Best component speaker?

[rocksterraghu]

Originally Posted by nishantgandhi

FYI - if it may help, my preferred music is Trance/Techno/House/Underground, Rock and popular Bollywood tracks

I am not sure about Rock and the kind of rock you listen to, but for House music, JBLs are better IMO. I find the JBLs to be more lively and crisp - but the midbasses of Infinitys are stronger and better. However, remember that I am running both set of components on 60.4s which are underpowered for either. I am running JBLs on Alpine and Infinitys on Pio - so I may be mistaken.

Originally Posted by Flying Bong

I've heard a couple of JBL setups....I found them a little too treble-heavy for my tastes. Infinity is supposed to be relatively smoother than JBL, havent heard them so I cant comment more...

They are brighter agreed. But tuning, HU tweaks always make considerable difference. It is not difficult to make the Infinitys sound brighter than JBL with my Pio HU. All I need to do is increase the highs a little bit.

[rev_hard]

Originally Posted by rocksterraghu

..but for House/trance/electro music, JBLs are better IMO.

16 pennies true, IMO .

[Bass&Trouble]

Originally Posted by rocksterraghu

I am not sure about Rock and the kind of rock you listen to, but for House music, JBLs are better IMO.

I know a lot of folks who use JBL for Rock, RnB and a wide variety of other music and are completely satisfied with the performance. Its not anything to do with the genre of music as much as the way the person prefers to listen to the music. A good speaker is a good speaker and will do well with all kinds of music.

[Bass&Trouble]

Originally Posted by nishantgandhi

got to audition Kicker DS 600.2.
I liked the sound but somehow found it lacking in (mid)bass. Any comments about Kicker?

You heard it in a car, or on a demo board? If you found it lacking bass on a demo board, chances are that you'll find the midbass weaker in the car.

Kicker - The DS Series is the entry level. Kicker is a respectable brand and makes some decent products. The price isnt so bad. So its upto you. If you like the sound over the other options that you have heard, you should go for it.

[reignofchaos]

Originally Posted by Bass&Trouble

Its not anything to do with the genre of music as much as the way the person prefers to listen to the music. A good speaker is a good speaker and will do well with all kinds of music.

Not necessarily... the best example being made in India Cadence electrostats. They are absolutely magnificent speakers for smooth jazz/classical. However they just refuse to sing to rock as they are ultra laid back.

There are certain speakers that have a high sensitivity horn loaded design such as the Klipsch RF series which are exactly the opposite - terrible for classical but absolutely brilliant for rock.

Choosing a speaker is best left to the person's listening tastes. For cheap ones though I guess it really wouldn't matter.

[Bass&Trouble]

^^^

My dear friend,

You are absolutely right, but the most important part of your whole post is in the last line.

Originally Posted by reignofchaos

For cheap ones though I guess it really wouldn't matter.

This is because -

We are discussing speakers that cost in the range of Rs. 5000/- to Rs. 10000/- here.

They are all dynamic drive-unit based speakers.

In all likelihood, they are going to be run with ordinary electronics and other accompaniments.

You have yourself called NAD a below-par electronics brand in a different thread and hence, none of the electronic products used with such speakers would in your definition be fit to play even noise.

Conversely, if any home electronics having the same qualities as that of the car electronics I refer to, are used with the Cadence or Klipsch or Kharmas, they will sound unfit for any form of music.

Hence it is clear that you come from a different school of thought altogether and that the discussion here is at a far more premature level than that.

[rocksterraghu]

Originally Posted by Bass&Trouble

I know a lot of folks who use JBL for Rock, RnB and a wide variety of other music and are completely satisfied with the performance. Its not anything to do with the genre of music as much as the way the person prefers to listen to the music. A good speaker is a good speaker and will do well with all kinds of music.

I was only hinting at the fact that 'Rock' means Hendrix or Led Zep or Dave Matthews Band to me - to some, 'Rock' may mean Sepultura or Slayer. I guess you get the drift. Since I have not heard metal or heavy metal in my system, I just mentioned it.

Pleasure reading those informative posts!

[low_bass_makker]

Originally Posted by reignofchaos

Not necessarily...

I disagree with you here. The speakers you mentioned are home audio ones the size of the driver is also considered placement in the vehicle there are lots of other factors also. It is not that the specific speaker is made for specific genre.

