Siegfried Linkwitz Talks Loudspeakers
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- Опубликовано: 15 июл 2018
- Last spring while in San Francisco to speak to the S.F. Audio Society, AnalogPlanet editor Michael Fremer had the opportunity to speak on camera with Siegfried Linkwitz, whose name will be familiar to many audio enthusiasts as the co-inventor of the Linkwitz-Reilly crossover network.
Mr. Linkwitz's designs are available as DIY (do it yourself) kits that you can read about at www.linkwitzlab.com. The LX521.4 shown in the video can be built DIY from a kit for around $3300, including a miniDSP 4x10HD equalizer/crossover. The sound in Mr. Linkwitz's untreated living room was full bandwidth, detailed, 3 dimensional and smooth.
Despite being a science/measurement oriented innovator one thing that Mr. Linkwitz said during the interview is something everyone reading this should keep in mind when reading measurements:
"What is important to the eye is not necessarily important to the ear. Why should it be? Nature makes sure each does its job and does its job perfectly. You get cues from the eye but some things that look gross in the frequency response, the ear says 'I don’t care'."
Please enjoy this conversation with Mr. Linkwitz. The write-up on AnalogPlanet.com will include more technical information about the loudspeakers
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Now there is a man who lives a passionate life. When he says “beauty in music” he breaks up with emotion, now that is a perfect example of beauty in of itself.
I realize it is quite off topic but does anyone know a good place to watch newly released series online?
This guy knows audio! He hit it on the head when he said "people obsess over sound quality because of beauty"! 100% correct! People can learn from him! What a beautiful person!
Vinyl City Y E S
R.I.P. great master.
I've never had an opportunity to meet you, unfortunatelly. I hope you rest in peace. You seem to have been a great guy. Love and sadness from Croatia
I had opportunity to exchange few e-mails with him. We exchange couple of thoughts regarding Pluto design and I am happy on that small moment in life. RIP mr. Linkwitz.
Thats what i call a legend ! the perfect balance of using measurements and knowledge to create a nice speaker. and as well down to earth stuff dont have to cost a fortune to sound good.
What an amazing interview! I'm so glad I found this!
R.I.P. dear Mr. Linkwitz I learned a lot from you
Thank you for sharing this interview with such a wonderful man who contributed so much. He will surely be missed.
One of my heroes. Sometimes I get engineers thinking they are just too smart for audio and start calling everyone audiophools, then I just refer to Mr Linkwitz and ask them how it can be that a distinguished HP instrument designer famous for his work in filters could be considered an audiophool by their standards.. That''s always where the conversation ends.. :-)
Where would an engineer call Mr. Linkwitz an audiophool?
Except that Mr Linkwitz does not retranslate all that audiophool crap. Building and _designing_ expensive speakers is one thing, using silver audio cables is another.
I never heard of Mr. Linkwitz buying directional fuses or audiophile ethernet switches.
Oh and who in Gods green earth would thumbs down this video, who ever you are you have no soul, no compassion and no heart, I pity you.
ianmedium I am certain it’s the pathetic troll who gives everything I post anywhere a thumbs down....
ianmedium looks like there's two soulless people out there!
Thought the same. Clueless trolls.
Forgive them as they know not what they have with brilliant pebbles
GREAT video, your good luck with interviewing the best people is holding up. Keep up the great videos. Cheers
A lovely interview. So great it was captured.
Anyone who has not, take some time to explore Mr. Linkwitz’s website. It is a true treatise on sound recording, microphones, playback and design. He is one of if not the engineering genius behind the SFO’s great sound.
What a great interview! - I am glad that you, Mr. Fremer, had the opportunity to speak with Siegfried before he passed, and to listen to his loudspeakers. Thanks for posting this.
Siegfried is truly impressive in his ability to distill the complex theory and practical knowledge into a consistent and cogent presentation of the priorities and trade-offs a speaker designer must balance. Just wanted to point out that he was discussing speaker measurements when making the quoted comments and not cables or amplifiers and that he also uses measurements to develop all of his designs before listening and then went back to measuring to refine and correct the designs. Listening tests are of course is the final and ultimate priority.
As far as double blind testing, a development engineer must adjust parameters to correct deficiencies. It may take a few days or weeks at times to let the mind process and de-embed the issues and potential solutions. The consumer will never have that long to decide how well a system suits his needs and to do extensive test and eval so it is a moot point. to say that short term testing is irrellevent. It is all the consumer gets.
I don't understand why reviewers who are so focused on listening evaluations resist putting their subjective processor to an unbiased test so that a clear choice subjective or not of the best component or change to the system is made. If they are the ears or athletes of the market then being measured would seem a credibility requirement. When was the last time any reviewer had their hearing tested.
