Why evaluating the sound of a single speaker is essential

[john61ct]

Again, Dr Toole to you & us.

There is nothing do to with SQ between the two, in fact they are not even separate categories.

Active DSP systems simply means the EQ / filtering happens at the line level, not after amplification.

Whether the amplifiers and processing are physically internal or not is irrelevant.

Your question was already answered above, yes there are some very well implemented passive speakers but they are few, and not cheap.

DSP's ability to improve any flaws in the more common passive crossovers of cheaper speakers would be limited, a fully active system (each driver getting its own separate channel) gives greater possibilities.

But then, the owner must become a speaker designer, the DSPing skilz level becomes the weakest link.

not about laboratory tests, but from the perspective of psychoacoustics.

That bit throws EVERYTHING out the window, obviously measurements must guide you even if your individual (biased) judgment is your final arbiter.

Getting blind level matched ABX testing going with statistically significant panels and rounds is the only way to get "semi-objective" about human preferences. No "laboratory" needed, but it does take a fair bit of effort to set up

and so far, transparency in reproduction (as measured) has correlated with the results of those type of testing.

 

[Cote Dazur]

Above this point, it is the speaker that dominates our perception of the sound.

Easy enough to test for free, take a pair of speakers, place it in two ( or three) different rooms.
If what you hear is a speaker dominating the room, you are hearing something totally different than what I hear.
I think you should do the test and read again on the subject.
How ever, I agree with what can be done to alter/correct what you hear above and under the Schroeder frequency is very different.
But it does not equal to all you hear is the speaker above it.
In my world, the room always dominate, all we can do is mitigate and adapt.
If you do not trust your hear you can measure the same speaker in 3 rooms, you will end up with tree different measurements under and above.

 

[Duke]

Easy enough to test for free, take a pair of speakers, place it in two ( or three) different rooms.
If what you hear is a speaker dominating the room, you are hearing something totally different than what I hear.
I think you should do the test and read again on the subject.
How ever, I agree with what can be done to alter/correct what you hear above and under the Schroeder frequency is very different.
But it does not equal to all you hear is the speaker above it.
In my world, the room always dominate, all we can do is mitigate and adapt.
If you do not trust your hear you can measure the same speaker in 3 rooms, you will end up with tree different measurements under and above.

Or if that's too much trouble, you can walk from room to room talking out loud while focusing on how your voice sounds. It's still your voice, but usually there are noticeable timbral differences. This room-to-room timbral difference has of course been there all along but we don't ordinarily pay any attention to it.

Best not to do this while others are present, as it looks somewhat eccentric to the casual observer. People already think we're nuts.

I think one of the reasons we don't notice a room-to-room timbral difference in our voices, nor in other people's voices, is that such differences fall within a range that is quickly and easily acclimated to by the ear/brain system. But (imo) one can still reach the arguably useful conclusion that some rooms sound better than others.