Perlisten Audio Speakers: Any experience auditioning?

[Vineethkumar01]

Thank you for sharing this.
Somehow I am liking what I am hearing in this video on whatever headphones I head it through..

 

[RRR]

Thanks for sharing the speakers here.
I was just introduced to these speakers by the Indian distributor 2 days before it was posted here.

 

[Vineethkumar01]

Thanks for sharing the speakers here.
I was just introduced to these speakers by the Indian distributor 2 days before it was posted here.

Did you get a chance to audition these speaker.
If so could you please post your first impressions?

 

[Decadent_Spectre]

Thank you.
I agree about everyone having differences in preferences, difference in what looks good, differences in what sounds good, that different genres of music might sound good with speakers having different spectral/time characteristics etc.
What i look for in objective data are good basic trends that tells me about the overall acoustic design and how it is has been complemented by the electronic/electroacoustic components used in making a speaker. For example, reliable "spin" data can tell me about the on axis/off axes responses smoothness and whether the deviations are within reasonable tolerance levels for most music/most people. If there is a 10dB hump in the frequency response around the 1-5khz region of the frequency range compared to other parts of the spectrum, it is not going to sound good to me on all kinds of songs that i am going to hear as per my personal preferences. Many other people find the same to be true too. Way to test this using just a simple EQ.

Smooth on and off axis curves, and other derived information like power response and directivity tells me more about a speaker's lack/presence of unnecessary resonances, how good its crossover has been able to handle the directivity handoff between drives sharing the same cabinet, how the overall sound radiation characteristics are going to be in the space it is put in. This in turn gives me very general ideas about the kind of rooms a particular speaker can be used by most people. One can test this by comparing between wide vs narrow directivity speakers.

Impedance characteristics and sensitivity tells me about how "good"/"powerful" of an amplifier a speaker needs to be connected to w.r.t the loudness levels I want the speaker to play.

Non linear distortion measurements at different loudness levels tells me about the associated peak loudness levels possible with the lack of such distortion, which in turn tells me how "good" the speaker will sound at low and high volumes. One easy way to test whether one likes non linear distortion or not is to introduce clipping (digital/analog) and hear it. That right there gives odd harmonic distortion, which I find particularly objectionable in hearing.

I might not be able to discern more about all the above factors just by going to a showroom and listening to it for some time using some songs. I may find it some time after I buy it and live with it for sometime. Hence, objective data helps me make more informed purchase decisions and gives me more knowledge about "goodness" of sound.For all the above and more "Spin" data is among the most reliable currently available ways to get some of these data. So I find it very valuable and respect people who give it away usually for free.

However, I do not agree to a 'Harman" target response being the desired response being the best possible target response for everyone or using any "preference ratings" that differentiates between "good" and "bad" speakers. I acknowledge that all this could be due to my lack of more knowledge about the matter.

In this particular case of speakers discussed in this thread, I look at their form and see that their general design trends supplement generally intended functionalities. I take a look at their objective data and find "good" behaviors in many objective aspects. Now I am interested in how they sound like for most people. Hence the purpose of this thread.

I am not in any vain quest to create/study about the perfect speaker which sounds "good" to everyone

If I am reading you correctly you may be associating good data with good sound in general for "most" people. This is what I disagree with, people may or may not like things like distortion,varied peaks and dips, time anomalies,compression etc. While it may be your view that these objective traits correlate to "good" sound (for "most" people) I was, in good faith, pointing out that it does not. I have no argument about the data itself, it is what it is but it is open to interpretation when to comes to preference. The generalization among objectivists that good data is "good" for "most" people is what I strongly disagree with. I also think if you listen to it and like it then the measurements for that speaker are irrelevant as long as you like it, we are of course not machines or mics. Why would anyone care if it has 30% distortion or 10db peaks as long as they enjoy it? The answer is they don't care. Only objectivists care, and that's fine and dandy for them. I appreciate that you have mentioned that in some cases it is your preference. If you understand all this and still prefer to proceed with this erroneous train of thought (IMO of course) then by all means. Carry on.