[rev_hard]

Just a query -

If HU's can be considered to have certain characteristics(brighter/warmer, based on a very recent cost-wise comparable HU comparison thread (Alpine 9887 Vs Pioneer P880.)), why can't speakers/drivers/tweeters/subs at comparable price points?

Also, isn't it true that music genres have their own unique USP's/characteristics which attract different people to different genres.

So, IMO certain brands of speakers are better suited to reproduce the inherent characteristics of certain genres.

[low_bass_makker]

Originally Posted by rev_hard

Just a query -

If HU's can be considered to have certain characteristics(brighter/warmer, based on a very recent cost-wise comparable HU comparison thread (Alpine 9887 Vs Pioneer P880.)), why can't speakers/drivers/tweeters/subs at comparable price points?

Like I mentioned in the same thread the difference felt to me was quite less. and that can be easily achieved with few adjustments of EQ. So I don't feel they are quite different sounding ones.

[reignofchaos]

Originally Posted by low_bass_makker

I disagree with you here. The speakers you mentioned are home audio ones the size of the driver is also considered placement in the vehicle there are lots of other factors also. It is not that the specific speaker is made for specific genre.

I never said specific speakers are made for specific genres. What I said was some speakers do better in certain genres of music than others and worse in different ones based upon the way they are voiced. All else remaining same - driver size, amplification and placement, it'll be pretty easy to identify what speaker is suited for what kinda music.

[Bass&Trouble]

Originally Posted by reignofchaos

some speakers do better in certain genres of music than others and worse in different ones based upon the way they are voiced.

it'll be pretty easy to identify what speaker is suited for what kinda music.

Can you point me towards 2 car speakers under the Rs. 10000/- price point, and/ or 2 home speakers under the Rs. 30000/- price point that will demonstrate this severe and unmistakeable leaning towards a particular genre of music?

[reignofchaos]

I have not heard enough car speakers to make a proper judgement. I'd let the experts do that. I've heard the Hertz speakers and they sounded typically italian.... very laid back. They'd do real well with classical stuff but I'd look elsewhere for a rock speaker. The highly sought after JBLs seemed to be rather bright and tinny for my tastes. The blaupunkts were a nice middle ground.

However for home, here's a list

Laid back and voiced towards soft music like classical/jazz etc:
Quad 11/12L (~21-26k)
Epos M5 (~25k)
PSB Image B25 (~20k)
Dali Concept 1/2 (~20-25k)
Wharfedale Diamond 9

Forward sounding speakers
Klipsch RB1 (~18k)
Monitor Audio BR1/BR2 (15-20k)
B&W DM303 (around 30k)

[Bass&Trouble]

Ok, not too much information pertaining to car there except for the following conclusions:

1. There is some speaker under 10k from Hertz that is very laid back. A model no. sure would have been handy.

2. Some JBL speaker is bright and tinny (which if indeed so, I think in anyone's book would make it inappropriate for all kinds of music?!?)

3. Some speaker from Blaupunkt does something that is laid back and forward at the same time, but thats again very limited information since we dont know exactly which speaker. I'm not saying good or bad, but different speakers from different Blau lines sound poles apart.

So which amongst these speakers and the home speakers you list fall in the category of those that sound natural? i.e. trying to reproduce the source most faithfully. Without being aggressive or laid back? Anyone's bet for the best of both worlds? For car, your vote seems to be for Blau.

[DerAlte]

This is as much about dogma as it is about perception.

This reminds me about haute cuisine a la Francaise. Red wine to go with red meats, white with poutry and fish! Don't even try building any scientific logic behind it, even though one could link it to specific organic aromatics and oral cavity & sinuses. On the contrary, I found that reds do a very competent job with langoustines.

Try as they might, IMHO the driver designers (even Manger) couldn't have systematically designed materials and dimensional tolerances to have specific bias for a genre. That a driver could be exhibiting such a bias would only be an individual inference, and even blind tests with a group of people would fail to resolve that actually. Such is the power of auto-suggestion.

Other than trying to achieve a frequency response as close to a horizontal line, the designers quite simply leave it to the molecular clusters (granted, some are pre-selected for certain behaviour) and voids - in the cone, the surround and the listeners ears - to do their job. The rest is akin to poetry - a combination of imagination, observation and extension of truth to give it a certain feeling.