Why do good speakers sound so bad...

[Lawrenzini]

in shops. I hope this is the right section, I have been wanting to discuess this for a while however it seems abit trivial for the speaker forum. However, I have noticed that all shops seem to have extremly exspensive speakers made by Bose, Jamo etc... I even saw a shop recently where they had a par of B&W Nautilus's (the ones that look like a sea shell). Yet they all sound poor. Beyond poor... I can think of some reasons why, but does anyone have a conclusive reason why speakers in shops, no matter how good, sound so bad?

[jackal]

No speakers will sound good when there is a lot of ambient noise to distract you. That's why very good retailers will have dedicated acoustically dampened listening rooms where you can properly demo kit. Some kit is so transparent (prestige Nautilus being a Good example) that any deficiency in either the recording material or source components will be ruthlessly revealed. Other times some retailers will hook budget kit to high end speakers to try and convince the unwary that the kit they are trying to flog is better than it really is - always fails in my view.

BTW - Bose Never sound good:grin:

[Lawrenzini]

Not always true about bose, I was in a Comet type shop in holland playing with one of those bose 2.1 jobbies when I pressed one of the demo buttons. It nearly blew my head off, the sound was very nice, I had to run to the other side of the shop to get away from it. I was very impressed. However it nowhere near justified it's 2k pricetag.

[mason]

Not always true about bose, I was in a Comet type shop in holland playing with one of those bose 2.1 jobbies when I pressed one of the demo buttons. It nearly blew my head off, the sound was very nice, I had to run to the other side of the shop to get away from it. I was very impressed. However it nowhere near justified it's 2k pricetag.

i think..IMHO.. this is why bose get a bad name.... simply because they are over priced etc.

i mean i dont think that they are that bad but they dont justify the price they are offered at

[ariecol]

Bose lack of midrange if u listen again.... Just my 2 pence worth...........

[Garrett]

Bose lack of midrange if u listen again.... Just my 2 pence worth...........
Seem to remember on a review program them reviewing a Bose system and one reviewer said they were "boom and tizz".

[BiggieBig]

bose are really bad for the price range.

had the cubes looked good but sounded awafull.......

[Mickey G]

I think this is also true for flat screen TV's (slightly off topic). I used to think that LCD and plama screen weren't that special until I went into a proper HiFi shop where I was blown away. I'm guessing places like Currys just dont know how to set them up properly and dont play HD demo disks. I think they must lose a lot of sales because of it.

Regards

Mickey G.

[Duffers0]

When I got into HiFi 25 odd years ago the general recommendation was to spend as much as possible on the front end source component.

Theory being that unless the source extracted as much detail as possible no other component in the chain would ever be able to recover the lost information.

At the time i remember reading Popular HiFi magazine regularly at one time they reviewed 3 £1000 vinyl turntable set ups

The most rediculous and test winner was £700 spent on a Linn LP 12 arm and cartridge the other £300 spent on amp, cables, speakers, spk stands.

The other set ups in the test to a greater or lesser degree spread the money more evenly across the 3 main components.

Though this philosophy has stuck with me over the years, with speakers being the least important part of a sound system and having the lowest influence on overall sound caperbility.

The modern way, with digital sources leading to more information at lower component cost, is to balance the spend.

What you experienced though more likely was quality speakers fed with poor front end source, poor inadequate amplification unable to provide the current required, connected together with bell wire!! slapped against a wall, less than 3 feet apart :devil:

Even today i wouldn't expect to reap the rewards of a £2k pair of speakers unless connected to at least £3k of amp and £1.5 -£2k of CD player with cables adding another £3-400

only my opinion though :thumbsup:

[Mike-M]

No speakers will sound good when there is a lot of ambient noise to distract you. That's why very good retailers will have dedicated acoustically dampened listening rooms where you can properly demo kit.

BTW - Bose Never sound good:grin:

Don't you think this can cause problems in it's self. My local Sevenoaks has an impressive demo room. But getting speakers home into a normal enviroment they can sound totally different to what they sounded like in a room with foot thick walls with acoustic cealing material

[Lawrenzini]

Don't you think this can cause problems in it's self. My local Sevenoaks has an impressive demo room. But getting speakers home into a normal enviroment they can sound totally different to what they sounded like in a room with foot thick walls with acoustic cealing material

accoustic room treatments are one upgrade that most people seem to ignore, ironic as they are probably give you the most improvment for your cash. however, most people have wives who wouldnt appreciate carpet on the walls :)

[Knyght_byte]

accoustic room treatments are one upgrade that most people seem to ignore, ironic as they are probably give you the most improvment for your cash. however, most people have wives who wouldnt appreciate carpet on the walls :)

their cats however would love it! :grin:

[barn]

I have thought about this and the best reason that I can come up with is that your ears become adjusted to your own home acoustics, I have alwayse found that hifi gear sounds better at home than in the shop. But some people say the opposite, who knows ?

[DaveChester]

You also have to factor in that it takes new speakers some time to open up and perform adequately (I call it bedding in). I can't quantify how much time but in my case it is about 2 months of use. The difference can be quite astounding.

I have always thought the shope turn stock over too quickly for this and that is why they sound bad in shops (probably coupled with a good helping of the problems mentioned by the others above).

[Gordon @ Convergent AV]

Well I have heard great speakers sound great in great shops.....

Lawrenzini: You seem to be contradicting yourself here
" It nearly blew my head off, the sound was very nice, I had to run to the other side of the shop to get away from it". Or is it that you think speakers that make a sound you want to run away from are good? :)

[Lawrenzini]

I meant clothes shops and the like, obviously professional Hi-fi dealers can get their set ups to sound good...

[barn]

If you have a lot of speakers etc in a limited area + are turning over a lot of models / brands then compromisers would have to be made and lesons learnt