RE: Did the listening audience provide feedback to the host as to their listening experiences?
Well, as I said the frequency extension of highs and lows were impressive, and power and control unquestioned. What it lacked was a sense it was trying to make music, no flow, no depth and did I mention lack of center stage? I find most people/stores like their speakers as far apart as possible for the broadest soundstage. I like a cohesive soundstage with a prominent center stage, so I'm at odds from most set-ups and admit that.
Ya know what, this may seem implausible, but it has happened before - OUT OF PHASE!
Story: I was in Paragon maybe 15 years ago and they had some speakers they were auditioning. They allowed me to listen to them, and I posted the results here in this forum. Larry the owner of Paragon was a little upset with me and asked me to remove my post, which I did but I kept my drawing/cartoon up that represented the soundstage.
This event resulted in them sending the speakers back to the manufacturer (Larry heard what I heard FYI) where the manufacturer discovered one of the speakers was wired out of phase and was collapsing or swallowing out the center stage - something that I've admitted I'm sensitive too.
The comment of "an engineer with a tin ear is so typical" has stuck with me, cannot say who said it or where I read it, but it made me wonder if engineers listen as critically as others if the measurements already tell them it's going to sound good. Meaning do they trust their ears over their measurements? Are they prone to dismissing what they hear because the readouts are good?
Some recordings are out of phase, maybe the Carly Simon one was and therefore was the only song that sounded good.
I just cannot believe three different set-ups all had the same out of phase flaw, but my ears are telling me so.
To answer the feedback question, the staff at Paragon must have over heard their patron's/customer's chatter. Most certainly the customer in RM-2 "torture my ears" was blaming the music selection, "why would you pick that?". Also in RM-3 the staff person was in the doorway and must have overheard at least part of my conversation with the Ford audio club guy.
I'd like to give Paragon some friendly feedback, but my standards of professionalism demand that I just don't complain and dump a problem in someone's lap. I've been taught to treat everyone like a customer and have two or more solutions lined up and offer a choice. This is my preferred method, but I just do not know enough to figure out what went astray that evening.
Out of phase, sure would answer a lot of question, but how could that of happened 3X's over?
EDIT:
My post in 2010 on out of phase wired speaker (an early Janzen prototype), looks like I did not take most of it down. I recall describing it as a really nice in-between for those who like box speaker solidity and panel speaker openness despite the soundstage anomaly sketched out.
JansZen electrostatic speakers, the new ones from the son, not the old ones. Anybody hear them before? A local store now carries them, they looks cool, some interesting Industrial Design going on. Sorry about the dark room/picture. Try this: http://www.janszenloudspeaker.com/ EDIT...
whatsbestforum.com
EDIT-2:
As I recall the connections were balanced not RCA, this question was asked early on in Room-2