3/5A speakers have been mythical among Chinese audiophiles for a long time, and the negative impacts they have brought on the electroacoustic economy, culture, and technology are “too numerous to describe”.
3/5A speakers used to cost 20,000 to 30,000 yuan, but now they cost around 5,000 yuan. Speakers of this type are produced and sold by at least British companies such as Rogers, KEF, Harbeth, and Spendor, and there are also replicas in China. Its market experience has been continuously promoted by audio magazines, and it has finally fulfilled the famous saying of Nazi leader Goebbels: "A lie repeated a thousand times will become the truth."
I don’t need to give examples here. Just search for “3/5A speakers” on the Internet, and countless touting articles will appear. From the 1980s to the present, China's audio media has been touting it for 40 years. Take it from the BBC radio monitoring application story to the unparalleled bookshelf box classic, and even list it as a technically insurmountable "ceiling".
In 1991, under the guidance of magazine propaganda, I first came into contact with "3/5A" at the home of an audiophile in Guangzhou. The amplifier was a set of American McIntosh. Audiophiles are proud, proud, and excited to the point of blushing (and their blood is gushing) because of this set of 3/5A speakers. When I heard it, I thought, "Why is it so bad?" , no transient, no dynamics, no transparency, no details, no low frequency, large sound coloration, and large distortion. It almost combines all the defects of speaker manufacturing. I couldn't figure it out at the time: Could it be that the evaluation of 3/5A by audio magazines was fake?
In 1993, as the director of an audio technology research institute, I worked part-time as the technical director and deputy general manager in charge of technology at the Chengdu HI-FI Audio and Music Center. The magazine run by the "center" and Liu Hansheng ("Speaker Forum" 》magazine editor), it was only during the acquaintance that I realized that the audio media is a "neutral person" on the surface, holding up a banner of fair and impartial audio reviews, but in fact it is a vassal of audio manufacturers and suppliers, or in other words, a vassal of the audio industry. Parasite. The reason is simple: vendors and manufacturers pay for reviews, and the media will naturally say good things about them. Otherwise, where will the money come from? Since it is an audio media that relies on manufacturers and suppliers, how can it make fair comments and can only conspire to make money from audiophiles.
The audio media has promoted 3/5A to the "sacred altar". Can lies really become truth?
Enthusiasts’ money is easy to “earn”.
The title “audiophile” is ironic. He is originally a metaphor for a delirious and sick person (the medical concept of fever is about 39 degrees), but people who use "fever" to comfort and masturbate in life are proud of it. Since they are a group of "dirty" people, they are naturally a vast commercial and profit-seeking prairie to obtain IQ taxes. As long as you can make up stories and brag, you can drive a large lawn mower to harvest "enthusiasts" at will.
Audiophiles often say how toxic the 3/5A vocals are, how sticky the violin is, how wavy the guitar is, etc. Are these reviews trustworthy? What is the basis? What are the standards?
Has the person who commented like this seen Tsai Qin? Have you ever heard of a real violin? Bottom line: Do you have any musical experience?
So where do these reviews come from? Picked it up from a magazine, from a merchant? Do you follow what others say?
Most of the audiophiles I have met do not have the ability to identify real music (I say this to offend most audiophiles, and my advice is offensive). For example, it is very common to use Tsai Qin as an audition candidate. I have never heard Tsai Chin's real voice, but Tsai Chin's ten albums have 9 timbres. "Ferry" and "Three Years" are completely different voices. Compared with Luo Haiying, who has a singing voice that has not been professionally trained, her vocals are not smooth and thorough. Compared with Jiangyang Dolma who has been professionally trained, her voice, technique, range, sound quality, etc. are all so different that they are not on the same level.
Tsai Chin’s recording mix is ??superimposed with many electronic effects to embellish and exaggerate. Due to the different electronic effects and different sound dyeing when downmixing, the timbre and quality of each Tsai Chin record is different. Even so, Tsai Qin's voice could be heard floating. However, media comments that promoted Tsai Chin as a audition star were overwhelming. I also used Tsai Chin to audition, but the purpose of the audition was not to hear well, but to hear badly: the more flaws you can hear in Tsai Chin's records, the better the speakers are. Because no amount of means in the post-mixing stage can cover up the flaws in the voice and technique.
Most audiophiles do not have the ability to judge the aesthetics of music sounds. Merchants know it and manufacturers also know it. This is the business opportunity for lawn mowers.
3/5A is a typical case of using a business opportunity.
I call 3/5A worthless. Is that true?
The tweeter of 3/5A was initially made of Mylar material (Mylar), which is a polymer aggregation synthetic material commonly known as "plastic". DuPont in the United States calls it PET (Polyethylene Terephthalate). This kind of sound film material is currently the most widely used. Many voice speakers, headphone speakers, mobile phone speakers, and laptop speakers are used. The raw materials are 30 yuan to 80 yuan/kg, 53 square meters per kilogram, and 265 sound membranes are produced per square meter. The material cost of a 30mm diameter unit sound membrane is about 0.002 yuan (2 centimeters), and the 3/5A tweeter is only 27mm in diameter. When the sound film is hot pressed, the cost is 0.03 yuan for 1 piece of 30 pieces, 0.04 yuan for 1 piece of 6 pieces, and 0.05 yuan for 1 piece of 1 piece, which means that the cost of the sound film will not exceed 0.05 yuan. In other words, the supply price of a silk tweeter in Dongguan with a 25-core internal magnet similar to 3/5A (the cost is higher than the external magnet) will not be higher than 8 yuan.
