Dynamic compression and distortion vs. SPL

[Islander]

Klipsch seems to be one of the few speaker manufacturers that publishes maximum SPL for its speakers.  The two that come to me right off the top of my head are 116 dB for the Heresy II and Heresy III and 121 dB for the La Scala and La Scala II.

 

They don't mention whether those maximum levels can be sustained continuously, or should only be used for short periods.

Edited June 8, 2016 by Islander

[Chris A]

The curse of knowledge is always a factor in any technical subject but the goal of engineering should always be to reduce perceived complexity down to its essentials for those that aren't experts, i.e., consumers or "audiophiles" in this case.  That's true for any subject, loudspeaker design being one of them.  I've found that using tailored measures of merit (MoMs) for presenting performance differences among approaches or competing products determines the ultimate success or failure of the engineering...and not just "it sounds better" statements (in the present case) which are really just "trust me" statements having no real insights or credibility.  Consumers really shouldn't have accept "trust me" or appeal-to-authority statements.

 

The ability for a loudspeaker to reproduce the widest range of loudness levels without nonlinearities overtaking their performance is one of the remaining and most revealing differences among different loudspeaker types.  Listening to loudspeakers that can only accurately reproduce a small fraction of the musical loudness spectrum (very quiet to very loud) in a home setting has always been an oddity that people have come to accept with direct radiator loudspeakers in the past. They don't have to accept those kind of performance constraints nowadays, just like they don't have to accept exceedingly narrow angular windows of listening (i.e., "head in a vise" or single-person sweet spot) horizontally or vertically. Those type of design compromises were first made in the late 1940s/early 1950s using very small box-type direct radiating loudspeakers--based on technically available economic conditions then. Those compromises don't have to be further replicated in present day designs.

 

Chris

Edited June 8, 2016 by Chris A

[yamahaSHO]

 

Like snake oil salesmen and homeopaths?  That aspect encapsulates everything that's wrong with the hobby, and many of us cringe at the pseudoscientific marketing BS and out right lunacy that goes on.....  

 

 

For example, car racing enthusiasts add stickers to their car because "it adds horsepower". If anything, the stickers make the car slower, but they don't care...the fake authenticity of looking like a real sponsored racecar makes them enjoy the racing event more. And that totally fake feeling of authenticity actually improves the mood of the drivers and then they actually drive faster. It's all part of the entire experience. The difference here is the car enthusiast crowd doesn't have such a vocal group of people crying foul about someone that chooses the fake authenticity..

 

 

Actual car "racing" enthusiasts do it for contingencies. That is how I got my last set of Hoosiers for free (run their tires, run their stickers, win event, get free stuff).  

[Scrappydue]

In a home environment, getting to reference levels is much, much easier, even with less sensitive speakers

do you know how hard this actually is?

[Anji12305]

In a home environment, getting to reference levels is much, much easier, even with less sensitive speakers

do you know how hard this actually is?

With the advent of affordable amplification and drivers with high Xmax even car audio installers can hit 120 dB at 1 meter.

My neighbor proves it every other Tuesday.

Perhaps the combination of high volume output, dynamic response and low distortion isn't so easy to manage, all at once.

I think none of these distinctions matter much, unless bounded by the same limitations of sizes, portability and cost.

There's a pages rattling around where enthusiasts effectively build house additions to house exponential bass horns of tremendous size.

My first home audio could certainly reach high SPL.

That's pretty much all it did.

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[Ski Bum]

 

In a home environment, getting to reference levels is much, much easier, even with less sensitive speakers

do you know how hard this actually is?

 

 

I have a pretty good idea, and you should too, as this is just the inverse square law in action.  Keep in mind the context of that line you quoted, which was a comparison to commercial speakers hitting reference levels at a club or concert venue, i.e. a large space and greater distances to the audience.  In those settings, headroom is one of the most important considerations.  Domestic use is a completely different situation: the distances are far less, the spaces to fill are far smaller.

[Grizzog]

With many home speakers, I'm not sure if reference level is possible. If you take a standard 88db speaker, it would take about ~500 watts to hit reference at the seating position. That's assuming the speaker can a) handle the power and b )continue to increase in volume.

Reference I would imagine is pretty easy for most of the setups on this forum in standard rooms.

...although even the Heresy III max spl is 116, which would just make it for a 10ish foot listening distance.

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Edited June 9, 2016 by Grizzog