And yes on-axis speaker measurements are not very meaningful by themselves which is why he measures off-axis response and concentrates on interaction with the room. Speaker interaction with the room is origin of the majority of psycho-acoustic effects and it is critical to maintain coherency among all energy launched in the room and preserve it as long in time as possible. Then the brain can do the rest and remove the reflection delays and incorporate the room into the sound stage experience.
If you don't like the sound move your head six inches! It will be more noticeable than most component upgrades. If your going to use bad speaker designs (boxes) learn to treat your room and you will be much happier and might actually hear some of those more subtle changes in other components in those blind tests. Diffuse in the near field and absorb in the far field to start.
Loved it when he just dismissed the high price $100k+ box speakers in one sentence! Gel coat belongs on boats with the Heil tweeters. No one could have said it better. Oh and by the way if you watch the video of his system, he uses plain old 14 awg? speaker wire. No exotic branded cables. Nuff said!
You will be missed, We love you
What a Legend. A true genius. I am saddened by learning of his passing he was such an inspiration to me. Thanks for sharing this interview.
The definition of a Guru
Michael just a magnificent interview really wonderful i am sure for the time you were there his pain was eased I always enjoy your reviews your enthusiasm shines through and your system showcase was amazing -I am sure people have chained themselves to your record shelves so they could listen longer! I just got to listen to his latest creation and the person who made it just hit it out of the park -if you give it the room the system just dissolves into pure music no hint of the system
thanks again for interviewing a truly great man
RIP Siegfried Linkwitz
Goodbye SL.
You have given so much to us.
Thank you Siegfried. RIP
Awesome. Love this.
Thanks for capturing this tiny slice of a true audio giant. I still have a set of Phase Linear Phase III (Andromeda) speakers, which were one of the early commercial speakers to toute the L-R crossover. The steep crossover to get the mid-bass out of the way and smooth bass from 24-80hz is one of the hallmarks of the speakers and why I have tolerated their size to play pipe organ music for 4 decades.
How wonderful to hear Kings Row ,the Kenneth Wilkinson George Korngold RCA LPs are amongst my most treasured possessions,lovely video again Mr Fremer.
Outstanding! 😎
I remember reading his displeasure with Usher Audio still using his name, even if the models they had out are not his (or based on his) designs anymore.. Thanks for this upload.
such huge knowledge.
Good point -- some people are never satisfied with anything, no matter how expensive or how often they get it. Let's just say that experience has words that are worth pausing . . . and taking the time to listen. One must might learn something.
Oh it's such a pain to, he passed away 😢
It's a great loss to discerning audio humanity.
R.I.P. 🙏
Respect!
I'll buy his designed speakers god willing here in India.
11.09.2018 - Rest In Peace Siegfried Linkwitz.
nice conversation ! :-) i def gave it a thumbs up !!!
Simple genius, is when you do what makes you feel good inside. When you are doing what you makes you happy , you always excel in your work. You dream until your dreams come true !
SL passed away on 9/11/2018 or just 2 months after this recording. He is obviously weakening but his mind is still very sharp. RIP SL and thank you for your beautiful contributions to the world!
This is one of the best engineer i know ...
Good Korngold choice! And a fine thing to do, this interview.
As we get older all our senses change and not for the better every ones perseption of sound smell taste touch can differ just live your life and stop occasionally to smell the roses.
Came here and saw there were 521 likes, so didn't want to add a like to keep the magic number :) My LXmini kit is on its way, RIP Mr. Linkwitz
Just arrived ( here).... on the journey for ultra low distortion sound
RIP Siegfried. The world of music reproduction is a poorer place without you.
God bless SL
Interesting. Which nelson amp is he talking about exactly @14:00?
No amp in particular. He and Nelson are very close friends. Siegfried is not an "amp guy" but he sees Nelson's passion in what he does as very similar to his own.
Hope he is going to recover soon. By the way, phase correcting position of the water bottle?
Sadly, he is dying from inoperable prostate cancer.
Oh, very sorry to hear that. May he not suffer much from the dreaded C.
R.I.P.
Siegfried Linkwitz died on September 11, 2018
OK, not related to this video, but...………………
I've been reading some reviews of phono preamps on the AP website, and in a couple of them, you describe them as sounding rather "cardboard-y". What do you mean when you use this term?
hard, and/or two dimensional and not at all supple when an instrument like a clarinet for instance is supposed to sound "round"
See, I wouldn't get that from the term "cardboardy", which is why I asked. I would have thought something less real, not as solid or robust, maybe a bit dry, less life-like.
I ask because I have a Musical Surroundings Phonomena II+, which I rather like, and you referred to its previous version as a bit cardboardy,. But I haven't really heard anything better, and certainly not the history with various phono preamps that you do. I do however, have a JC 3+ on the way, so we'll see how much that blows my mind.
achn2b not that different really...
