???Why The HUGE Discrepancy in Sensitivity Ratings???


I'm shortlisting speakers & have noticed a HUGE difference in the sensitivity ratings provided by manufacturers & what they actually measure.For example the Martin Logan Motion 35XT is specd at 92db.sens.@1 watt & yet actually measured at 87db!At least 4 different pair of speakers on my list are the same,specd at 90db or better @1 watt yet NONE measured better than 87db so what gives?
freediver

Showing 3 responses by timlub

The only fairly accurate way to measure is 1 watt 1 meter anechoic...

even then,  many speakers are  not adequately impedance compensated.  As posted above... 1 watt @ 8 ohms is 2.83 volts, 1 watt @ 4 ohms is 2.00 volts.... a big difference in power for rating a speaker... Many speakers are called 8 ohm that stray down to even 3 or 4 ohms and those measurements can be quite flawed....

Plus when put in them in a room setting, you know deal with peaks in the room, so someone could easily rate at its highest peak rather than 1k or over average frequency response. 

Not sure that there is anyway to win here.

These are just a few of the problems when quoting sensitivity...

If they are using off the shelf parts, like a seas, scan speak, audax, etc,  you could take a look of individual drivers and go from there... If manufactures are truly trying to give you a flat response,  the lowest sensitivity of any single driver should be very close to the sensitivity of the entire speaker,  but even that is flawed... Tough call.

Tim



I am very guilty of using the term sensitivity and efficiency interchangeably and really they are, a more efficient speaker will play louder than a less efficient speaker, but in the truest sense...

Loudspeaker efficiency is defined as the sound flux or sound power at output divided by the electrical power input...

Sensitivity is how loud a speaker plays with a given input.   I defer back to 1 watt of power measured 1 meter away anechoic. 

Tim