[Johnbr]

Found this .
http://www.dagogo.com/View-Article.asp?hArticle=1031

[Austin08]

The reviewer reaffirm my tough on removing the stuffing on the back of midrange section. A very nice and thoughful review.

[pstrisik]

"from layoff to loudspeakers" 

Way to go Jim!

[fsimms]

I thought the review was kind of bizaar. He talked about almost everything except how they sounded.  Strange for a review.

Bob

[Austin08]

I thought the review was kind of bizaar. He talked about almost everything except how they sounded.  Strange for a review.

Bob

He did talk about it and compared it to Legacy and Dealeus speaker. Athough not as much as one would expect from a pro review.

[fsimms]

Yes, but he just compared the bass response with those speakers.

Bob

[kip_]

I too found this review oddly negative and nitpicky. I've never heard anyone else complain about the binding posts, the metal grilles on the Accuton domes, or "syrupy" bass.

[Austin08]

I like the metal grill on the accuton and the SS bass never sound syrupy. Although, the SS8's bidding post are ok but I am thinking it would be nicer if there are more spacing between the bidding post. But this is a really minor flaw and everybody would not mind since the sound of the SS series more than make up for it.

[Nuance]

I too found this review oddly negative and nitpicky. I've never heard anyone else complain about the binding posts, the metal grilles on the Accuton domes, or "syrupy" bass.

The bass can most certainly be attributed to the room's affect below the Schroeder Frequency; who knows how treated it was?  As for the rest, lets play Devil's Advocate and look at it from a different perspective...  Most of the review was about build quality and specs, and when he spoke of "sound" it was generally only the negative aspects.  Perhaps not mentioning much about the midrange or highs simply means he had absolutely nothing to complain about.  OR maybe I am just interpreting it how I want to interpret it.

Seriously, though, overall it was good, but lackluster when it came to how the speakers actually sounded.  The first two pages were a little long winded...HAHA - says the guy who's known for long winded "reviews."  I guess I am the pot calling the kettle black. 

[DS-21]

I too found this review oddly negative and nitpicky.

Wouldn't a review covering $12,000 speakers be negligent if it weren't "nitpicky?"

And, if the author feels the product warrants it, "negative?"

Or should a review of an expensive (and obviously well-crafted, even though the reviewer's entirely correct in my view Accuton's grilles look cheap) just make the people who bought them feel good about their purchase?

The questionable things about the review, in my view, were the sections that exposed the author's technical ignorance. Both about the adjustability of the PR and about the sonic (as opposed to aesthetic - again I agree with him about the look of the Accuton grilles) points about grills generally. Perhaps there were others, but I stopped reading early in page two. (I quickly figured out that the author wasn't going to contribute anything meaningful to my knowledge of the Salk speakers, such as horizontal response plots.)

Such ignorance is unbecoming in someone who writes reviews of audio parts.

[fsimms]

You could be right Nuance.  At first I thought the editor probably edited out negative comments about the sound because he thought they were unfair.  Reading it again, I ran into the sentance, "Where the Soundscape 10 shines very brightly is in the midrange and trebble."  I guess he just had not much to complain about the sound.

Bob

[Vulcan00]

I did not find this review to be particularly negative especially if you dig into the reviewers past reviews and re-read the review. I had to painstakingly read his review of the SS10’s. I think once you “dig” some (if you care to) you find that actually he offers a counter positive response to his negative comments. Bottom line what I got from his review and digging a bit is the SS10 is a extremely beautiful speaker with flexibility,  with sound comparing with speakers 2x the cost.

Harrison

[jsalk]

The reviewer had this pair of SoundScape 10's in his system for eight months.  So he certainly had enough time to document any faults he was able to find.  He told me that if he listened to a component he did not think highly of, he would pass on the review rather than writing a negative one.  So from that point, being picky about the grills on the Accutons and the spacing of the binding posts is something we can certainly live with.

As for the Accuton grills, I can say with certainty that if they were not equipped with grills, we would not offer them.  On two occasions, I accidentally touched the rear of the cones when installing them and was treated to the sound of cracked ceramic cones...not pleasant to listen to and certainly not pleasant to replace at $350 each.  So, if they did not have grills, we wouldn't consider using them.

