Does measurements really matter?

Teo_Audio- WOW, that was a GREAT post.  One of the best I've ever read.  In such a small word count you explain the issue of hearing vs measurement in a nice nutshell.  I love the simplicity of your description: an "incomplete science".  

I have been demoing high end audio since 1975.  I've heard just about every weird anomaly and made about every dumb error you could make in system set up or design.  First consumer, then live sound reinforcement, now pro level recording studios.  I have heard very smart people say very dumb things, such as the composer who can write a movie score but insists his speakers are buzzing and defective when it's something in his room; like the home audiophile who is convinced his speakers suck when it's 100% room problems; like the producer who thinks he makes better decisions at 120dB SPL or the mixer who cannot hear the obvious power compression in his old passives after working all day.   I've heard great speakers sound absolutely awful in one room, brilliant in another room.  As you say, the mind plays tricks and audio/acoustics is not a simple black and white science.     

Brad

hedwigs: I sure can answer that question, but here is probably not the place?   Maybe email me at brad at lonemountainaudio dot com?

The short answer, appropriate for this forum, is that the major difference is just the woofer; the mid and tweeter are the same but a lower power version in the 40s (vs 50s on up).  So the major difference will be clarity, definition and roll off point of the low end (below 380Hz), dynamic range of the entire system and maximum SPL level.

Brad   

Knotscott:

I don’t think specs make manufacturers honest in any way shape or form. I think they are viewed as a marketing tool by most. Manufacturers cheat and manipulate specs as a specific effort because they know if a spec is "bad", it affects sales. They know specs are perceived as a value of product performance, not this impartial number that helps you evaluate it. Frequency response for example, a total free for all: some don’t even list the plus or minus so you can say anything you want. Efficiency, you can write this spec in many different ways, this 1W/1M spec can be found with different methods of measurement (what frequency its taken at etc). The more you know about specs, the easier they are to manipulate.

Those with a lot of experience in audio know that a few specs rarely relate to actual real world sonic performance. What good is a wide frequency response and high efficiency if distortion is extremely high? There are so many factors (such as room or source or?) that affect the sound quality that trying to assess a speaker or a amp based on specs is like deciding what car is safe based on its skid pad numbers or its braking distance. It MAY be important but there’s a lot to consider beyond those specs.

Brad

The number of boutique consumer speaker manufacturers using measurement as part of a strict incoming parts QC policy to secure zero variance in all parts is extremely low- perhaps non-existent.

If you do measure, as the engineering driven companies tend to do, OEM parts typically vary quite a bit unit to unit. SO you may do batch testing (test a few from each batch that arrives).  If you are super strict, you are throwing a lot of parts away.  Achieving perfect parts that perform exactly the same all the time and are perfectly consistent over hundreds or thousands is not a realistic target.   

A 1/2 dB variance in sensitivity applied to the entire midrange or the entire tweeter response is very audible to a listener, even if that listener cannot identify a 1/2 boost or cut somewhere along the response curve.  1/2 across the entire band is different which is why parts sensitivity is such a big deal.  Combine that with the idea that a passive crossover cannot be precision adjusted to account for this part variance.   Then one more problem, I don’t think ANYONE is making parts plus or minus 1/2 dB in sensitivity specs over the life of the part. The only way to deliver that is two choices: through anything outside a super tight QC window away or develop precision manufacturing so good you get perfect matching part to part.  I don't think that level of precision in part manufacturing exists.  So variance from part to part and then complete speaker to speaker is a part of the business. That’s why they have a overall plus or minus spec so they can absorb theses variances and still meet an overall claimed spec.

How many in the field, dealers or end users, ever A/B the same speaker?  I would say that almost never happens.  It might surprise you if you did.

Brad