why tons of commercial speakers sound like crap

[omishra]

I think one person is referring to "flat" as in the flat frequency response curve of a speaker while the other person referred to "flat" as in off-key or the harmonics not lifting off ? hyeah:

-G

You mean to say they reproduce only flat notes and missing major / minor notes?
[ Serious people please forgive me after reading above. ]

 

[sound1]

There is only one way to gauge the accuracy of a system.
Play some instruments in your house.

Record it via "perfect" mic + interface.

Play it on your hi-fi system. This should match the actual sound.

And place the mic exactly where your ears are (not close to the instruments) and absolutely no mixing (only one pair of mic).
I reckon I won't like this sound in my system

 

[Thad E Ginathom]

Outside of the pro world, speaker response graphs are just brochure illustrations. We can't say that they are all lies, but they are presented by the marketing department, not by technical people. However they do it (and in the knowledge that not many of us can really interpret it anyway) they show us something that looks like what we want to see.

Even then, what is flat? Although all these things must translate into some shape on the response graph, for the purposes of a non-mathematical conversation, is it not without added flavour? And is it not true that speaker manufacturers do add flavour, according to what they understand to be the tastes of their target market?

Yesterday evening, I was listening to a live Grateful Dead performance, downloaded as FLAC (paid for, but worth it ) from Wolfgang's Vault. The quality of this particular recording is really excellent. It made me think of another suggestion to post here, re the matters of live, recorded and "flat" music: Isn't the real flat (as in unflavoured, and unfettered by venue acoustics) live music experience that which is heard through the engineer's headphones?

Just another idea for the mix

 

[keith_correa]

....Isn't the real flat (as in unflavoured, and unfettered by venue acoustics) live music experience that which is heard through the engineer's headphones?.....

IMO, the "real" flat is what is picked up by the microphones.

 

[Thad E Ginathom]

ie (at least for acoustic instruments) what your ear would hear if it was where the mic is?

That is near to what I thought when I was listening to the violin concert recording that I mentioned above: "If I had had the sense to sit on the floor, in front of the stage, this is what I might have heard." Unfortunately, unlike dear, fit, TNK, and many other musicians twenty years older than I am, I now find it very hard to sit cross-legged for three hours, unless I can lean back against something.