I have been experimenting with mechanical damping on both speakers and headphones using sorbothane glued to the front speaker baffle or various locations on headphones. This can give an amazing increase in dynamics and improvement in timbre. What is happening here is barely discussed among audiophiles but as best I can tell it is just Newton's third law in operation. For every action there is an opposite reaction which means that the vibrations coming out of the speakers create an opposite set of vibrations in the enclosure. Dampen these out and you get a striking, almost amazing improvement in sound. About a half dozen headphone makers are playing around with this, including Sennheiser, Grado and B&W. The last time I Googled "constrained damping" I came up with a similar number of speaker manufacturers. I discuss these issues in greater detail here. https://www.head-fi.org/threads/damping-mechanical-energy-distortion-of-stax-and-other-phones-with-s... This damping results in some loss of efficiency.
Dynamic compression in speakers themselves?
The primary audio characteristics I want to achieve in my system is an open, uncompressed, unstrained, and highly dynamic presentation. What I don't know much about is how much speakers can or do contribute to loss of dynamics and impact. I have a very powerful amp, but it seems that when I increase the volume, yes, the speakers get louder, but perhaps not commensurate with the increase in the volume control. I do think I understand that this type of presentation is more easily achieved with larger scale speakers, but even with my large speakers, I feel something is wanting.
I guess my question is, what factors contribute to any compression occurring in the speakers themselves? Also, can the age of a speaker cause a loss of dynamics? Mine are ~20 years old. I'm thinking to get new speakers in the foreseeable future, so I'd like to understand more about this. This question is in regard to traditional dynamic speakers.
I guess my question is, what factors contribute to any compression occurring in the speakers themselves? Also, can the age of a speaker cause a loss of dynamics? Mine are ~20 years old. I'm thinking to get new speakers in the foreseeable future, so I'd like to understand more about this. This question is in regard to traditional dynamic speakers.