Which Speaker manufacturers are Research Kings.

[Vintage57]

Interested in knowing which other manufacturers are true Research Kings.

For example, employ anechoic chambers, ABX testing, a thorough examination of distortion vs amplitude vs frequency response. Voice coil heat tolerance vs volume and frequency. And many more parameters, that are outside my scope of knowledge but make a difference in recreating music.

One comes to mind, Harmon with their Revel and JBL lines.

 

[oivavoi]

In addition to Harman: Bang & Olufsen, Genelec, Dynaudio, Yamaha, Apple, Samsung - of the big ones. I think all of them have their own anechoic chambers. And then you have several smaller manufacturers who are generally "science oriented" in their product development, and who often rent anechoic chambers for doing testing etc. Kii Audio, Dutch & Dutch, Eve, Grimm, Neumann, Hedd, Adam, PBS and others come to mind.

 

[Soniclife]

Eve audio have their own impressive chamber, don't know how much of the other stuff they research. It looks like other than the AMT they buy in the rest, so probably not much at the component level.

 

[oivavoi]

Eve audio have their own impressive chamber, don't know how much of the other stuff they research. It looks like other than the AMT they buy in the rest, so probably not much at the component level.

Cool, didn't know! They do at least publish thorough distortion graphs for their monitors. I think they provide excellent monitors and very good value for money. Now if only they would make a largish monitor which was sealed in stead of ported...

 

[amirm]

PBS

I think you mean PSB here. Along the same line Paradigm also comes from the Canadian NRC fame that are roots of Harman research just the same.

 

[Cosmik]

I don't know if I'm more impressed by the people who do detailed research or the people who simply solve problems.

You could spend the rest of eternity investigating the finer points of voice coil temperature or you could just implement motion feedback. Instead of investigating the audible effects of phase shift in crossovers you could use DSP to eliminate it. Etc.

Might we also put forward a daring view that says: "problem solved"? For every hypothesis anyone puts forward about what is wrong with speakers, there's an engineering solution.

 

[amirm]

ABX testing,

One quick correction: ABX testing is never used in speaker testing because they obviously sound different from each other. So other types of AB blind testing is used instead to gauge preference.

 

[Sal1950]

Klipsch

 

[Old Listener]

Interested in knowing which other manufacturers are true Research Kings.

For example, employ anechoic chambers, ABX testing, a thorough examination of distortion vs amplitude vs frequency response. Voice coil heat tolerance vs volume and frequency. And many more parameters, that are outside my scope of knowledge but make a difference in recreating music.

One comes to mind, Harmon with their Revel and JBL lines.

Thanks for bringing up an interesting topic.

I think it is useful to distinguish "Research & Development" which is aimed at producing the next iteration of products and research which is primarily aimed at providing new information that can be used in future product development. That longer term, "pure" research may not be feasible for the small companies that produce consumer home audio products. Harmon has had enough plenty of scale to support some research beyond R&D.

It is also useful to distinguish between the methods a company uses to develop products and what it says publicly about those methods. Pro audio manufactures are more likely to talk tech to their customers than high end audio manufactures or home theater manufacturers.

 

[Dialectic]

Wilson Audio has done extensive research on wire twist ratios.

 

[Sal1950]

Wilson Audio has done extensive research (by research, I mean sighted listening tests) on wire twist ratios.

Scam to enhance marketing. Another golden ratio. LOL

 

[Vintage57]

Wilson Audio has done extensive research (by research, I mean sighted listening tests) on wire twist ratios.

Didn’t they pioneer left twist and right twist for respective speakers?

 

[eugenius]

Paradigm pride themselves in their research facilities
https://www.paradigm.com/support/about-paradigm.php

ATC should also be on that list, for their fantastic drivers and quality standards.