy. Over the years, all of the speakers I have ever considered "great" have exhibited one thing in common: they excelled in the areas of midrange clarity and detail. That is where 80% of the information is. So that is the first area I concentrate on. If the speaker doesn't have it there, I find no reason to listen further.
I think this midrange-centric focus is readily apparent in all the speakers Dennis and I have worked on together over the years. Granted, I like impressive bass and an exhilarating top end as much as the next guy. But I would never opt for them at the expense of midrange performance. My reading of Nuance's ratings indicate that SongTowers do indeed perform well in this area.
I have a few observations on his comments regarding bass extension.
First, it would have been easy for Dennis to design the SongTowers around 7" drivers rather than 5" drivers. This would have insured greater bass extension. But it would have come at the expense of midrange detail. And as noted above, while it may have increased our scores in some areas, I don't think it would have been a good trade-off (speaker design is all about balancing trade-offs).
Second, we have developed the "SongSub" for those who require bass extension into the low 20's. It is the perfect solution for those who need their fix of deep bass.
Third, as Richard Swerdlow pointed out in an earlier post, TL bass is perhaps a bit more subtle than bass from a ported design. It doesn't necessarily "jump out at you" and probably takes a little more extended listening to fully appreciate.
The fact is, SongTowers have very respectable bass extension. They generate usable bass into the upper 30's which is quite respectable for a 2-way design (those who want more can always look at our HT3's which have usable bass into the mid-20's). At the recent Rocky Mountain Audiofest, one of the most frequent comments we heard concerned the bass performance the SongTowers delivered using 5" drivers. This, of course, is due to the mass-loaded TL cabinet design contributed by Paul Kittinger and based on the pioneering work of Martin King.
One final thought...
A few years ago I often ran across posts expressing doubts that small, internet-direct companies such as ours could possibly compete in terms of sound quality with large manufacturers selling speakers at retail. I see fewer and fewer of these posts today. I think our business model is finally maturing. As Nuance pointed out, "ID (internet direct) really does offer an amazing bang for buck. I would certainly choose the Salk Song Towers and Rocket RS850 Sig’s over the Paradigm Studio 100’s I auditioned a few weeks back. And oh, what’s this? They are quite a bit cheaper too!"
Once again, I would like to publicly thank Craig, Nuance and all those involved. We truly felt honored to be invited to participate.
- Jim