Room Effects & Importance of Frequency Response/Other Metrics?

[AaronDC]

Hi. In the past few weeks I've been ruminating over the following question:

-- Why fuss over how a speaker's frequency response, off-axis performance, etc. when the room-speaker interaction has far larger effects on those very same things? Why not just choose a speaker for how loud it can go, how low it can go, how low the distortion is, and, yes, a response that isn't a complete mess? This is not even to mention things that have a far smaller impact upstream. I should think that the bar here need not be set so high.

I am aware of the research at Harman that demonstrates that people prefer speakers with a flat response. That was done in an acoustically treated lab with one speaker, correct? It was not done in a normal domestic listening environment. I am also not really referring to nearfield listening.

Thank you for sharing your thoughts!

 

[DVDdoug]

[/quote]I am aware of the research at Harman that demonstrates that people prefer speakers with a flat response. That was done in an acoustically treated lab with one speaker, correct? It was not done in a normal domestic listening environment.
[/quote]
I think we prefer flat (or "flattish") frequency response in any room. Those listening tests may have been done in "good rooms", but not in an anechoic chamber.

The Harmon preference curve slopes-down, at least in-part, because that's how speakers behave in a real room when they measure flat in an anechoic chamber. Mixing & mastering engineers work in "real rooms" and they make the production sound good with that setup, and that ends-up being what we like to hear too.

And a good speaker is going to sound better than a bad speaker in any room.

The spinorama off-axis response measurements allows some assumptions about "typical" in-room performance.

Floyd Toole says that our brains are very-good at removing room effects (except for the effects for low-frequency standing waves).



...Someday I'm going to re-read Toole's book and save some more notes/quotes.

 

[Duke]

-- Why fuss over how a speaker's frequency response, off-axis performance, etc. when the room-speaker interaction has far larger effects on those very same things? Why not just choose a speaker for how loud it can go, how low it can go, how low the distortion is, and, yes, a response that isn't a complete mess? This is not even to mention things that have a far smaller impact upstream. I should think that the bar here need not be set so high.

I agree with you that speaker/room interaction matters a great deal, but it is not haphazard. Speaker/room interaction is predicted by the speaker's off-axis response, modified by the room's surfaces. As long as the room isn't overly bright or overly damped, the off-axis response tells us a great deal about the in-room reflections.

In my opinion, a speaker should get two things right: The direct sound, and the reflection field. And it's hard to get both of these things right without getting the speaker design right.