Large Scale Speaker Sound.

freQ(*)Oddio

Super Member
Bookshelves and Floorstanders both have their own sound and advantages. Large scale, multi driver speakers are something that some people have not experienced, it does not have to be a new , expensive design. A large soundscale that really makes a lump in your throat and makes your knees weak from the “size “ of the music. Not just volume. I am just happy to have a name for it now. And understand scale. With some speakers, you can “emotionally” feel the music
in your bones. Its really amazing . And it cant be done with a bookshelf or small driver floorstander from what i have heard. This experience is not from monitoring music. You live inside it. Sounds crazy , but scale is my new word.
 
Back to OP's comment... I'm with you FreQ. I have very good small 2-way monitors, on good rigid stands, two good subwoofers, and it's all set up properly. It does what it does beautifully, covers the whole frequency range and images beautifully — but it can't do "scale", and I miss it. I guess I'm a 'big speaker guy'.

I'll go a step farther. Old fashioned designs with a big front baffle and a big woofer in front do scale best: they throw a big soundwave at you and it hits more than your eardrums. I have more 'modern' line arrays — narrow baffles with big woofers on the side — and they don't do scale well either; in fact, they sound to me very similar to standmount 2-ways + subs, only in a single cabinet.

Most of us on AK like Vintage gear and sound; we follow new trends and 'developments' but don't reflexively rush out to buy the 'latest'. The new fashion for narrow-front/line-arrays may be good at imaging, but something's lost — like scale, and for me, the organic wholeness of the Music. I cite a recent speaker review, the latest in design for "imaging and accuracy" — "Each musician occupies his own spatial envelope, and they never overlap." It's meant as praise.

It means string quarters and rock groups don't have to rehearse for years anymore to "sound as one." To sound-as-one is silly: each instrument should be in its own envelope. They can then be mailed in. The musicians never even need to meet. And so much easier for orchestras: getting 70 or 80 people together in one place to do anything together is such a hassle.

@ Musichal — Um, no comment on 'Kegeling' — unless you mean the conductor Herbert Kegel. If you don't know his work, it won't surprise you to learn it's 'tight'.
 
Easy way, go to a Best Buy Magnolia and listen to the big B&Ws driven with the 600watt mono McIntosh amps. The soundstage is not just wide, it goes from floor to ceiling.
 
In my office, I have vintage and modern speakers. They all sound good when I am in the same room.

But after everyone leaves for the day and I crank it up, I can tell the difference when I wander around my office suite. With the same SPL in my office, my modern Klipsch towers with their dual 6.5" woofers don't project sound outside my room and down the hall like my OLA, Advent /1, and Rectilinear III Lowboys do with their big a** woofers. Size matters, but not the size of the cabinets.
 
In my office, I have vintage and modern speakers. They all sound good when I am in the same room.

But after everyone leaves for the day and I crank it up, I can tell the difference when I wander around my office suite. With the same SPL in my office, my modern Klipsch towers with their dual 6.5" woofers don't project sound outside my room and down the hall like my OLA, Advent /1, and Rectilinear III Lowboys do with their big a** woofers. Size matters, but not the size of the cabinets.
That is another experience you brought up, the size of the music can even be enjoyed from other rooms in the house. And from other rooms you can tell something big is going on , and im not talkin subwoofers.
 
Hi Op,

In short, I have to agree with you 100%. In my forty plus years as a Audio Hobbyist, I have tried a LOT of equipment and a TON of Speakers. While I find many smaller Bookshelf speakers
that sound lovely, I often sell them off rather quickly as they just can't give me what I want in Sound. Now, I have found that smaller drivers CAN sound VERY large.....however.....said smaller drivers (i.e. 5.5" etc.) sound pretty damn BIG in my Polk 10 Monitors, no doubt to the 50 pound/large'ish Cabs (and a large passive). On the whole however, I find that my pair of (nice sounding) Polk T90e Euro Towers just don't have the same IMPACT as the 10 Monitors yet, both have smaller drivers. I guess perhaps cabinet SIZE is the trick ? Of course BIG Cabs and Big Drivers, no contest.

SixCats!
 
I also agree 100% with the original post/contention.

I've often made comments about my speakers having "the scale of life" as contrasted with just playing 'loud'... (which they will also certainly do)

Sounds to me like you clearly get it.... and until someone actually experiences it.... they THINK they have it in their system, then they have a WOW moment when they hear it.
 
I also agree 100% with the original post/contention.

I've often made comments about my speakers having "the scale of life" as contrasted with just playing 'loud'... (which they will also certainly do)

Sounds to me like you clearly get it.... and until someone actually experiences it.... they THINK they have it in their system, then they have a WOW moment when they hear it.
Yes that happened to me and i have some fairly high end KEF bookshelves.....but i was emotional when i heard the large scale , i mean really emotional, almost religious , i think there is a resonance that effects all your senses at once. Not saying what the speakers were because many are capable of this.
 
Reproducing convincing image height is why I use seven and eight foot tall line array electrostats. :)
Yes a large electrostat review is actually how i started thinking about Large sound, not depending on a 1” tweeter filling a home with sound pressure. A complete full range panel is cetainly a main contender as others, from what i have heard.
 
I also agree 100% with the original post/contention.

I've often made comments about my speakers having "the scale of life" as contrasted with just playing 'loud'... (which they will also certainly do)

Sounds to me like you clearly get it.... and until someone actually experiences it.... they THINK they have it in their system, then they have a WOW moment when they hear it.
Like i said i now call my bookshelf listening just monitoring music closely.
 
Bookshelves and Floorstanders both have their own sound and advantages. Large scale, multi driver speakers are something that some people have not experienced, it does not have to be a new , expensive design. A large soundscale that really makes a lump in your throat and makes your knees weak from the “size “ of the music. Not just volume. I am just happy to have a name for it now. And understand scale. With some speakers, you can “emotionally” feel the music
in your bones. Its really amazing . And it cant be done with a bookshelf or small driver floorstander from what i have heard. This experience is not from monitoring music. You live inside it. Sounds crazy , but scale is my new word.
I agree. I've had some really nice speakers but none of them gave the large soundscale of my Altec 19s in the proper environment.... don't even come close. I'm sure there are other large driver speakers in the same general category that best them but the Altecs certainly make the point. After a recent move the Altec's simply do not work well in the too small room available so will have to part with them. I also have a restored pair of JBL 220s which I didn't really like in my former location that, wonder of wonders, really love the new place... and while they aren't small or even mid sized, actually quite big and heavy, they lack the real soundscale impact of the 19s. Something about efficiency too, maybe... the Altecs are about 10db more efficient over the JBls and listening with the same amp confirms it... also, peak sustained spl levels available. I have high power amps.
 
Yes a large electrostat review is actually how i started thinking about Large sound, not depending on a 1” tweeter filling a home with sound pressure. A complete full range panel is cetainly a main contender as others, from what i have heard.
I really like separating the notion of your listening position (sitting, standing, in front of, behind, whatever) with optimum "tweeter height". It's always right since the signal is the same regardless of position on the panel.
 
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