 

[Vineethkumar01]

If I am reading you correctly you may be associating good data with good sound in general for "most" people. This is what I disagree with, people may or may not like things like distortion,varied peaks and dips, time anomalies,compression etc. While it may be your view that these objective traits correlate to "good" sound (for "most" people) I was, in good faith, pointing out that it does not. I have no argument about the data itself, it is what it is but it is open to interpretation when to comes to preference. The generalization among objectivists that good data is "good" for "most" people is what I strongly disagree with. I also think if you listen to it and like it then the measurements for that speaker are irrelevant as long as you like it, we are of course not machines or mics. Why would anyone care if it has 30% distortion or 10db peaks as long as they enjoy it? The answer is they don't care. Only objectivists care, and that's fine and dandy for them. I appreciate that you have mentioned that in some cases it is your preference. If you understand all this and still prefer to proceed with this erroneous train of thought (IMO of course) then by all means. Carry on.

Ok. An objective vs subjective debate was not the intention of this thread. You have stated your position in this matter clearly. I hope I have stated mine too. It is clear that we both don't subscribe to the same school of thought on these matters. I also don't want to enforce my thoughts/subject knowledge/interpretations about these things in an "I am right, you are wrong" manner on others, neither am I willing to accept it from others just because they believe so. So Let it be and we can move on in our own different directions.

Thanks

 

[square_wave]

Objective measurements is the bedrock upon which you build. When you build upon them, you might consciously stray because everything that makes a great loudspeaker sound the way it does cannot be measured. One needn't argue.

 

[Decadent_Spectre]

Ok. An objective vs subjective debate was not the intention of this thread. You have stated your position in this matter clearly. I hope I have stated mine too. It is clear that we both don't subscribe to the same school of thought on these matters. I also don't want to enforce my thoughts/subject knowledge/interpretations about these things in an "I am right, you are wrong" manner on others, neither am I willing to accept it from others just because they believe so. So Let it be and we can move on in our own different directions.

Thanks

But, of course.

Objective measurements is the bedrock upon which you build. When you build upon them, you might consciously stray because everything that makes a great loudspeaker sound the way it does cannot be measured. One needn't argue.

If your designing, sure. If your listening, no. There's a reason EQ and so many genres of music exist. People trying to regulate it to a standard are taking away all the emotion and warmth of music. Psychology and preference is more important than data, it always was, and always will be.

 

[RRR]

Did you get a chance to audition these speaker.
If so could you please post your first impressions?

Back to Perlisten Audio speakers...Haven't auditioned them yet. The distributor just informed me 3 days back. When I do audition ,will update the thread.

 

[Kannan]

They didn't seem interesting to me reading your link. Very pedestrian. Lost interest.

From what ever you write, it appears you are an out and out subjective person while choosing your speakers. You do not care about measurements and other stuff and purely decide by listening.
In such a scenario, I wonder why you took an objective route to decide these speakers are terrible only based on the link. How do you know that
they did not employ listening criteria into the final design.
Every established speaker manufacturers have their own signature or house curve that goes into the final design.
Nowhere Perlisten on their website state they have employed any of Floyd Toole philosophies in their design if that for you is a caveat.

If you are a subjective listener as you claim to be, you should take a call only after listening to them, else you are contradicting your very audio philosophy of subjectivity.

I am sure the speakers you listen to in your setup, details of which you guard and keep close to your heart, were not designed in some shack by just putting some drivers in a box, and putting in some crossovers and tuned exclusively with ears, unless of course you run a fully active setup which you have personally tuned with your ears.
Aside, assuming the speakers you use are from some pro or home audio brand, I am sure they too would have designed based on the technical specification of the drivers. It will have to be a combo of objective (technical) and subjective (ears) parameters.

