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.
william53b

Showing 1 response by wspohn

I have systems that are 3 dB down at 45 Hz, 24 Hz and 20 Hz, the latter augmented by a pair of powered subs that are 3 dB down at 16 Hz, which is well below what is audible (although it can certainly be felt).  The latter are used only for video, not for normal audio listening.

I'd draw the line at 30 Hz for realistic reproduction of orchestral  music, but I find the system with the highest roll off the best for listening to strings and unamplified music (ironically they take up the most space as they are electrostatic panels).

Do you miss much by not being able to go below 30 dB at a listenable volume?  Probably not unless you are a video fan and have a system able to reproduce it all.  And much of the time you aren't hearing the fundamental note but rather the higher harmonics anyway.

It is fun to sometimes put on some of the relatively few full size organ recordings with some content below 20 Hz but you can't really hear anything down there, you feel it, and may hear the overtones.  Not a huge number of organs that can reproduce 16Hz anyway - 32 foot pipes take up a lot of space.