OK, so I guess I did get the right vibe. I assume you still have high regard for the Parasound JC3+?
His speakers don't really need acoustic treatments because they have reduced base already (open baffle) and they are far enough away from the back and side walls. The tweeter for rear firing is to create the other half space on the backside for increased room reflectivity adding that realistic spaciousness sound to the mix.
You don't understand.... the bass was outstanding and deep.
I don't entirely understand his engineering design but there is an element of open baffle for his woofers which probably cancels out some of the base. With big woofers your going to get base no doubt and the fact that there is partial blockage on the sides of the speakers which also mitigates the fullspace wrap around effect in the lower frequencies. I do understand a little.
"Top and bottom baffle of the LX521 can be rotated independently of each other. The orientation of the bottom baffle determines the degree to which the woofer couples to different room modes. This provides some flexibility in dealing with a problematic room mode by turning the woofer a certain amount. Of much greater significance is the ability to minimize the first side wall reflections L' and R' by orienting the top baffles. The optimum amount of toe-in is a function of loudspeaker distance from the side walls and distance to the listener."
www.linkwitzlab.com/LX521/Description.htm
At our Bob Carver Corporation, we've noticed peaks in certain rooms from 150 to 300 Hz. As a result, because we do not require room treatments, we had to increase the range of our mid-bass control to cut those peaks when necessary. Not only is it difficult to control bass with room treatments, but the lack of deep bass in the doctor's system does not eliminate the need for room treatments depending how lucky one is.
Building a new theatre system, one guess who's design comes first. Rip legend in audio electronics.
RIP...
About 20 years old when I came across hes engineering work, hes meticulous hand drawings, advance mathematics with S-plane calculations drew me in, so I build hes 3-way filter (I could not afford the kits at the time), and was blown away, I once emailed him and asked for advice and got a reply back saying he only does consultation work, hes an incredible person hes warm, smart and above an example of what people in the science community should aspire to.
"I once emailed him and asked for advice and got a reply back saying he only does consultation work, hes an incredible person hes warm,"
Your above quote contradicts itself. He does not sound like a personable individual. He basically told you sorry, I don't answer questions for free.
And the high powered brain belonged to as nice a man as anyone could hope for. Thanks, SL.
I had the honor to visit him in his home and listen to the Pluto and the first version of the LX speakers. At that time I raved about the Hypex Class D amplifiers with DSP that I used with the Pluto’s instead of the classic design and he got slightly annoyed as he thought I was trying to sell him something. Later, with the support of Dr. Frank Brenner Linkwitz also completely switched over to the Hypex amplifiers. So sad to hear he passed away. God bless the wonderful mr. Linkwitz and his lovely wife.
What a fricken nut, just like me. God love him, me and all the other nuts alike!!!
Next opportunity to audition his speakers at the Linkwitz home in Corte Madera/CA: Sunday, Nov 7th 2021. Limited tickets (free) via email to info xx Linkwitz xx audio
So sad that someone like that has to go. I gave up on moving coil speakers as they all sound colored to me. I've been living with full range electrostatic speakers since 1980 and I once did a comparison. I went to my favorite music hall (Synod Hall Oakland, PA) and got a balcony seat and leaned over and closed my eyes and listened carefully. Then I went home and put a Telarc LP of the same music on and sat down and closed my eyes and the sound was the same. That's good enough for me.
Herrn Linkwitz embodies the transcendent heights that the German soul is capable of achieving when the synthesis of Science and Philosophy becomes pure Poetry.
Adieu
Too bad about the unbalanced audio on this video. I could only sit through part of this because the interviewer's voice is about 4 times louder than Siegfried's voice is. So turn it up to hear what the sick old man in the hospital bed is trying to say and BAM!!! you get shouted at by the interviewer. I have said it before, if you want to come across as being absolutely unprofessional and possibly ridiculously arrogant, just let your voice be 2 or more times louder than the voice of the one you are interviewing. It is a common brutality that we are exposed to way too much.
:)
Germans are the best sound and noise engineers ever.If you want excellent speakers..buy German brand.btw..this honorable man..founded the modern speakers of today..we all so much enjoy..
I wish you only Heath and to get on your feet as new.
The mind is better than ever for my opinion. The body is just like a preamp. We can do with a not so so preamp right?
The mind, as your self is the MUSIC (מוסיקה) it self.
Be well and stay sharp.
Mati (just a fan of you without even knowing it)
Interesting, but he's more into digital.
Is that a bad thing? Personally I think it's a good thing to move towards newer, more flexible technologies.
So, what's the name of this channel?
I know it's analog planet, but that doesn't mean every viewer is an analog exclusive person ;)
Fremer is such a weirdo
Never hearda him get some people like Jim fosgate
This is almost too sad to watch.