Cost value. Value includes business value and product value. Product value includes cost and performance. The acoustic performance of PET is relatively low. Its sound speed is only 5400m/s, which is equivalent to that of aluminum film. However, due to its low hardness and limited carrying power, it is easy to be distorted. This kind of distortion is common in mylar speakers. A 50μm thick PET sound diaphragm has a response time of 9.2Ns, which is 3 times slower than the response time of the tweeter diaphragm we developed. High-frequency details cannot be expressed, and high-frequency distortion will cause amplitude overload to form a peak at 15K (rear). And sharp valley, the frequency response characteristics are extremely unbalanced and do not have the basic conditions for high-end acoustic performance. It is an acoustic material with low-end performance. In other words, the acoustic value of the 3/5A tweeter is very low.
The 3/5A mid-bass unit is also made of plastic sound membrane. In the early days, in order to reduce excessive solid frequency sound coloration, it was coated with a layer of damping glue. Looking at the overall performance, the sensitivity of the vibration area of ??the 110mm diameter unit (approximately .4.5 inches) is 83dB (Rogers Studio 3 achieved 85dB). Its vibration projection area is 67 square centimeters (the effective vibration area is larger than this. Because it is conical). The sound conversion efficiency is 1.23dB/cm2. The sensitivity is equivalent to the 3-inch unit with a film thickness of 1.5mm developed by us. However, its projected vibration area is nearly twice that, which means that the sound conversion efficiency is nearly twice as low. The reactive power (the consumption of active power converted into sound) is twice as large. In the process of acoustic conversion, the greater the proportion of electromagnetic reactive power consumed, the lower the performance. The frequency details in the audio current are "eaten" by it. What's more, its boxed low frequency is -3dB at only 70Hz. Comparing the low-frequency -3dB50Hz performance of the 3-inch unit box we developed is too far apart. A speaker that cannot reach -3dB50Hz cannot be used for monitoring. Because most music low frequencies are around 50Hz (such as kick drum).
3/5A has always been known as monitoring, but it is simply deceiving others.
Is this unit good? Naturally not good. To say its manufacturing value is even lower. As long as the speaker accessories are combined to achieve this level, most manufacturers can produce it without any high technical content or scarcity of materials.
In Dongguan, a 3/5A similar unit kit (two 1-inch external magnetic mylar film tweeters + two 4-inch external magnetic plastic film mid-bass) can be purchased for less than 100 yuan.
The 3/5A box material is more common - plywood (also called laminate, which is made of low-quality wood glued together). The required box materials are 0.3 square meters each, and the current price is 13 yuan/square meter. The material cost for two boxes is 8 yuan, and the processing and veneer is 50 yuan/box, and the cost is only 108 yuan.
The 3/5A frequency divider is a two-stage one, and the inductors, capacitors, and resistors are all made of the lowest-end materials. It is estimated that it will not exceed 20 yuan/group. Maximum 40 yuan for two groups.
The cost of a pair of 3/5 speakers manufactured in Dongguan will not exceed RMB 300 (including packaging), which is less than the cost of our research and development of a 3-inch magnet.
Is this kind of speaker valuable? Where can I get high?
Therefore, the value of 3/5A is not in the product and its technology itself, but in the "balloons" blown out by the media. The cost is 3 to 400 yuan, and the market price exceeds 4,000 yuan, which is the norm in the HI-Fi audio industry. The entire industry chain received 4,000 yuan, with manufacturers receiving 1,500 yuan and businesses and media receiving 3,500 yuan. What's more, 3/5A was once sold for 20,000.
If the manufacturer's products perform well, there is nothing wrong with making more profits. But the performance of 3/5A is too poor after all. It is not a classic of electroacoustic industrial products, but a classic of "predatory" market branding in the electroacoustic industry. Its so-called "classic" marketing is that the product costs 10 yuan, the market price is 15 times, and the industry chain profits: 35% between manufacturers and media, and 65% between wholesalers and retailers. In this way, smart dealers naturally choose products with a large profit ratio. In this way, the factory + the media can also obtain 5 times the benefits. This is 3/5A’s first successful experience in entering the Chinese market. It first entered the Chinese market in the name of "fever" and "monitoring", and gained valuable and successful marketing experience for European and American speakers to enter the Chinese market. It has been widely used by European and American audio manufacturers so far, and it has also played a role in blocking the progress of the human electroacoustic industry. profound negative impact. (For related content, see my work "Authenticity of Hi-End Speakers").
From a technical point of view, 3/5A is not good at all: diaphragm, magnetic circuit, voice coil, inductor, capacitor, resistor, box material, process... and its comprehensive circuit Acoustic performance, nothing can be called "good". Typical of shoddy work.
I would like to apologize to the readers as I write this: I am offended. Especially a large number of enthusiasts who still spend money on 3/5A (many of them are still in the dark). Please understand: I say you don’t know the goods out of a protective attitude. I believe that you are not "beauty is in the eye of the beholder" about 3/5A, but just because you have never seen a real "beauty" and mistook 3/5A for a "lover" because of your lies and deception. However, please don't listen to other speakers and maintain this ugly "lover" like Xi Tzu, otherwise it will be too late!