Even though both can play back recorded music when fed with
an audio signal, is there a preexisting insurmountable Kultur Kampf between
home high fidelity systems and PA systems?
By: Ringo Bones
It may be down to one’s ears’ aesthetics but almost all
audiophiles – even new recruits – have readily perceived the preexisting and
insurmountable Kultur Kampf between domestic high fidelity systems and Public
Address systems used in high capacity stadium rock concerts. Even though pro
audio public address speaker systems manufacturers have yet to manufacture a
stadium rock PA system speaker whose sound quality is as beguiling that of a
200 US dollar entry level hi-fi loudspeaker for domestic use, are the two
worlds forever destined in a “never the twain shall meet” stand-offish
behavior?
My very own “epiphany” on questioning why PA systems never
sound as good as well-shorted entry-level budget domestic high fidelity systems
may seem oxymoronic to anyone uninitiated to the hi-fi world, but to hi-fi
enthusiasts, the truth can be self-evident to one’s own ears. As an amateur
heavy metal musician who judge “naturalness” of a heavy metal rock recording
via live-in-the-studio standards, I kept on wondering till this day on why live
concert PA systems and / or pro audio gear manufacturers had kept on ignoring
the sound quality aspect of their PA loudspeaker rigs.
Assuming one judge the “naturalness” of the sound of a live
heavy metal rock concert using the preexisting sound quality of the Public
Address system loudspeakers being used, does this mean that an overdriven 200
US dollar bookshelf hi-fi loudspeakers destined for domestic use is the
“natural sound” of a live heavy metal rock concert? You got to be shitting me!
Remember Stereophile magazine editor John Atkinson’s review
of the Wilson X-1 Grand SLAMM hi-fi loudspeakers back in the December 1995
issue of Stereophile? Well. One of his statements on that specific review
probably brought a sense of relief in me back then that I’m probably not the
only one “astonished” by the sound-quality Diaspora between domestic hi-fi and
pro-audio live concert PA Systems; According to Atkinson: “The bass
guitar…thundered fourth from the (Wilson) speakers’ big Focal woofers in a way
I had previously experienced only from live rock.” Not surprisingly, this was
inevitably followed by scores of Stereophile subscribers writing in “angry
letters” pointing out to John Atkinson the inherently low-fi sound quality of live
concert PA systems.
Inevitably, John Atkinson issued a response on subsequent
next issues of Stereophile magazine on the matter of the sound quality Kultur
Kampf between domestic hi-fi rigs and PA systems that goes: “When you use a PA
system to play back recordings, you are involved in a creative act, which is
not what the concept of high fidelity is about. However, when recorded
faithfully, the big, underdamped roar of a live bass guitar through a PA rig is
just as much an authentic acoustic source as any other. It is also one that
almost all hi-fi speakers, other than the big Wilsons get wrong in trying to
recreate.”
Given that PA systems tend to be 5 to 10 times cheaper than
their “proper” domestic high fidelity audio systems when compared in a power
output per dollar basis, many had perceived Stereophile magazine editor John
Atkinson’s statements about the difference between hi-fi and PA systems as
nothing more than being self-serving to the whole hi-fi industry back then. But
is it? Well, given that almost all hi-fi enthusiasts -including me – already
possess ears that already know that there is indeed really a difference on how
domestic hi-fi and the pro-audio PA system world play back music, is just makes
me sad on why the two tribes can never see eye to eye when it comes to sound
quality. After all, hi-fi enthusiasts go to live rock concerts too, while live
concert FOH engineers also buy proper domestic hi-fi rigs.
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