Floor Loudspeaker Reviews

Thank you.

An instant classic review!!!

that "breaks in" is the audiophiles brain. Opinions to the contrary are audiophile nonsense. But there's an aweful lot of audiophile nonsense about everything here so who am I to complain? Whatever you believe is true for you. A lot like religion. If something has no basis in fact then we're all free to believe whatever we decide. It's all good.

to get addictive it is necessary that the sound meets the "expectation" you expect from the sound of your hi-fi.

...verges on projection. It wants for traceability and falsifiability, and it contradicts reams of cross-linked, patternable user evidence. It gatekeeps for X what Y may hear. At its best the theory of habituation relies on disconnected assumption and at its worse it abuses and impairs the audio high end.

Together with the myth that things may not break in because reasons, it's another failure of pseudo-reductionism, in this case back down to average sound.

In no field is a phenomenon adamantly disallowed for you until I can prove it to my satisfaction. Just here.

Haven't we heard all these arguments from both sides before? They each fail to convince the other side.

I prefer to take each review at face value, including issues such as this, that inform us of the author's perspective and interpret it in the context of my own perspective rather than throwing out the baby with the bath water.

Funny story happened to me a few weeks ago regarding product habituation. A chap was selling a pair of Linn Kan stands and a recently refurbished pair of Linn Kan I’s. I got the stands and then wondered about buying the Kan I’s. Owning a pair of IIs, I thought it would be fun to do a side-by-side, but I thought better of it than spend $500 on a whim. A week later, he had reduced the price to $350 and told me that Linn purchasers were picky and didn’t want them because he had re-veneered the wood and wasn’t stock looking anymore. He offered to send them to me on his dime and compare them with mine and if I liked them, I could pay him after. When I finally compared them to my II’s I was stunned; mine sounded lifeless; I put my ear to the tweeters to ensure they were working. I checked with companies in the UK, including Falcon Acoustics, about what would cause this, and they think the caps in the crossover were toast. But I realized I was listening to these speakers the last few years, thinking everything was fine when they were slowly declining as performers. The I’s with the new caps, new Falcon Acoustics woofers, and new Hiquaphone tweeters were clearer, more detailed than my ten years younger IIs. Amazing what tricks my brain played on me, always knew I didn’t have golden ears. Time to recap and bring those II’s to full spec.

There was a guy in my Hi Fi Club who had a major league system, built around some "A" grade equipment.

When I first sat in his room, I thought he had found sonic paradise. Imaging, frequency response, everything.

It had that "live in the same room illusion."

It was perfect, until it started to dawn on me that while it certainly did have all those qualities, it was more like 'live in an eternally unchanging room.'

All the music had that great feeling, but every recording was placed into the same sonic room, over and over.

It wasn't doing anything wrong, but over time I came to dread hearing it.

Everyone's, even Jack L's, system sounds basically the same from day to day....habituation leads to some slight ennui which leads to changing gear. All systems fail that final test of live v recording. At first we may marvel at how close they come, but over time, we tire of hearing the same failure day after day, and we move on.

In general.

Sorry for drifting from the topic of breaking in gear. Breaking us in or breaking us down is also a big part of the hobby, for sure.

This is why I have 3 systems with different characters. A fleawatt SET with full-range open baffles. Then massive Maggies with tube pre and Class D amp. And then mini maggies with class A amp, for near field. Get a little tired of one, go to another.