Table Of Contents:
- Do Specifications Really Matter
- Happy Birthday Carmelina
- For No Particular Reason
- Whats in a Review
17th September 2009
How much do we need to know about Speaker Specifications in order to select the right speaker?
I was just about to think of something clever to write on this topic, as I always have customers come in or call and ask me about he specifications of speakers amongst other components, and I always end by saying "don't pay too much attention to the spec's, look at the efficiency and make sure you are within the power requirement but other than that trust your ears."
It is not easy during the audition process, there are just so many products to choose from that I do not envy anyone going though this. We do our best to assist with a practical common sense approach.
I came upon this article from Colin Whatmough who is an Australian speaker designer and manufacture which I thought explains what I believe quite well. enjoy.
Do specifications really matter?
Author: Colin Whatmough
7 September 2009
When it comes time to purchase new speakers, it is quite easy to be overwhelmed by all the specifications. Colin Whatmough says consumers can forget about figures and educate their ears.
As a rule, I generally try to avoid becoming too technical in my articles. But certain topics, such as specifications, make such an aim virtually impossible.
Speakers feature a range of detailed specifications – such as waterfall plots, step and pulse response, phase response and distortion characteristics – that are used extensively by speaker designers, but are very difficult to interpret by the general public.
So what is relevant and what is not?
Speaker specifications can vary greatly from one model or another. Typically, the efficiency and frequency response of a speaker are the first specifications people look for, and are possibly the most relevant.
The industry standard input for a speaker is 2.83V, which equates to 1W into an 8Ω speaker. This is an industry standard input regardless of the speaker’s impedance.
Efficiency should be an average output across the speaker’s stated response or output, measured from a white noise input.
Some unscrupulous manufacturers measure the frequency response peaks and quote them as efficiency. This gives an inflated efficiency rating that is probably even more exaggerated, as such products are likely to have a wildly varying response.
Efficiency is an important parameter, as it dictates how much amplifier power will be required. Achieving a satisfying volume with speakers of 90dB may require a 50W amplifier. If the speakers have an efficiency of only 80dB they will need 500W to achieve the same level, whereas 100dB efficiency speakers require only 5W.
Average speaker efficiency is about 87dB, measured at a distance of 1m. A speaker with an efficiency of 80dB is considered very low, and an efficiency of 100dB is considered high.
In terms of frequency response, care should be taken when assessing the range quoted.
A frequency response of 20Hz to 20,000Hz may sound impressive, but it is meaningless. Without dB limits, virtually any speaker will produce some sound at any frequency from 20Hz up to 20,000Hz and so claim such a response.
A meaningful frequency response should be qualified with dB limits.
The frequency response of a quality speaker may be 40Hz to 20,000Hz +/- 3dB. If this speaker’s efficiency is about 87dB, the output level would not exceed 90dB or drop below 84dB across its stated frequency range.
Generally, the wider the frequency range the better, but other parameters may have more effect on the overall naturalness of the sound.
I have heard many mini-monitors outperform much larger speakers even though the mini-monitors had restricted bass extension. Their lower distortion levels and a much smoother response is reflected in their more natural sound quality.
However, frequency response within dB limits can still be misleading. Two speakers may have a quoted response of 40Hz to 20,000Hz +/- 3dB yet sound very different.
Speaker A may be up by 3dB in the bass and 3dB down in the treble, resulting in a fat, dull sound. Speaker B, being 3dB down in the bass and 3dB up in the treble will sound more lively, but lean and aggressive.
The specification for the power handling capability of a speaker causes the most difficulties.
It is natural to assume that a speaker rated at 100W couldn’t possibly be damaged by an amplifier capable of 90W, but it’s not that simple. Although a 90W amplifier may produce 90W at very low distortion, it may produce far more than this when driven into clipping, where distortion increases considerably.
Music is by its very nature dynamic – that is, it has loud passages followed by quiet passages. During the loud passages, speaker voice coils heat up. When there is a quiet passage they cool down again.
Some music, particularly electronic music, has a very low dynamic range (it’s always loud) and doesn’t give the speaker voice coils a chance to cool down.
As a result, the voice coils get hotter and hotter and eventually start to burn.
Speakers rated at 100W will probably sustain permanent damage if subjected to continual power of 80W, but they will be happy with short-duration transients of hundreds of watts.
The situation with amplifiers and CD/DVD players is even worse. Most quality amplifiers have excellent frequency response and low distortion, yet they can sound very different from one another.
Even power output is not as straightforward as some people imagine.
Some amplifiers capable of quite high power still sound wimpy and gutless at any volume level. Other lower-powered amplifiers (usually with comparatively large power supplies) can sound much more powerful, or gutsy, until they are driven beyond their rated power and start distorting.
Complex response, noise and distortion plots may help electronics engineers and designers, but they are of little relevance to the typical consumer and for that reason are rarely included with specifications.
