Linn Forums

ThomasOK · (This post was last modified: 2012-04-20 22:47 by ThomasOK.)

The point of the Single Speaker Demonstration (at least one such room is still in the dealer requirements, I believe, so no change there) was to remove the distortions to the music caused by other undriven speakers in the same room with the pair you are trying to audition. The effect is quite real and quite audible and I have demonstrated it to many customers over the years and continue to demonstrate it today. If you have any decent stereo setup in a room with no other speakers, bring another speaker into the room, the size doesn't really matter, and play the same piece of music again. You will hear a blurring of the music and a loss of tunefulness. The difference is quite noticeable and not subtle just from bringing one speaker into the room. If you lightly touch the cone of a mid or bass driver you can even feel the sympathetic vibration caused by the music in the room.

When you think of the way most Hi-Fi stores are set up with rows of speakers in the listening rooms it is amazing you can evaluate anything at all. Not to mention it means most of those speaker pairs are nowhere near their optimum positions. We have two sound rooms with doors and both are used as single speaker pair demo rooms (when the AV room is used for surround sound it is a single 5.1 set of speakers).

I know I'll likely catch some flack for this but it is true that even very small speakers do make an audible reduction in the performance of the system. It may be a small difference but it is there. Cordless phones, the beepers in digital alarm watches, cell phones, the speakers in a TV or notebook computer or iPad all have a demonstrable effect on the music you hear. How far you want to go with minimizing these effects is up to you but those wanting the last gram of performance out of their systems would do well to eliminate other speakers from the room as much as possible. I have removed internal speakers from TVs in the past and when I considered using a notebook to control my DS I had planned to open it up and remove the speakers (in the end I didn't go that route). I made sure I have no undriven speakers in my music listening room and I normally don't wear my watch when I'm at home so it is in the other room as well.

Try it and see what you think. After all there is no higher value than a free upgrade!

SaltyDog · 2012-04-15, 14:55

I find it distracting to have extra speakers in the listening room. But since I love my family and friends I still allow them in the room. Wink

ThomasOK · 2012-04-17, 23:49

(2012-04-15 14:55)SaltyDog Wrote: I find it distracting to have extra speakers in the listening room. But since I love my family and friends I still allow them in the room.

As long as they are connected to power they should be properly damped. Smile

linnrd · 2012-04-18, 00:31

(2012-04-17 23:49)ThomasOK Wrote:
(2012-04-15 14:55)SaltyDog Wrote: I find it distracting to have extra speakers in the listening room. But since I love my family and friends I still allow them in the room.
As long as they are connected to power they should be properly damped.

Not 100% sure as to this, Tom. I think a short-circuit should also result in damping. Perhaps Philbo can confirm this.

And salty, that is only a concern if the diaphragms are exposed. Tongue

slackboy · 2012-04-19, 00:54

My god there's some rubbish talked on this forum.

marcusjb · 2012-04-19, 08:04

I still remember having it demonstrated to me at the linn factory, one of their rooms had a pair of Komri with 8 solos and CD12. We were sat listening to the system (sounding very good!) and the trainer came in with a Kan (as i remember it) and popped it on the floor. It was a very noticeable and sudden loss of musicality, certain frequency bands had just become attenuated and harder to follow. The life was sucked out of the system.

I think linn still preach this at any dealer training as it is most relevant to dealers (not that many end users have unused speakers that they might leave in their rooms) and will help them to demonstrate systems at their maximum.

As thomasok says, any and every driver can make a difference (however small) and if ultimate performance without compromise is the goal, any driver should be eliminated in the listening room.