Although I might consider it perfectly plausible that modern materials
*can* allow one to make cheap speakers sound comparable to the 'greats' of yesteryear; I have bought several inexpensive cd/radio/speaker audio appliances which would, I believe, demonstrate to just about anyone that your claim is not true.#Paul
Before lockdown I paid a visit to John Lewis and there was a Sonos rep in the store.
I asked him how a single unit could reproduce a proper stereo image. His reply was that there were two speakers in it, a woofer and a tweeter.
+1
Similar reasoning to the people with a stereo record player who thought it was equipped with speakers to feed two separate rooms,
Ha! Gotta love luddites who haven’t a clue about smart phones.
Today I was out in the middle of nowhere listening to a bird (unseen) singing it’s heart out. Whipped out my phone and within seconds my phone had identified the bird from its song and provided me with a picture.
Try doing that with a dumb phone.
Any who says that smart phones are bollocks might as well dismiss the internet, digital cameras, and all manner of mind bogglingly useful apps that are well nigh indispensable these days.
Yes, I *could* live without them, but I wouldn’t want to live such an impoverished life.
Tim
You don't expect a rep who knows how many beans make five for £399.
OTOH I know that your apostrophe is superfluous.
None of these have anything to do with smart phones.
My life is not controlled by apps.
Some of us were already using the Internet back in the 80s.
**Not quite true. Sure, the ESL57 cannot deliver significant SPLs, but the sound quality, when used within their limits, is sublime. The ESL63 is entirely adequate for most listeners, most of the time. Bass is fabulously clean, which makes most listeners think they don't deliver much bass. The Quad ESL63 exhibits a usefully flat response down to 30Hz. **There you go.
Neither is mine. It is however made much more convenient.
But not wherever you happened to be when out and about.
I've a Sonos One and an Ikea table lamp with a Sonos speaker built in. Both are good for what they are, and give decent easy to access sound. Although it helps that I've got an Alexa account and Spotify.
While I still appreciate my 'proper' hifi I use smart speakers more often nowadays. Not sure why - just seem to get me to what I want to listen to at a quality I find perfectly good.
Unusual IME - I find the JL sales staff to be pretty knowledgeable.
The 57s are underrated IMO. They're not going to give you a rock concert & they have placement issues but they're excellent. Moving paper speakers all have resonant bass, electrostatics don't.
I was lucky enough to be present when Peter Walker and his wife did a demonstration of the ESL63 at the Harrogate Hi-fi Show around 1980. Even in a ballroom(?) their ability to produce sound levels and project sound was amazing.
I have lived in Harrogate since 1990 - about 5 years after the hi-fi shows ceased!
When I'm out and about, I want to enjoy the out and about. That's what it's for.
Was that called the Festival of sound by any chance?
I went to a Hi-Fi show in Harrogate around that time but can't be sure of the exact year. It's a long way from Stourbridge and my wife and I had intended to stay overnight.
I'm sure Quad, Kef, SME were there but my most memorable thing from the day was that there was a 'big band' playing in the theatre. It was great but I remember thinking - my father keeps telling me my music is loud and so was the music of his era.
We found we completed the show quicker than expected and went into town were we found a branch of Comet. I purchased a new SME arm from there, the one you can unplug the whole arm tube from the bearings.
We then decided to drive home without staying. The furthest I've ever driven in a day.
Bob.
Can't remember what the show was called but it was spread across several hotels. I do remember that Quad were at the Majestic. Per the big band - I remember walking along a corridor on the top floor at the Old Swan Hotel (remember, Agatha Christie disappearance etc?) and could here a band playing which sounded like Grimethorpe Colliery Band to my ears. I walked into the Ballroom and wow, what a sound - coming from a pair of the largest sized Philips Motional Feedback speakers!!
At the time the BBC engineers were very ingenious in creating the LS3/5A. It is a fundamentally good piece of engineering and creative thinking, which is why it still exists in many clones. All good.
But many new technologies have come along since then. A new favourite in high end speakers is aluminium, as regularly used by Piega, Magico, Wilson Benesch and others, with odd examples in the ranges of a few others. Added to that is now carbon fibre, as in Wilson Benesch who use a hybrid alu/CF enclosure.
I'm in the process of making aluminium speaker cabinets out of commonly available 150x150mm aluminium box section, which can be any height you want for stand mount or floor standing. It can be reinforced with added aluminium sheets to create more thickness e.g. on the front panel. The 2 things you nave to deal with are...
I almost had a production line going here many years ago, don't know where most of them are nowadays, but we did make some variants like a sound bar for a TV it was very good that one!.
Only ones here these days are kosher Rogers ones!...
And it can be more conveniently enjoyed when you can look something up using your smartphone when you show up at something you plan to enjoy and find that is currently closed, access isnt currently available etc.
And not all out and abouts are about enjoyment, they can be for work, access to something you need, or even a medical appointment with significant time twiddling your thumbs waiting to be seen etc. Handy to be able read an ebook on your phone instead of just staring into space etc.
Try doing that where the mobile signal is rather poor though.
There are still plenty of not-spots and you also need to have downloaded the app beforehand and know how to use it.
There are such things as books, and plenty related to birds, insects and other stuff.
The best of the apps allow you to capture the sound and tell you which bird it is when you are back in mobils signal range.
Hardly rocket science to do either.
But nowhere near as convient with an unseen bird or even a seen one.
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