 

[Decadent_Spectre]

From what ever you write, it appears you are an out and out subjective person while choosing your speakers. You do not care about measurements and other stuff and purely decide by listening.
In such a scenario, I wonder why you took an objective route to decide these speakers are terrible only based on the link. How do you know that
they did not employ listening criteria into the final design.
Every established speaker manufacturers have their own signature or house curve that goes into the final design.
Nowhere Perlisten on their website state they have employed any of Floyd Toole philosophies in their design if that for you is a caveat.

If you are a subjective listener as you claim to be, you should take a call only after listening to them, else you are contradicting your very audio philosophy of subjectivity.

I am sure the speakers you listen to in your setup, details of which you guard and keep close to your heart, were not designed in some shack by just putting some drivers in a box, and putting in some crossovers and tuned exclusively with ears, unless of course you run a fully active setup which you have personally tuned with your ears.
Aside, assuming the speakers you use are from some pro or home audio brand, I am sure they too would have designed based on the technical specification of the drivers. It will have to be a combo of objective (technical) and subjective (ears) parameters.

Yes I am subjective, but I used to be objective.

Like I said lost interest based on what I read. Trash if based on Toole's philosophies. I abhor Harman and their "research". I'm not fond of objectivists either. They may have used listening but I don't care about their listening tests, to me this is all marketing/propaganda. Why would you judge it based on data? It doesn't appear anyone here has heard it. I don't have any interest in these sub par speakers to research them.

Why would I listen to them? They aren't my type of speaker. I am contradicting nothing, I tell people to listen and buy, I am not interested in buying these, why would I want such mediocre at best speakers? If I was interested in them then I would listen to them.

The speakers I own do not sound good to me natively. Heavy amounts of processing has been applied to suit my personal preferences. Yes they were tuned by me, laboriously, I might add. In the time I was tuning them (by ear) I took an interest in seeing the objective data, not to guide my hand but for understanding. I have nearly 500 measurements from that period. I also have over 5,000 presets to load in my DSP from experimentation. This occurred over years.

No speaker I have ever heard has sounded good to me natively. None.

I should note my love for music is excessive, most people don't care either way.

 

[keith_correa]

Hear that sound? That's the sound of the flush. Of this thread. Going down the drain.

 

[Vineethkumar01]

Hear that sound? That's the sound of the flush. Of this thread. Going down the drain.

I can hear it, loud and clear.
Been there, done that, in the past even though unintentionally.
Hence I am trying to restrain myself from making any posts from now on where I have to try to prove that I am smarter than others (when I am actually not ) instead of the original subject matter about listening impressions of the new speaker for common people like me .
Honestly, I am really tired of an objective vs subjective debate happening everywhere, where one party tries to prove that they are right. I belong to neither camp and see advantages/disadvantages with both approaches. And there are really better things to do in life than arguments about this.
Also, in general I really hate having conversations with people who just try to say "take my opinion on blind faith, it is the absolute truth".
I just want to steer well away from it and not engage in such conversations..
Good luck for this thread..

 

[square_wave]

Yes I am subjective, but I used to be objective.

Like I said lost interest based on what I read. Trash if based on Toole's philosophies. I abhor Harman and their "research". I'm not fond of objectivists either. They may have used listening but I don't care about their listening tests, to me this is all marketing/propaganda. Why would you judge it based on data? It doesn't appear anyone here has heard it. I don't have any interest in these sub par speakers to research them.

Why would I listen to them? They aren't my type of speaker. I am contradicting nothing, I tell people to listen and buy, I am not interested in buying these, why would I want such mediocre at best speakers? If I was interested in them then I would listen to them.

The speakers I own do not sound good to me natively. Heavy amounts of processing has been applied to suit my personal preferences. Yes they were tuned by me, laboriously, I might add. In the time I was tuning them (by ear) I took an interest in seeing the objective data, not to guide my hand but for understanding. I have nearly 500 measurements from that period. I also have over 5,000 presets to load in my DSP from experimentation. This occurred over years.

No speaker I have ever heard has sounded good to me natively. None.

