Should Speaker Manufactures provide a Frequency Response Graph?

Iaoman,

“In what way? Do these measurements tell me I will like what I hear?”

Yes, they do tell you what you hear and estimate in room too. Each room is a bit different though so there is some variance which is mostly 200hz (not to mention some of us have HF hearing loss) and below. once you hear a few speakers that have full measurements and decide which ones you like better it is pretty easy to look at other measurements and know which ones you will like better and seek a demo based on those measurements. You can even look at the dispersion and understand what the soundstage is going to do.

I don’t read or post on ASR either, as I don’t like the absolutist attitude and whiny commentary on their but there are a bunch of knowledgeable people there just as there are here (many of the same people…)

Lack of measurement understanding does not make measurements untrue. Some things are very subtle in the measurements and it takes time to understand them.

Some things are still lacking in the measurements, I feel transients and detail is still missing but measure and use the data you have and demo for the other things.

I have owned two speakers that have both had full spins. The Revel 228be and the JBL 4367s. I did same room/system direct A/B comparisons. Listening to them back to back and looking at the measurements is almost 1:1 how they actually sounded in my room.

I bought the revel after demoing and bought the JBL 100% blind based on the measurement…. I kept the JBLs and sold the Revels after direct A/B in my room.

As engineer for 20+ years I can assure you 99% of the high tech things you use (or even keep you alive, I work in the biopharmaceutical industy) were build or designed using models.

 I agree with erik_squires.  A frequency response chart made in an anechoic room has little to do with how that speaker will sound in your room with your amplifier.  Besides, the impedance of the speaker is changing with frequency which will affect how your amplifier/speaker cables sound coupled to those speakers.

Back in the early 1990's I built my first dedicated listening room and I added sound dampening to make my room have a flat frequency response.  The room was very close to anechoic.  The music sounded dead and lifeless.  I had to remove much of the dampening material.  

That's my point, I guess.  If you want flat frequency response then you will need a hemianechoic room like the room where they test speakers.  It will not sound so good.  Think about live music.  No band ever plays in an anechoic room.  Life is messy and so is music.

Most garbage speakers I have seen (and heard) had 3 things in common:  Cheap connectors, a little tab to pull off the velcro attached front grille, and a frequency response graph showing flat response from 30Hz to 22kHz.

Some of the responses here display the anti-science attitude which I find very frustrating in this forum. The vast majority of speaker manufacturers will measure the frequency response of their products, as well as a host of other parameters. An estimated in-room response (based on a large number of on and off axis frequency response measurements), such as that measured by Klippel, actually will do a pretty good job of indicating how the speaker will sound in an "average" room. It doesn't tell you everything, of course...distortion, directivity, impedance,  sensitivity...all are important. I wouldn't buy any speakers based on data without listening, but I would certainly rule some out based on data.

"As engineer for 20+ years I can assure you 99% of the high tech things you use (or even keep you alive, I work in the biopharmaceutical industy) (sic) were build or designed using models."
I do not doubt this, however I do not need to know and am not interested in measurements; I am interested in how they sound to me and whether I like that sound.

"Some of the responses here display the anti-science attitude which I find very frustrating in this forum." - see my comment above.