A full range speaker?


Many claim to be, but how many can handle a full orchestra’s range?

That range is from 26hz to around 12khz including harmonics, but the speakers that can go that low are few and far between. That is a shame, since the grand piano, one of the center points of many orchestral and symphonic performances, needs that lower range to produce a low A fully, however little that key is used.

I used to think it was 32hz, which would handle a Hammond B-3’s full keyboard, so cover most of the musical instruments range, but since having subs have realized how much I am missing without those going down to 25hz with no db’s down.

What would you set as the lower limit of music reproduction for a speaker to be called full range?

 I’m asking you to consider that point where that measurement is -0db’s, which is always different from published spec's.
128x128william53b

Showing 5 responses by pragmasi

This may be useful for some - here's a Sound on Sound page with a link to a frequency chart in the top right corner. Fundamental notes are within the range of 16Hz to 9kHz, with harmonics going much further up in frequency. If you don't listen to a lot of pipe organ music then a lower bound of 30Hz will include all the fundamentals e.g. if you mostly listen to rock music low B on a 5/6 string bass is 30Hz and you'll hear everything a 22" bass drum has to offer from around 55Hz up.
Providing you have a loudspeaker that will play low enough the room will dominate the frequency response below the low 100s of Hertz. As loudspeaker placement is key to getting the best low frequency response it can be beneficial to allow one or more sub woofers to take on this duty. In a large, acoustically controlled space this is not so much of a problem and it matters less if the low frequencies are coming from the same cabinet as the bass, mid and high.
The high frequency response is bounded by our ability to hear and 20kHz is well outside of this range assuming most of us are beyond our teenage years. There may well be recorded content above this arbitrary limit but I won't be able to hear it and so I don't miss it if it's not reproduced.
So for me 30Hz-20kHz is fine and I'm not sure I'd notice too much if it was a smaller range than that. I build equipment (not loudspeakers) to exceed 20Hz to 20kHz because that is the defacto standard.
@mozartfan - I'm glad you found the chart useful.

There's also a comment somewhere above that sub bass isn't audible... sub bass is generally (perhaps not universally?) understood to reference the lowest two octaves which occupy 16-62Hz, most people can hear 20Hz and up.
@mozartfan
Not saying I believe it... I'm interested to know where the information is published. BTW you need to consider the audible harmonics so if you rolled off at 2k it wouldn't sound so great... I'm sure you know that but thought I'd just be clear.
The entire audible environment for Humans measure at 15Hz - 150kHz.

Where do you guys get your information from?
@ggc
I mean this sincerely, thanks for posting those links. I’ll have a good read with and try to keep an open mind.