I was in need of some suitably low-powered speakers, for the purposes of
testing out an old sanyo amp bought on ebay - fifty five pence and £6
postage (cost the seller £8.17 to send it, hehe). I'd removed the driver
units from my KEF Q35 some time ago - once the tweeter unit had broken in
one of them, I saw no point in finding space for two unattractive
floorstanding cases.

As a substitute for the casing, I grabbed two hard pillows. I tried to rest
the speakers so that any movement wouldn't be affected by the pillow and
preceeded to test the amp for any hiss, loss of balance etc.

No problems there, so I hooked up a CD player and checked out the sound
quality. I was hopeful because this 80's styled Sanyo JA 266, resembled a
similarly unattractive model I'd used when I got my first CD player. A small
price to pay for reliving a few memories - that was all I hoped for.

As the title might suggest, I was indeed surprised with the results. The
sound was obviously lacking deep bass but the treble was unusually engaging.
I started wondering why this setup sounded OK - my conclusion was:

The only sounds being produced by these speakers, were those emanating
primarily from the cones and not "secondary" sound - sound heard after
reflection off a surface.

Is the secondary sound "valid"? Are the only accurate reproductions of
sound, those that eminate directly?


I know this experiment will have been carried out before, by people better
qualified to draw conclusions, but can/would anyone care to comment on this
idea?

I've decided that Bass really isn't too important to me nowadays but no, I
won't be using this setup for long. I do consider 55 pence the most that
should be spent on an amplifier for a PC soundcard though!