Bright Royd Doublets

[AshM750.]

When exposed to noise, the human ear's sensitivity to sound, or threshold of hearing, is decreased[vague] to protect the ear. This shift is usually temporary but may become permanent. A natural physiological reaction to these threshold shifts is vasoconstriction, which will reduce the amount of blood reaching the hair cells of the organ of Corti in the cochlea. With the resultant oxygen tension and diminished blood supply reaching the outer hair cells, their response to sound levels is lessened when exposed to loud sounds, rendering them less effective and putting more stress on the inner hair cells.[4] This can lead to fatigue and temporary hearing loss if the outer hair cells do not get the opportunity to recover through periods of silence.[5] If these cells do not get this chance to recover, they are vulnerable to death.

[Dr Bunsen Honeydew]

Dave you are reacting to it as a conflict, it is not. Are you seriously telling me that unbolting one drive unit and removing all the loose wadding in order to try is going to take away value, of course it isn't, and it will put it to bed if you will be honest with what you hear when you compare the one it has been done to with the one that hasn't had it done. THEN either take all wading out or put the it back in, your choice. AND publish your feelings and findings fully here either way, that is all we want. THIS continual nonsense about it only applying to cheap crap is just that nonsense. If it wasn't for the bollocks and the image then Harbeth is also cheap crap just like all the others. Very very few manufacturers build speakers properly now, most speakers once you get through the outside bling are build with crap inside. PMC are supposed to have a similar rep to Harbeth yet I looked inside one a couple of months ago and burst out laughing!

You are still stuck in SOME of your old brainwashes I am afraid.

[walterwhite]

Guess I'm just lucky with my Doublets then. They're either side of a chimney breast with the tweeters poking out about about 1 inch in front of it, and the ports firing outwards. They're about 18 inches from the rear wall, but about 1 inch from the chimney breast on their insides. Toe in is minimal.

The result is bags of deep tuneful bass, great soundstage and no (or very little) harshness. They'll do me till I can find something better. I have no desire to change anything in my system except speakers. The right ones must exist somewhere... I'll just have to wait till I meet them Speakers have always been the one thing that I've never been able to make my peace with.

The Abbots have gone to the bedroom to join the rest of my Royd collection. Couldn't seem to get any bass weight out of them wherever I put them, and they have been walkabout in my living room all this week. Treble was a little harsh too. Made me think of the OP. Couldn't have lived with them.

[AshM750.]

I dont believe the Doublets are at fault, I have been doing some serious reading tonight and its definatly fatuige. I will have a break from listening for a while. As for you Abbots, thats a shame you didnt get them right, how many sets of royds do you have now ?

[walterwhite]

Just the four. Ela, Apex, Abbot and Doublet. The Abbots are the only ones that have disappointed so far. Makes me wonder if there might be a reason for the over bright presentation with some pairs. i.e. age, manufacturing differences or something along those lines. Just a thought.

The Elas and Apex's, though bright, don't hurt my ears like this pair of Abbots do. Bit too much sibilance on close miked voices for me to live with them long term though. They're both a lot of fun. The Doublets are definitely the pick of the bunch for me.

[Dr Bunsen Honeydew]

Doping could have dried out on the bass / driver. Quite often the irritation problem is at lower frequency than you think it is, it just influences all treble perception. It would do no harm for a good squirt of Plastidip all over the cones (making sure none goes down the voice coil gap).

[AshM750.]

To be honest walter I think im going to sell my collection and start again, I agree with what you said about not ever finding the right speakers.

Anyone wana buy some Doublets, Topaz, A7x, Ruark Talismans ???????

Make way for new speakers

I have some plastidip Doc but i will proberbly just leave them, ile sleep on it tonight. It does seem wierd though that my ears are fine with Dynaudios

[Dr Bunsen Honeydew]

Well Dynaudios to my ears are a bit flat and uninteresting. It is not often understood that all our ears are different in shape internally, they are similar but there are variations just like other parts of the body, and the ear acts as a horn or acoustic amplifier in its shape, so it is obvious there will be frequency variations in what we prefer which is why listening in *your* system, with *your* ears is essential. Horn throat shape changes sound of horn speakers so obviously it is the same the other way around.

[AshM750.]

No Doc you are right in what your saying the Dynaudios are a bit Flat but they are the only speaker ive ever owned that doesnt give me fatiuge. Im going to terrybooths on friday to listen to the Cubeix, I am really looking forward to it, maybe I will get somewhere.

[Dr Bunsen Honeydew]

To be honest walter I think im going to sell my collection and start again, I agree with what you said about not ever finding the right speakers.

Anyone wana buy some Doublets, Topaz, A7x, Ruark Talismans ???????

Make way for new speakers

I have some plastidip Doc but i will proberbly just leave them, ile sleep on it tonight. It does seem wierd though that my ears are fine with Dynaudios

Ash you have had a period of epiphany and it has probably just temp overwhelmed you senses. Don't rush, just chill man, play it cool let it rest for a few days, don't do anything in a rush, and start again slowly without forcing yourself to hear differences, just relax and it will all come back into shape again. The same thing happened to one of our fav members Andrew ( http://hifisubjectivist.org/memberlist. ... le&u=27916 ) and in the end he got the hump and gave up hi-fi, we still miss him.