Generally speaking, equipment with poor specifications will not perform well, but good specifications do not guarantee good performance. The way to judge equipment is by listening and comparing.
With experience, your ears are more sophisticated than any test equipment available.
10th September 2009
"HAPPY BIRTHDAY CARMELINA"
that's right, it is my wife's birthday today, and believe it or not, what she asked for was to be able to play music. "that is a strange request, seeing as what I do for a living - selling stuff to play music!"
You see, our place is full of stuff to play music, but like the mechanic who's car is always broken, or the carpenter how's door won't open or the electritian who can not turn on the lights, our place has music in all the places except where my wife wants it. SO for her birthday I set or extended our music system to cover the Kitchen, YEP the Kitchen.
I created a montage of Happy B'Day songs - and some of her favorite hits from the 80's (not giving away our ages) and all was good in the universe.
For those who care, we do use Sonos at home, and now in my Kitchen are a wonderful pair of Meridian M33 Active Bookshelf's linked to a ZP 90. "when I get around to it, I do it well."
The only problem is Carmelina is having such a great time dancing around the Kitchen listening and singing her fav tunes that it as clearly slipped her mind to come to work!
Never mind, a happy wife makes a happy home
Happy Birthday babe
mick
15th August 2009
"For no particular reason"
by Mick Stillone
It is Saturday morning, before I open the shop and I sip my freshly brewed espresso while listening to Angus and Julia Stones “I’m wasted”
Sitting (in not) the perfect position between my T+A Criterion TS300 small floor standing speakers, driven by Bryston 7BSST 600w Mono Blocks, attached to an old Audio Research Valve Pre Amp. The music is coming through our Sonos ZP90 Zone player being sent wirelessly from one of the many hard drives I have placed in the showroom.
“My head is spinning round and I cant see clearly right now, I’m wasted!” – these are the lyrics not my emotional state……
I’m so wasted on you……
I don’t know if I’ll survive in this magical land behind your eyes……(still the lyrics)
Wow, I listen to the same song over and over again.
Why? You may ask – well it is simple, it is because I can.
And each time I listen to the song there is a different part of the song bet lyrics or music which I tale note of, and that part gives the song new relevance and meaning. No I am not tripping out – just enjoying the music, over and over and over again.
Enjoying the music. That is what it is all about – not what the system is, how much I paid for it, just what comes out of it, is the best setup I have in the showroom, no, but it is giving me pleasure at this time, right now.
We spend so much time in trying to find the perfect system sometimes that we forget along the way that it is suppose to be a fun experience, not stressful, yet we look for the perfect amp, the perfect CD player, or perfect DAC, perfect speakers, perfect cables not realising that any one of the combinations may have been perfect but by now we don’t really know what we are looking for anymore, just that we thing we have not found it yet.
Mick Stillone
(for what it's worth)
17th August 2009
Reviews
by Mick Stillone
- What good is a review?
- How much can you read into them?
- Are they simply paid for advertisements entrapping the weary consumer into thinking it is the right product for them.
I buy magazines, peruse the websites, research and read about products and yes I read reviews.
But what is in a review?
They talk about the products be it speakers, amps or transports in an ever enthusiastic fashion, how they set them up, what they connect to them and what they play through them.
But what will that tell me?
Perhaps if I was to buy all the products in the review, not just the reviewed products, position them in a similar room and listen to the same material I would get the same result, but how likely or realistic is this.
Lets start with the reviewing of an amplifier.
• I will need a transport
• I may need a DAC
• I will need a Pre (if we are reviewing a power amp)
• I will need speakers
• I will need interconnects
• I will need cables
• I may need power conditioner (more on power conditioners in another session)
• I will need music from either cd, PC, record (and if a record I will need a player)
• I will need somewhere to sit
• And I will need somewhere to put it all in
• OH and I will need the amplifier
All this to review an Amplifier, but how else can I hear or judge, but at what point do I listen to the AMP – and how many combinations of products do I need to determine what the amp sounds like?
I cant remember the last time I read a really bad review, not bad review in judging the review, but bad in scathing the product on review.
My point is this,
There are so many combinations possible with any product, and so many circumstances that will impact what we hear so how do we know what we are reading will be right for us? And what is the point of the review if not to help us in our process of elimination.
What a review may describe as full, to someone else’s ear could be lacking, what one may think sharp to another could be detailed.
And yet I have customers come in and talk about reviews like a passage from the bible – in a way they are closely related – both contain much fantasy with little reference to actual fact.
There is a point to all of this. (I think)
You need to separate fiction from reality, reality is that what is good for one may not be good for another, that there are chances you will need to take with any purchase, but you are much better off looking at base product specifications, a little background history on who made them and why, then find someone honest and make sure the components are compatible, when you understand why a product was made, and its base characteristics you can work out what other products are going to be complimentary.
SO BEWARE WHAT YOU READ INTO REVIEWS!
Mick Stillone
(for what it’s worth)
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