On 2005-01-19 19:53:43 -0500, "Michael McKelvy" said:

Unbeknownst to me my wife subscribed me to Stereophile and I got my
first issue yesterday.

What I can't figure out is how can so many of their reviews of
speakers, praise so many speakers that have sizeable bass humps.

Case in point, the Sonus Faber Stradivari Homage. According to SP's
measurements there is considerable elevation in the bass response
beginning at about 300 Hz and continuing until it falls back to the
reference at about 30 Hz.

While it is possible and likely that the speakers are in a room that is
emphsizing the bass (room modes) in that frequency range, it is also
possible that the speaker vendor pumped up the bass to make it "sound
better."

I hope that it is an improper acoustics problem, myself.


Are the speakers not measured in the room that the reviewer has them set up in?

Very possible - and likely. Especially if *every* speaker has the same
"problem."


Are their measurements done badly?

If the room modes are not accounted for or mentioned - the analysis
isn't quite up to snuff, even if the measurements are performed
correctly physically.


Or do their reviewers just like over accentuated bass response.

Possible


Clearly there are speakers they have reviewed that are much flatter, if
not as pretty, such as the Merlin VSM, or the Hales Revelation 3, both
of which also received favorable reviews.

Thiel has a ruler flat response from the LF cutoff to about 20-22kHz.
I don't recall a review in 'phile - but I suspect that if that same
reviewer reviewed them, you might just see that hump!