Consumer Reports Loudspeaker Test - February 1976
Where were you in 1976? I was 15 and wanted my own stereo. We were not an audiophile family – although my parents liked music – and I didn’t know anything about audio or audio magazines, but we had a subscription to Consumer Reports. I remember reading this issue of Consumer Reports and wanting a pair of their Best Buy EPI 100s. Although I didn’t get the EPIs ($200/pair was way too much for me then; I got some Tech Hifi house brand for less than $100/pair) the article made some impression because I’ve remembered the name all these years.
When I found a pair of Avid speakers this year I didn’t know what they were until I searched this site & AA and found a bunch of info including the factoid that they’d been rated #1 in Consumer Reports. My library has old Consumer Reports on microfilm and I copied it. I thought others might be interested or amused too, but I’m posting a much-abridged version because I’m typing it in – a scan of an average photocopy of a scratched microfilm image would be a frustrating blur. I’m sure some will be frustrated anyway – why didn’t they test any ARs or JBLs, for instance – but it is a worthwhile comparison of 17 mid-priced speakers and you can at least be sure that the reviewers weren’t trying to push any particular brand.
Medium-Priced Loudspeakers
“It’s easy to spend $600 or more on a pair of loudspeakers for a high-fidelity stereo system. But before you start thinking about spending much more than $200 for speakers, consider how much you would really get for the extra money. The best of the speakers tested for this report would give most listeners about as much fidelity as they could want – and for only about $100 to $130 per speaker.”
Accuracy – CU decided that their main criteria for speaker evaluation would be the frequency response measured from 110 to 14000Hz and rated as a percentage – a ruler-flat frequency response got 100%. Bass below 110Hz was excluded because they couldn’t predict how well deep bass would be reproduced outside of their listening room. A panel of listeners did blindfold tests to corroborate the instrument tests.
“Most of the speakers demonstrated impressively high accuracy. The top-rated Avid 102 earned a higher score than any speaker we’ve ever reported on: 91. But the EPI 100, with a score of 90, was virtually indistinguishable from the Avid in accuracy. Indeed, the first 11 speakers in the ratings are within 8 percentage points of each other. CU has found that even trained listeners can’t readily tell which of two speakers is more accurate when the two are 8 points or less apart. That’s not to say those 11models sounded alike; even models with identical accuracy scores sounded different from each other. One significant reason – departures from accuracy occur at different points in the musical spectrum with different speakers.”
Power – measured the power needed for each speaker to produce reasonably loud sound in a 3000 cubic foot listening room with “average” acoustics.
Impedance – lowest measured impedance over the entire acoustic range. The Realistic Optimus 5B dropped from 9 to 6 ohms in the treble range.
Deep bass capability – Bass half-loudness point: the frequency at which the total sound power rolled off to become half as loud in the bass as in the rest of the spectrum’s output at loud listening levels. A point of 40 to 50 Hz was rated Good. Bass harmonic distortion measured at medium to loud listening levels – according to CU “important only to those with a special interest in organ & electronic music, such deep bass response is not crucial for most of the standard classical and pop repertory, because most such recordings don’t contain bass that deep.”
Recommendations – CU said most people would be happy with any of the top 11 speakers; overall quality was a shade higher with the top 3. And there was a half-page “audio for dummies” on auditioning speakers and speaker placement, something definitely needed for me. It’s the more or less the same stuff you see today: make sure the comparison speakers are at equal volume or you’ll think the louder one is better, set the comparison speakers next to each other, don’t place them on the floor in the corners of your room, & make sure you can return them if they sound lousy in your room. Some differences – wall mounting was popular, stands were not mentioned, and neither was speaker wire. I seem to recall typical speaker wire at that time was 18-20 gage.
Ratings – The first thing we all look at, right? Ranked according to accuracy. (pdf table 'cause it most of the columns disappeared)
Where were you in 1976? I was 15 and wanted my own stereo. We were not an audiophile family – although my parents liked music – and I didn’t know anything about audio or audio magazines, but we had a subscription to Consumer Reports. I remember reading this issue of Consumer Reports and wanting a pair of their Best Buy EPI 100s. Although I didn’t get the EPIs ($200/pair was way too much for me then; I got some Tech Hifi house brand for less than $100/pair) the article made some impression because I’ve remembered the name all these years.
When I found a pair of Avid speakers this year I didn’t know what they were until I searched this site & AA and found a bunch of info including the factoid that they’d been rated #1 in Consumer Reports. My library has old Consumer Reports on microfilm and I copied it. I thought others might be interested or amused too, but I’m posting a much-abridged version because I’m typing it in – a scan of an average photocopy of a scratched microfilm image would be a frustrating blur. I’m sure some will be frustrated anyway – why didn’t they test any ARs or JBLs, for instance – but it is a worthwhile comparison of 17 mid-priced speakers and you can at least be sure that the reviewers weren’t trying to push any particular brand.
Medium-Priced Loudspeakers
“It’s easy to spend $600 or more on a pair of loudspeakers for a high-fidelity stereo system. But before you start thinking about spending much more than $200 for speakers, consider how much you would really get for the extra money. The best of the speakers tested for this report would give most listeners about as much fidelity as they could want – and for only about $100 to $130 per speaker.”
Accuracy – CU decided that their main criteria for speaker evaluation would be the frequency response measured from 110 to 14000Hz and rated as a percentage – a ruler-flat frequency response got 100%. Bass below 110Hz was excluded because they couldn’t predict how well deep bass would be reproduced outside of their listening room. A panel of listeners did blindfold tests to corroborate the instrument tests.
“Most of the speakers demonstrated impressively high accuracy. The top-rated Avid 102 earned a higher score than any speaker we’ve ever reported on: 91. But the EPI 100, with a score of 90, was virtually indistinguishable from the Avid in accuracy. Indeed, the first 11 speakers in the ratings are within 8 percentage points of each other. CU has found that even trained listeners can’t readily tell which of two speakers is more accurate when the two are 8 points or less apart. That’s not to say those 11models sounded alike; even models with identical accuracy scores sounded different from each other. One significant reason – departures from accuracy occur at different points in the musical spectrum with different speakers.”
Power – measured the power needed for each speaker to produce reasonably loud sound in a 3000 cubic foot listening room with “average” acoustics.
Impedance – lowest measured impedance over the entire acoustic range. The Realistic Optimus 5B dropped from 9 to 6 ohms in the treble range.
Deep bass capability – Bass half-loudness point: the frequency at which the total sound power rolled off to become half as loud in the bass as in the rest of the spectrum’s output at loud listening levels. A point of 40 to 50 Hz was rated Good. Bass harmonic distortion measured at medium to loud listening levels – according to CU “important only to those with a special interest in organ & electronic music, such deep bass response is not crucial for most of the standard classical and pop repertory, because most such recordings don’t contain bass that deep.”
Recommendations – CU said most people would be happy with any of the top 11 speakers; overall quality was a shade higher with the top 3. And there was a half-page “audio for dummies” on auditioning speakers and speaker placement, something definitely needed for me. It’s the more or less the same stuff you see today: make sure the comparison speakers are at equal volume or you’ll think the louder one is better, set the comparison speakers next to each other, don’t place them on the floor in the corners of your room, & make sure you can return them if they sound lousy in your room. Some differences – wall mounting was popular, stands were not mentioned, and neither was speaker wire. I seem to recall typical speaker wire at that time was 18-20 gage.
Ratings – The first thing we all look at, right? Ranked according to accuracy. (pdf table 'cause it most of the columns disappeared)