Originally Posted by
wolfshead
The problems that audio engineers was facing was the accurate reproduction of sound. Speaker manufactures faced a very difficult task , how to produce a speaker without adding color.
All audio devices add someting to the original , audio speakers most of all.
The perfect speaker would be one speaker covering the entire spectrun.
That speaker does not exist. Engineers than added one more speakers hoping that two speakers would do a better job, but no two speakers were perfect copies. Also there had to be a crossover , again another addition.
That didn't work out something was still missing so a third speaker was added and an additional crossover the third speaker added color the second crossover produced more problems. We now had two -way and three-way speaker systems. The more speakers added the more problems ,
adding crossovers only increased the problems.
When we attend a movie or classical concert the question is where one is
seated. Some prefer the front , some the middle yet others the rear.
speaker manufactures was forced to design a speaker or speakers that
would please one but impossible to please all three.
JBL's could produce dynamics using low power , but not perfectly , ie,
presence or up front when one is seated. Great for rock . this became what is known as the west coast sound.
additional amplifier power was overcome by other speaker manufactures by the use of bi-amp, tri-amp and most important the cheap transistor.
We already know that horns add color , but so does bass reflex , acoustic
suspension and a host of other attempts to extend bass or using horns and cones to control the high end.
New technologies has helped but has yet been able to solve the never ending problems of live vs recorded sound. But most important the differences in musical taste and one's reference points when comparing live vs recorded sound.