I'm curious if anyone is aware of any research on possible hearing damage caused by the resonant peak of some metal dome tweeters or metal cone fullranges?
This isn't going to be a concern with many of the better speakers we discuss here that keep the resonant peaks fairly well-controlled, but for consumer and automotive speakers there are still often ferocious resonant peaks at the end of the audible range.
For example, I was looking at the SB Acoustics 2.5" fullrange (SB65WBAC25-4) for a possible car audio application yesterday. This is not a low-quality driver by any means, but it has a +15dB resonant peak at 20kHz (compared to its SPL at 1kHz). So when used as intended (fullrange), even at a modest music listening level of 85dB, it's consistently generating 100dB of content at 20kHz.
Does anyone know of any research regarding whether that has the potential to cause hearing damage? Obviously off-axis it seems like it should be fine, but for desktop computer speakers or some car audio applications, those drivers might be aimed directly at one's ears.
I'm mostly concerned about the potential effect on kids, as I'm too old to directly hear that 20kHz peak any more. It worries me that I may think the SPL is fine, but may be exposing others to hazardous sound levels.
This isn't going to be a concern with many of the better speakers we discuss here that keep the resonant peaks fairly well-controlled, but for consumer and automotive speakers there are still often ferocious resonant peaks at the end of the audible range.
For example, I was looking at the SB Acoustics 2.5" fullrange (SB65WBAC25-4) for a possible car audio application yesterday. This is not a low-quality driver by any means, but it has a +15dB resonant peak at 20kHz (compared to its SPL at 1kHz). So when used as intended (fullrange), even at a modest music listening level of 85dB, it's consistently generating 100dB of content at 20kHz.
Does anyone know of any research regarding whether that has the potential to cause hearing damage? Obviously off-axis it seems like it should be fine, but for desktop computer speakers or some car audio applications, those drivers might be aimed directly at one's ears.
I'm mostly concerned about the potential effect on kids, as I'm too old to directly hear that 20kHz peak any more. It worries me that I may think the SPL is fine, but may be exposing others to hazardous sound levels.