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In the Forum: Audio Discussions
In the Thread: Natural Remedies for Sick Speakers?
Post Subject: When the Listener is Ready,Posted by Paul S on: 9/28/2011
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...the Driver Will Appear

With appologies to the Buddha, and notwithstanding the fact that all the "action" on hi-fi forums centers around what to buy and where to buy it, success with speakers more often than not stems from lessons learned from "mistakes".  As for which drivers to buy, no one has asked on this thread (yet...), but I think that the mid-range is the place to start with drivers, then the tweeter(s), then work down from there.  Then, start over with the assembled drivers.  YMMV.  As for which particular drivers to buy, honestly, this can only draw circular "answers" that are more in line with the Zen koans than venal intentions will suffer.  Whether MF, HF, LF or ULF, any driver is only a machine, and it is not being facetious to say that any intelligence found to inhere in any driver must be so mirrored by its appreciator. This is not just a truism, it's The Truth.

FWIW, I see/hear LF as no different than "the rest of the sound spectrum" with respect to the need for "musical" drivers.  Even at LF, if you can get Music out of any "long-throw woofer" I have ever seen/heard, you must know something I don't about Sound or about Music, or you must possess a canny knowledge of physics that you ought not keep to yourself.

As for finding drivers: Probably, if to "hear the appearance", if it looks like a cast iron spaceship, then it sounds like a cast iron spceship. OTOH, one ought not assume that leather and wood, etc. are good because they are "natural", or that anything is anything else because it is fill-in-the-blank.  It's not that the indicators aren't good, but it's how they are used, of course. Eg, again, my "Best Driver" (according to prices) will be allocated to very limited (although critical...) duty in my system, because that's how it "works" for me in my idea of a system.  Sorry to disappoint, but it's my driver now, and it is NOT going WR on a large OB to play Motorhead.

Still on my "To Do" list: I would love to hear what others think of as "sonic indicators" that one sees/finds in various speakers/drivers, as opposed to the usual fraternal elbow to the ribs, "wouldja lookit that!".  The bald, fat and naked truth is, "seeing is hearing" is true only for those who are simply gifted or - generally - those who have learned by doing.

Paul S

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