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Which brings up another point: While I think active speakers are the future, I do think manufacturers need to specify frequency ranges at at least two different SPL levels to indicate how bass compression is a factor.
This +1
. I think speaker data is so disjointed ? should it not be tied to a piont of operation somehow for example max SPL and frequency response they are obviusly not valid at the same time . But thats not obvius to most people bying speakers , it sure sounds nice with a small two way with -6dB at 35hz and max spl at 110dB, but thats not real . ( I work a lot with electrical motors there most of the rated data is valid at the same time , ie its the same point of operation . rpm power and torque etc is "at the same time" )
Wish there was a metric to estimate "typical output" with "typical music" .
I wonder if not the actual possible bass output SPL of many speakers are lower than people expect ?
The measurment i want to see is something like you can listen to music at this average and peak level with almost no compression in any range ie some kind of "usable frequency range for music at x db" .
What I think , many byers (and therefore manufacturers) chases very low -6dB piont in the bass for no good reason , your small speakrs is going to be very ineficient and the SPL levels at this low tuning is almost impossible to hear .
Anectdote: I have my subwoofer xover at 60Hz, at moderate listening levels it can take me a while to realise that i forgot to turn on the sub
Depends on the type of music ofcourse, so the fletcher munson curve seems to apply to me too
I do realise that this varies a lot with the type of music you use , i reckon that some acoustic orchestral music can go very low but the SPL levels is not that high . And experimental electronic music can be basically anything.
Are there any curves regarding typical frequency contents vs spl level for music genres ? With this speaker manufacturers could give estimates of what you could expect of thier product ? It may not be practical to build speakerss with 125dB output at 20Hz and 20kHz at the same time ?
My personal compromise is floorstander and sub , not small speaker and sub .