The binding post positions were determined by the Cardas jumpers we ship on these speakers.  If we spaced them wider, the jumpers would not work.  I figure Cardas has been around long enough so that they have pretty much established a reasonable standard for binding post spacing.

My only reaction to the review as a whole was that I wondered how valuable it would be to someone considering these speakers.  He did make some comparisons but really didn't address what the speaker sounded like as a whole.  So I'm not sure how valuable the review would be to someone trying to make a purchasing decision.

Other than that, he told me he was highly impressed with the speakers and thought we would be very happy with his positive review.  I guess we can't ask for more than that.

- Jim

[Saturn94]

........... even though the reviewer's entirely correct in my view Accuton's grilles look cheap.....

Hmmm....I must have missed that part.  I thought his issue with the grills was their supposed negative sonic impact, not asthetics.  Interesting that he didn't say the same about the RAALs screen/grill.

[Vulcan00]

Jim:

Have you ever done any comparison between grills on versus grills off?

Just wondering if standard grills or any type does affect sound propagations and results in changes in sound measurements?

Harrison

[jsalk]

Jim:

Have you ever done any comparison between grills on versus grills off?

Just wondering if standard grills or any type does affect sound propagations and results in changes in sound measurements?

Harrison

When we first started building speakers, we only offered grills if requested to do so and then asked the customer to avoid using them when doing critical listening.  I personally never use grills (other than perhaps on the woofer section where they have no impact), so I don't think about them much.

We've never done any specific comparison measurements, although they would not be difficult to do (and perhaps I'll do some just for kicks the next time I take some measurements). 

If you think about it, there are two factors here that would influence performance.

First, the grill cloth itself would tend to diminish only high frequencies slightly.  While I'm sure you could measure the difference, it probably wouldn't be all that audible.

The second issue is diffraction from the grill frames themselves.  This, I'm sure, would be more noticeable in the measurements and would tend to be slightly more audible.

Some companies state that they develop crossovers with the grills in mind.  I'm sure they do, but I'm equally sure it is more marketing in nature than technical.  Usually these differences will tend to be at higher frequencies and will tend to be very minor peaks and dips in the response.  Chances are, they are not all that audible. (For example, can you hear a 1/3 db peak centered at 12,867Hz?  Probably not.).

Of course, if you don't use grills, it is not at all an issue.  So we always recommend removing them when doing critical listening.  And we embed magnets in the cabinets so you are not looking at ugly plastic inserts when you do.

- Jim

[R Swerdlow]

I just read the review.  Congrats to Jim, Dennis and Jeff! 

I think the most important message we can get from this reviewer was that he kept the SS10s for 8 months.  He was so busy listening to music, or so stupefied from their wonderful sound, that he couldn't write anything for the better part of a year.

When most people hear these speakers, they usually can respond by saying "what speakers?"  So compared to that, three pages of text isn't so bad even if it did take 8 months.

[audiotom]

I thought the popart Analytical versus impressionist relaxed analogy was defining things in too much of a black white extremes.

The ideal speaker is completely neutral - resolving and tonally balanced.
Calling the ss impressionistic suggests they are rolled off in the hi freq and not as resolving.  I've heard too many glaring speakers that don't have the salks resolving elements

The review was too drawn out on specifications and not as insightful on the listening experience.

He makes some very positive comments but did not elaborate on them

[Saturn94]

...... And we embed magnets in the cabinets so you are not looking at ugly plastic inserts when you do.

- Jim

Just a suggestion I found quite useful that others may consider when ordering; I had Jim also install magnets on the back of my HT2-TLs to hold the grills safely out of the way when listening sans grills.  Works great!

[pstrisik]

Just a suggestion I found quite useful that others may consider when ordering; I had Jim also install magnets on the back of my HT2-TLs to hold the grills safely out of the way when listening sans grills.  Works great!

I was planning this when I ordered HT2TLs thanks to you mentioning it a while back.  My order is now for SS8s, but I don't think there is room enough on the back between the binding posts and the open back for the mid-range for the full grills to fit.  Maybe, but by eye it doesn't look like it.

.....Peter