GoodSoundClub - Romy the Cat's Audio Site

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In the Forum: Playback Listening
In the Thread: Playback as an expressive tool: what are your listening objectives?

Post Subject: Your playback is stressing drama by idiosyncratic use of texture and colors of soundsPosted by skushino on: 5/5/2011

This is one of my favorite posts on your site.

My daily playback system uses Tannoy 15" Gold drivers in large back-loaded Autograph cabinets. It isn't used for critical listening, rather it's mostly on in the background playing my local NPR radio stations. The sound is far from 'accurate' and 'neutral'. It's lacking in freq extremes, a little too rounded, and not especially transparent. They don't measure especially well. And yet the sound from this system never fails to make me smile from enjoyment. What it delivers for me is an almost psychedelic tonal color and a 'bouncy' dynamic ability. They play well at both soft and loud volumes. I really love music played through this system for these reasons.

My horn system has ~10x the money and effort invested compared to the Tannoys, but to be honest it fails to deliver the enjoyment I hear through my big Tannoys. My horns are way more transparent, clear, and dynamic in comparison, but the lack of tonal color is annoying in the extreme. There is a clear, almost blanched characteristic to the playback. My goal is seeking to implement the virtues of the Tannoys - especially the psychedelic tonal color and 'bounciness' - with my horns. Many years ago when I listened to Macondo, even though it wasn't fully operating, I remember the unique and idiosyncratic playback. This was before the injection and fundamental channels, and there were numerous other differences to your present set-up. Still, the lesson for me is that the interesting sound was possible even without your Tannoy injection channel.

I'm fortunate in having the big Tannoys at home to use as a performance benchmark to progress towards. Success for me will be after I learn to move my horn sound in this direction.

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