Advice before buying
When itīs time to buy new equipment, many people usually run around in stores, listening to lots of products to find the "right" sound. Here are some generall hints and tips to keep in mind:
- Make sure you listen at the same level for all speakers
- Make sure the amplifier is set to "flat" frequency response so you listen to the speakers character and not the amp
- Make sure you use a neutral amplifier, and not one that colours the sound by itsels. For instance, tube amplifiers should be avoided as these often add a lot of overtones/distorsion.
- Different characters of speakers might make it difficult to set the same listening level. If the speakers have a very different character, listen for a bit longer between changes.
- The classic "loudness" sound is easy to fall for when listening in a store, but remember itīs a sound that can quickly cause listening fatigue
- Listen to your own records that you know the sound of, preferrably a wide range of musical styles
- Make sure you use records that are neutral in their character
Music with lots of air in between the instruments is much easier to make sounding great, but is not as demanding from the speakers and amplifiers as more dense music at louder level (read rock). Rock / hard rock is for some reason generally not recorded as good so this has to be taken into account when listening.
The biggest problem when listening in a shop is again the room. It causes very big difference in terms of character, especially in the bass region. Speakers may sound very convincing in a store but mediocre at home. A good solution is to borrow the speakers and listen at home, but the limitation is you might nog have anything to compare them to. Considering the huge impact the room have, we think trying to evaluate a subwoofer by listening in a shop is nothing but waste of time as thee are usually lots of adjustments and options. It becomes very difficult to come to a correct conclusion when listening in a shop.
The correct settings for front speakers and subwoofers is critical, for example if doing a A/B test between two subwoofers where one of the subs has not been set to the correct phase, the results can be very misleading.
Even if both subs are set to 0 degrees phase this is no guarantee that they really do have the same phase. One of them may have an internal phase shift. The crossover setting also affects phase. Two different subs may not have the same presumption just because the crossover is set to 100 Hz for both. The character of the driver, cabinet and filter slope also matters.
Basically, the only thing you might test in a store is how loud a bass will play before starting to sound bad.
Many speakers are built and designed to be easy to sell in a store, rather than sounding optimal. Many brands optimize their speakers for stores by lowering the impedance, increasing efficiency and tuning the frequency response for elevated tweeter- and bass levels. A quick switch between speaker A with higher efficiency and a "loudness" type of sound, and speaker B that have lower efficiency and a flat frequency response, will surely make speaker A sound much more detailed, heavier and more impressing. However, once installed in your home, you may quickly become tired of this character while speaker B would have been a long term winner.
If only one amplifier is available, so a individual level setting of the speaker is not possible, try listening for a bit longer to each speaker before switching to the other one.
We offer you three weeks of Buy & Try so you can get to know the speakers in your home, not having to rush things like in a store. This is a great way of becoming completely satisfied with your purchase.