On 28 Nov 2003 05:34:40 GMT, Bromo wrote:

Another thought occurred to me: A good litmus test of a setup is the
ability to be drawn into the music at moderate volumes (~80dB or less). I
think some reviewers call it "unfatiguing" and "musicality" - but whatever
it is called - systems like that might hold some clues to this enigma.

That's a very good point. One of my critical tests of any speaker is
to play it very quietly. Does the detail still sparkle? Alas, with
many '80s and '90s plastic-coned designs, the answer is no - there
seems to be some kind of internal lossiness that squeezes the life out
of the sound at low levels.

This seems to be much less of a problem with modern composite and
metal coned speakers, and IME not a problem at all with large planars
such as Quad.
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Stewart Pinkerton | Music is Art - Audio is Engineering