I should note my love for music is excessive, most people don't care either way.

You seem to be listening to a custom speaker that is configured to sound good only to you. This is an edge case situation which does not work for commercial speakers.

 

[Vineethkumar01]

I can hear it, loud and clear.
Been there, done that, in the past.
Hence I am trying to restrain myself from making any posts from now on where I have to try to prove that I am smarter than others (when I am actually not ) instead of the original subject matter about listening impressions of the new speaker for common people like me .
Honestly, I am really tired of an objective vs subjective debate happening everywhere, where one party tries to prove that they are right. I belong to neither camp and see advantages/disadvantages with both approaches. And there are really better things to do in life than arguments about this.
Also, in general I really hate having conversations with people who just try to say "take my opinion on blind faith, it is the absolute truth".
I just want to steer well away from it and not engage in such conversations..
Good luck for this thread..

Sorry @keith_correa .
I quoted your reply in my reply while I was trying to make a general post in the thread.

 

[Decadent_Spectre]

You seem to be listening to a custom speaker that is configured to sound good only to you. This is an edge case situation which does not work for commercial speakers.

While I wouldn't call it a custom speaker, the end result is highly customized, however I don't intend for others to listen to the same sound, rather to listen and decide for themselves. Commercial speakers (particularly home audio) certainly have "broad" brush strokes in regards to sound. Most however are content to add any required components and press play or at most partake of some form of customization by trying to reach what many call "synergy".

 

[jarneevan]

I came across Perlisten on Reddit few months back. I was was awestruck by thier S7c center, the sheer size of it. I knew I would never be able to get one here. So I explored my options to get a big center with 4 drivers + tweeter.

I found someone who was willing to build one for me. The Center I have has got four 6.5inch drivers and it measures 42inch in width. And it's a beast.

 

[fLUX]

I came across Perlisten on Reddit few months back. I was was awestruck by thier S7c center, the sheer size of it. I knew I would never be able to get one here. So I explored my options to get a big center with 4 drivers + tweeter.

I found someone who was willing to build one for me. The Center I have has got four 6.5inch drivers and it measures 42inch in width. And it's a beast.

Would love to try your HT room once its fully ready Naveen, as is the room was amazing when I last visited

 

[prateekatasniya]

From what ever you write, it appears you are an out and out subjective person while choosing your speakers. You do not care about measurements and other stuff and purely decide by listening.
In such a scenario, I wonder why you took an objective route to decide these speakers are terrible only based on the link. How do you know that
they did not employ listening criteria into the final design.
Every established speaker manufacturers have their own signature or house curve that goes into the final design.
Nowhere Perlisten on their website state they have employed any of Floyd Toole philosophies in their design if that for you is a caveat.

If you are a subjective listener as you claim to be, you should take a call only after listening to them, else you are contradicting your very audio philosophy of subjectivity.

I am sure the speakers you listen to in your setup, details of which you guard and keep close to your heart, were not designed in some shack by just putting some drivers in a box, and putting in some crossovers and tuned exclusively with ears, unless of course you run a fully active setup which you have personally tuned with your ears.
Aside, assuming the speakers you use are from some pro or home audio brand, I am sure they too would have designed based on the technical specification of the drivers. It will have to be a combo of objective (technical) and subjective (ears) parameters.

Rightly said..
Point is few people forget that speaker drivers are manufactured using measurements first!
Another point is some people have answers for everything... Right or wrong that's not a criteria.

 

[keith_correa]

Rightly said..
Point is few people forget that speaker drivers are manufactured using measurements first!

I detest speaker drivers. I execrate the people who manufacture the drivers. I loathe the production manager of the production line where my drivers were made. I despise. I repudiate. I hate. I. Me. Myself.

 

[Nitin K]

I detest speaker drivers. I execrate the people who manufacture the drivers. I loathe the production manager of the production line where my drivers were made. I despise. I repudiate. I hate. I. Me. Myself.

Just wondering if this long list also includes the air moving within & outside the speakers.