Proper way to audition speakers

[Kippyy]

Given how much we spend on speakers, I can find very little guidance regarding the best method for auditioning them. I am considering upgrading from my Sashas to either Wilson Alexias or Vivid Audio Giyas. Your experience here is appreciated.

Questions:
1) Is it a must to audition the new speakers in your listening room at home?
In my room, there is really not enough room for the Sashas + another speaker next to them. I suspect I will have to audition at the dealer.

2) In this case, should I attempt to listen to the Sasha,then the Alexia side by side, then Sasha and Giya side by side, or only listen to the Alexia and Giyas by themselves in separate auditions? My dealer prefers the latter approach.
Is it too labor intensive for the dealer to have the Alexias and Giyas in the same room at the same time?

[cmalak]

Kippyy....if your dealer is willing to deliver and set-up the Alexias and Giyas at home, then I would certainly do that (probably on two separate occassions) as you will only know exactly how either speaker will sound in your system with your gear that way (by definition). In terms of side-by-side comparos, I don't think that is the best way to do it (whether at home or your dealer's location). I would listen to your Sashas first with music you are extremely familiar with and listen critically. I don't know what aspects of SQ you are most focused on but generally I would use a wide variety of music (again that you are familiar with) and take note of:

1) Tonal balance (do the treble or bass frequencies stand out or are they in proportion to one another and the midrange where the bulk of the music resides). Another way of saying it, does the speaker sound top or bottom heavy or does it sound properly balanced?

2) How resolving is the speaker (can you pick out details that you had not noticed before - using the Sashas as your baseline)? Can you untangle different musical lines in a song (i.e., clearly follow the bass guitar, piano, drums, lead guitar, sax, etc...or if you are into classical, can you follow the different instruments in an orchestral work), while at the same time have all of those musical lines come together as one piece in a natural way?

3) Does the speaker do a good job of defining instrumental and vocal images on a soundstage (both positionally and in terms of having a crisp definition to the image)? Do the speakers also convery a sense of body to those images, i.e., do you believe there is a 3-dimensional person singing in front of you or does it feel more like a 2-d thinned-out facsimile? Does the speaker lay out those images on a soundstage with realistic and natural dimensions or does it blow out (or constrict) the width and depth of the stage in an unnatural fashion?

4) Do the speakers speak musical truth in conveying realistic and natural instrumental and vocal timbers?

5) How dynamic are the speakers? Do they sweep you along and excite you? Can they go from very soft to very loud with ease and convey that sense of excitement?

6) Do the speakers have a good sense of timing? Do your toes tap or does your head bop with music that ought to deliver that sense of temporal involvement?

These are just a few things I look for when I listen to speakers but you may have different sonic cues that are important to you.

So pragmatically, I would listen to the Sashas and establish your baseline on the criteria (whether those above or others) that you deem most important to you with music you know well and then I would swap them out and bring in the Alexias and do another few hours with the same music paying attention to the same things you did with the Sashas and compare them on your criteria. If you have the luxury of having the speakers loaned out to you over a couple of days than you can certainly do 1-day Sasha basline and the second day Alexia. On another visit, you can do the same exercise with the Giyas. If you are doing this at a dealer than you can compress the timeline to maybe 1-hr baselining with the Sashas and a couple of hours with the Alexias (repeat with another visit with the Giyas).

That woud be my approach. Not sure if any of that makes sense to you but that's the optimal way of auditioning gear for me (always have a baseline that you know very well and change out one piece of gear and do your comparison). Hope this helps

[jdandy]

Cyril.......Your post is excellent advice. I couldn't have explained it any better. I agree strongly about the establishment of a base line with the speaker you are familiar with using only music you are intimately familiar with. Then, and only then, repeat the same music on the challenging speaker(s).

Trying to get multiple high dollar speakers delivered to your home for audition in advance of a purchase will be unlikely unless you have an exceptional relationship with your dealer, so the demo will most likely be the speakers of your choice in a showroom.

[GaryProtein]

Originally Posted by Kippyy

Given how much we spend on speakers, I can find very little guidance regarding the best method for auditioning them. I am considering upgrading from my Sashas to either Wilson Alexias or Vivid Audio Giyas. Your experience here is appreciated.

Questions:
1) Is it a must to audition the new speakers in your listening room at home?
In my room, there is really not enough room for the Sashas + another speaker next to them. I suspect I will have to audition at the dealer.

2) In this case, should I attempt to listen to the Sasha,then the Alexia side by side, then Sasha and Giya side by side, or only listen to the Alexia and Giyas by themselves in separate auditions? My dealer prefers the latter approach.
Is it too labor intensive for the dealer to have the Alexias and Giyas in the same room at the same time?

