Posted by kelley pace on October 11, 2002 at 23:18:51:
In Reply to: ESL HEAD PHONES Compariasons & Reference posted by Terry Koehn on October 11, 2002 at 16:23:30:
Yes, I knew of Dr. West's connection with Jantzen. That gave me a little more confidence of going with SL, since I had been listening to the Jantzen element for years.
A perfectly honest speaker gives you the good with the bad. Dishonest speakers, a redundant phrase, can come in the euphonic and the cacophonic varieties. Cacophonic speakers can have response spikes in the wrong places and accentuate hiss, sibilants, place all males in barrels, and increase listener fatigue. Cacophonic speakers give you the bad with the bad. Good source material just gives these speakers ammunition for shooting listeners.
I listen almost exclusively to classical, and now spend 75% of the time listening to SACDs, of which I have about 100. I only have a handful of bad SACDs, and they tend towards mush as opposed to stridence. SLs on these sounds great and I don't spend time thinking about whether the SLs are honest or euphonic. I just know that I can listen for hours without fatigue, and enjoy the music.