The Rectilinear 5: end of the myth of rock speakers vs. classical speakers.
The new Rectilinear 5 is capable of playing very, very loud. Rock-festival loud. Even with a medium-powered amplifier.
At the same time, it's uncannily accurate. It sounds sweet, unstrained and just plain lifelike at all volume levels.
The temptation is great, therefore, to one-up that prestigious manufacturer who some time ago announced "The first accurate speaker for rock music." But we refuse to perpetuate that mythology. It's perfectly obvious that the Rectilinear 5 reproduces classical music just as accurately as rock. We could never see how a voice coil or a magnet would know the difference between Jimi Hendrix and Gustav Mahler.
So we'd rather use this opportunity to set things straight once and for all.
Thus:
There's no such thing as a rock speaker or a classical speaker. Any more than there's a late-show TV set or football-game TV set.
--- Equally wrong: Classical sound a wrong made vague and spineless by the
speaker.
There are, however, speakers that impose a hard, sizzling treble and a huge bass on any music. And others that round off the edges and soften up the transient de tails of any music. That's the probable origin of the myth ; but these aren't rock and classical speakers, respectively.
They're inaccurate speakers.
It's true that an aggressive treble and a heavy bass are characteristic of most rock music, even when heard live. It's also true that some record producers exaggerate these qualities, some times to a freakish degree, in their final mix of the recorded sound.
------Wrong: Freaky sound made even freakier. by the speaker.
But that doesn't mean the speaker can be allowed to add its own exaggerations on top of the others.
A loudspeaker is a conduit. Its job is to convey musical or other audio information unaltered. If the producer wants to monkey around with the natural sound that originally entered the microphones, that's his creative privilege. He'll be judged by the musical end results.
But if the speaker becomes creative, that's bad design.
By the same token, if some classical record producers prefer a warm, pillowy, edgeless string sound, that doesn't mean your speakers should impart those same qualities to cymbals, triangles or high trumpets.
(Stravinsky's transients can be as hard as rock.) And if you like to listen at very high volume levels (after all, that's what rock is about but so is Die Gotterdammerung), you still don't need a speaker that achieves high efficiency through spurious resonances. What you need is something like the Rectilinear 5.
Everything in this remarkably original design was conceived to end the trade-off between efficiency and accuracy. The four drivers are made to an entirely new set of specifications. The filter network that feeds the drivers is totally unlike the traditional crossover network. Even the cabinet material is new and different.
Of course, those who feel threatened by all this fuss about accuracy and naturalness will point out that the monitor speakers preferred by engineers and producers in recording studios are usually of the zippy, super-aggressive variety.
That's perfectly true, but the reason happens to be strictly nonmusical.
"I use the XYZ speaker only as a tool," a top producer explained to us. "I wouldn't have it in my house.
It really blasts at you when you crank up the volume, so that any little glitch on the tape hits you over the head.
After eight hours in the studio, that's what it takes to get your attention. I know how to deal with those unpleasant highs ; they're in the speaker, not on my tape." It's easy enough to find out for yourself.
Any reputable dealer will let you hear the Rectilinear 5 side by side with a "rock" or "monitor-type" speaker. Adjust each speaker by ear to the same high volume level, Rectilinear 5 making sure the amplifiers are Contemporary Laboratory Series of good quality. Then listen. bookshelf/floor To rock or classical.
speaker system, 9.00.
Then and there, the myth Delta Dispersion Base (patent will crumble. pending) optional.
RECTILINEAR--Rectilinear Research Corp., 107 Bruckner Blvd., Bronx, N.Y.10454; Canada: H. Roy Gray Limited, Ontario
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Also see:
GTE Sylvania SUPER AS210A speaker