Side by side is the only way. Any other way introduces more variables and auditory memory isn't very good, so side by side is it. Don't do separate auditions. Do two sets at a time, the winner goes to the next round of auditions.

[cmalak]

Gary...but would you have the two speakers you are comparing set-up in the same room at the same time and keep on switching back and forth? Or would you compare them serially? Meaning spend a couple of hours with one and then repeat same musical programming with the other one right after and compare them that way? I personally think you get more of a holistic and accurate feel for the speaker when you do a couple of hours at a time on each speaker because if you have them both set up at the same time in same room and switch them back and forth there are two problems:

1) It becomes too disjointed to keep on switching between speakers on each track or cut of music, and you can easily become obsessed/distracted by one aspect or another without stepping back and taking in the whole sonic picture (i.e., you focus in on the trees and lose sight of the forest if that makes sense). It becomes an exercise in hyper-critical listening which may keep you from making the right overall pick.

2) If the two speakers occupy similar (or same) sweet spots in the listening room than if you have them both set-up at the same time and switching back and forth, you are obviously disadvantaging the speaker that is not occupying its optimal sweet spot in the listening space.

Just my 2c.

[cmalak]

Originally Posted by jdandy

Cyril.......Your post is excellent advice. I couldn't have explained it any better. I agree strongly about the establishment of a base line with the speaker you are familiar with using only music you are intimately familiar with. Then, and only then, repeat the same music on the challenging speaker(s).

Trying to get multiple high dollar speakers delivered to your home for audition in advance of a purchase will be unlikely unless you have an exceptional relationship with your dealer, so the demo will most likely be the speakers of your choice in a showroom.

Dan.... I agree with the long-shot of getting to audition speakers at this level at home but on the off chance that his dealer is super accomodating (/), that would be the optimal scenario to evaluate the new speakers. Not likely I know

[bzr]

Originally Posted by cmalak

Gary...but would you have the two speakers you are comparing set-up in the same room at the same time and keep on switching back and forth? Or would you compare them serially? Meaning spend a couple of hours with one and then repeat same musical programming with the other one right after and compare them that way? I personally think you get more of a holistic and accurate feel for the speaker when you do a couple of hours at a time on each speaker because if you have them both set up at the same time in same room and switch them back and forth there are two problems:

1) It becomes too disjointed to keep on switching between speakers on each track or cut of music, and you can easily become obsessed/distracted by one aspect or another without stepping back and taking in the whole sonic picture (i.e., you focus in on the trees and lose sight of the forest if that makes sense). It becomes an exercise in hyper-critical listening which may keep you from making the right overall pick.

2) If the two speakers occupy similar (or same) sweet spots in the listening room than if you have them both set-up at the same time and switching back and forth, you are obviously disadvantaging the speaker that is not occupying its optimal sweet spot in the listening space.

Just my 2c.

Cyril, you're on a roll! I too believe in the space that another speaker dominates in a side by side is not a good thing.
At the mo I am comparing my Summit X's to my Strads, this morning I wheeled the Strads out on the trolley into my office & carried the Summits into the room & a half hour later I had Metallica S&M warming the Martin Logans up nicely. It's a great time in my life to be able to play with speakers of this quality as I do.

[cmalak]

Originally Posted by bzr

Cyril, you're on a roll! I too believe in the space that another speaker dominates in a side by side is not a good thing.
At the mo I am comparing my Summit X's to my Strads, this morning I wheeled the Strads out on the trolley into my office & carried the Summits into the room & a half hour later I had Metallica S&M warming the Martin Logans up nicely. It's a great time in my life to be able to play with speakers of this quality as I do.

Kev...glad to hear you have the option of bringing the Summit back into your main rig. Enjoy them

[Coytee]

You could also do a mono test.

Bring ONE of each contender.... set your reference speaker on the left, new speaker on the rigt. Use a mono signal and compare left/right.

We did this once at the engineerig facility at Klipsch (at the factory). In fairness, Klipsch told us the room was treated to be an average room however, they had treated the corners to be equal.

We were also usin an active crossover so they were able to adjust the levels inside the active without having to go through some fine tuning each time they made a change.

Regardless, most felt it was a worthy way of doing what we were doing.

[-E-]

Barry,

Given your room environment, I would hesitate on plunking down on new speakers... at least right now. $ would be better spent on moving the equipment away so that you then have space to deal with (larger/newer) speakers.

Then, audition some XLF's!

/sidenote: I'd be shocked if you like the Vivid's compared to how you are accustomed to Wilson Audio... (and for how great your WA/Ayre combo sounds).