[Vintage-Audio] Re Speaker Performance

[Duane Fischer, W8DBF]

Bob, 			
	
Yea, ya got me. I did stretch things on my analogy with the Flea breaking wind
and the 757 taking off. My hearing is so accute that I hear things sighted
compatriots simply ignore. Notice I said "ignore", and not "did not hear". The
idea that when a person loses one of their five basic senses, the others
compensate by becoming nearly 6 Million Dollar Man bionic, is false. The
differenece is, and it is an important one, is that I listen to all sounds
because I am not distracted by visual input. The human being learns 92% of what
he/she learns by visual input in one form or another. My biggest difficulty is
in filtering out all of the sounds to focus on what I want, or need, to hear.
The older I become, the more difficult this filtration process becomes. My life
depends on my hearing, and the ability to hear essential sounds or changes in
the air pressure on the surface of the eardrums, daily. One misinterpretation
can result in an injury or my becoming fertilizer. 	
	
J.D. Sumner, for the record, is in the Ginnis book of World Records for hitting
a note of 32 Hz! He was the lowest bass singer in the world. For those who care,
the song was on the album The Incomparable Stamps and is Blessed Assurance. He
and his Stamps quartet, (southern gospel), backed up Elvis Presley the last
seven years the king of rock and roll was alive. Yes I knew J.D. Sumner, have
his autograph and enjoyed him many times in person. He not only could hit those
unbelievable notes, he could sing down there! Will never be another! 		
	
My listening room has a 60% Cork cieling, with carpet and drapery to dampen
sound bounce. The J.B. Lansing Century L-100 are mounted at the cieling and
angled down to hit at ear level at the opposite end of the room while sitting on
the couch with twin recliners built into it. The B&W are positioned either side
of the master console and are floor mounted. They can be used as monitors or
phased in with the J.B. Lansings. When phased, the entire wall lights up with
sound. You have to hear it to even begin to comprehend what I am speaking of.
Writer though I am, words fail this!  	
	
The proper room is just as important as the proper electronics for listening. A
harsh room yields a harsh sound. Remember those high school assemblies in the
gymnasium with that echo off the brick walls? Then think about the outside
amphitheaters with such perfect acoustics as to not require a microphone and
public address system for a person standing in the middle to be heard by
everyone seated there. 	
	
My eleven year old grandson was listening to what I had on the stereo and told
me to use those speakers up by the cieling as they sounded way better than those
on the floor. What can I say? Even an eleven year old picked the J.B. Lansing
Century L-100 over the B&W 630's.  	
	
Duane W8DBF   	

	



----------
From: Robert  J.  McKee <mckee137@mindspring.com>
To: vintage-audio@mailman.qth.net
Subject: Re: [Vintage-Audio] Re Speaker Performance
Date: Thursday, August 15, 2002 5:49 PM


----- Original Message -----
From: Duane Fischer, W8DBF <dfischer@usol.com>


> Please do not misunderstand where i am coming from. I have
> dealt with audio for over forty years. I am also totally
blind, now.
> I know good sound when I hear it. I can hear a Flea fart at
five
> hundred yards while a 757 is taking off!
>
<snip>
Duane is stretching things just a bit here to make a point,
and I
believe it has to do with detail... where a truly outstanding
system
shines.  That 757 taking off should not distort the flea fart
and this
is very important in good sound reproduction.  The term Hi Fi
has
no meaning whatsoever any longer.  Altec tried years ago to
get
away from it by using the term Playback.  And that term bombed
also with the "professional" association.  Because
"professional"
really meant reliable and had little to do with accuracy of
reproduction.

Duane also made a point in an earlier posting which hit home
with
me.  I designed and built a home in the early nineties with
music in
mind.  The music room is also the listening room with floor
dimension
of 16' x 30' with clerestory design... the ceiling sloping
from almost
19' to 10'.  It does wonderful things for my stereo system.
For the
very first time I was not overdriving a room.  For the very
first time
I felt solid organ pedal tone power.  I had heard loud before,
but now
power (and there IS a difference).

The size of my woofer in my two-way system is 10".  Anything
larger presents problems with being s l o w to the point of
distraction
from music.  There may be some large drivers out there with
the
necessary combination of small voice coil diameter with
micro-gap
and small magnet which would be quick and accurate, but none
have come my way.

Always happy to stir the pot a moment or two.
Bob McKee


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