"If you assume (and that can always be a big mistake
) that the speaker designer did as much as possible when voicing their speaker to give it, at the very least, an accurate frequency response curve, by not having issues in the room/equipment/cabling that they used during design, then a shifted upper frequency response, leading to "brightness" should not be a problem with most properly voiced speakers."
>Problem is manufacturers use a reference system, when "voicing" their test comoponent. And how accurate is their reference system?? Not very in most cases. The finished product becomes very dependent on how good their reference system is. That is the problem with simply "voicing" a component.
>One would be surprised how the frequency response varies with different speakers. I have heard them. (And yes, amplifier speaker interface is also a problem as mentioned above. Damping factor etc) Some speakers are absolutely horrible and were "voiced" using inaccurate "reference" systems and rooms to begin with. That is part of the problem, inferior associated "reference" electronics.
"If you hear brightness from a speaker, or harshness (some may perceive this as an effect of brightness), then most probably what you are hearing is some other component creating/sending this response shift to the speaker."
>"Voicing" their speakers using inferior electronics, so that the system is "dark" will produce a bright speaker, which is what we do not want.
"The room itself may be causing the speaker to sound bright and any speaker placed in the same room would also have this quality."
>Very true. But one won't know for sure if one is using inferior electronics (source, preamp, amp etc), or the speaker.
"It's easier to get a speaker to to reproduce high frequencies (the quality of which will be determined by tweeter choice and crossover quality) than it is to get it to reproduce lower frequencies (we're talking "quantity" here). A speaker that might sound bright to almost anyone in a system with marginal accompanying components might all of a sudden sound "open, detailed and revealing" when those problems were corrected."
>The question I pose is, how does one know which electronics is marginal and which is not? And how does one know if the speaker is really a reference? Something in the system has to be the reference/accurate, and the preamp/ICs are the ONLY components that can actually be tested for accuracy/transparency vs wire or 'nothing". Then work with the rest of the system, room etc.
"I've had a number of friends comment recently, who finally took my recommendation and inserted quality power cords in their systems, that the harshness and/or brightness of other cables and their systems in general greatly diminished when they corrected the problem rather than putting a bandaid on it by covering it up with lessor choices."
>Respectfully, how does one know the ICs, power cords were not the bandages, tone controls, by modding the response? What would the system sound like with the proper electronics and speakers to begin with?
>Another possibility could be that the manufacturer had such a poor reference system that he identify the problem to begin with, and thus supply the correct stock power cord?
>Once the preamp and ICs are found to be accurate, then we can work with the other components in the system. And it is easier because we have eliminated a couple of variables, the preamp and the ICs. If the new amp/source sounds bad, we know it isn't the preamps/ICs fault.
One also does not have to continually purchase preamps/ICs, and the additional matching power cords since the preamp is accurate with the high quality stock cord. A large savings there.
Cheers.
