How do you test a speaker? please share.

[Den]

Hello!
How do you guys test what speakers are capable of in the best way? I have some serveral speakers, but I dont have a good strategy to test them in the best way. I have a hard time to decide which one who its the best. How do you do? How did you do your own reference track list to test the speakers the best way or did you copy a list from forums/internet?
Thanks alot for sharing!

Edit: If the thread is in the wrong section, please move it to the right, thank you!

 

[sweetchaos]

Double blind test ideally.

If that’s not possible, level matched and eq’d to first get rid of the bass discrepancy below the room transition frequency (below 300hz), using an instant speaker switcher. That allows you to focus on mid-range to high-freq. sounds first. You’ll notice if things like mid-range is recessed, or if treble is bright, etc. Go off axis to tweeter, and notice how the directivity changes. Once you’re satisfied with your choice of speaker, you can add the bass back (by turning off eq) to see how much of an improvement it makes. Also, keep in mind that even though the speaker might be shy on bass now, bass can always be improved with a subwoofer. Also, turn it up to see where the limit of power handling would be.

Otherwise, perform a quasi-anechoic measurement to look at the spinorama.

How to make quasi-anechoic speaker measurements/spinoramas with REW and VituixCAD

Quasi-anechoic measurements are a way to capture the 'real' frequency response of a speaker without the influence of a room. They are called 'quasi-anechoic' because they have the potential to get you really close to the results one might achieve with a non-reflective environment like an...

www.audiosciencereview.com

 

[Tonygeno]

Hello!
How do you guys test what speakers are capable of in the best way? I have some serveral speakers, but I dont have a good strategy to test them in the best way. I have a hard time to decide which one who its the best. How do you do? How did you do your own reference track list to test the speakers the best way or did you copy a list from forums/internet?
Thanks alot for sharing!

Edit: If the thread is in the wrong section, please move it to the right, thank you!

I typically use my ears to test speakers.

 

[Destination: Moon]

I just went through this with 3 sets of speakers. Pick 2, decide which you like better then match them against another pair.
What I discovered is that the numbers ie preference rating, etc are not necessarily a linear indicator as one might assume.
By that I mean: you may like one speaker for one or more reasons, and another speaker for different reasons. Making a decision as to which is "better" a balancing act. In a best case scenario one speaker will be better in all ways, and another worse, but that is not how these things present sometimes.

One thing I will say is comparing speakers carefully gives you a better appreciation for what you are listening to, and for the technology that makes it all happen.