Audiophile Alert - Page 5

Medium-level (Acoustics vs Efficiency)

Knowing the importance of ‘trying before buying’, I sought out stores which would let me listen to the speakers before making any decisions. This led me to:

· stereophonic.com.au - Level 1, 755 Nicholson St, Carlton North 3054 (Tue – Sat 10 – 5)

· klappav.com.au - 72-74 Chapel Street, Windsor 3181 (Mon – Sun varying hours)

To Stereophonic’s credit, their website is a true representation of the cost of each individual product, Klapp on the other hand, show prices which in no way resemble what they’ll tell you in store (the guy claimed it was a ‘special’, it wasn’t, or, if it was, they apparently have no idea other stores stock the same stuff, at 30% lower prices).

The facilities at Sterephonic are exactly what you’d expect from a ‘home theatre experience’ store, there are 3 lounge rooms of different sizes (with 1 larger room in progress), all with treated, sound-absorbing walls and soundproofing foam:

http://www.stereophonic.com.au/pages/Photos.html

The 2 guys who run the place will carry the speakers from a section in a ‘storage’ hall where they all sit, to the room you suggest is an accurate representation of the size of your room.

This is surprisingly important for a few reasons:

1. People do not have 10+ speakers in their lounge room, having lots of speakers in a room does take away from the sense of what ‘your potential’ speakers look like in ‘your potential’ room (aesthetically, and physical dimensions).

2. Having a lot of speakers in a room, sometimes stacked on top of each other, equates to added likelihood for vibration, which then also takes away from the experience.

Klapp did things differently, having only 1 room, which had all their speakers and receivers connected in some sort of crazy mesh, where the guys can then choose which receiver and which speakers to use ‘on the fly’. Which, as I said, caused vibration, made the room feel really small, gave me no indication of how ‘big’ my speakers were in terms of the room - compared to some of the monsters they had, mine looked small, but in reality, mine were over a metre tall!

At the same time, toggling between combinations instantaneously meant the same song continued playing on alternate speakers, allowing you to very quickly get a ‘yes/no’ sense of what sounds right. For budgets over $6,000 for a receiver and stereo speakers, or > $2,000 stereo speakers - this could save a lot of time; otherwise, it’s more a hindrance, and it’s not particularly hard to contrast 2 sounds, even if there is a 2 minute ‘wire-swap / speaker shuffle’ in between (or a 30 minute drive between these two stores).