Oh no! Please say it ain't so... I guess if they all got it right all speakers would sound the same. Long live EQ!
All speakers have a little EQ built in
It may come as a shock to audio purists but part of the work of a crossover is level matching as well as tonal adjustments of individual drivers. Ahem. That's what we call equalization.
This is true whether the speaker uses active or passive crossover, and may be in place just to adjust phase matching in the crossover range.
Also, curiously, while companies may brag about the number of parts in their crossovers, more parts does not indicate more quality. It may just indicate more equalization had to be done to the drivers to get them to match.
- ...
- 39 posts total
All costly speakers sound "high end " if they are high end ... No need for EQ nor any acoustics concepts not even need to own some ears ... The price tag say it all and the owner manual ...😉
|
As one who occasionally dabbles in crossover design, often with one eye on the frequency response curve and the other on the impedance curve, I’d like to toss out an observation: Equalizing a frequency response anomaly without introducing an impedance curve anomaly often calls for twice as many crossover parts as equalizing the frequency response curve alone. The impedance curve is arguably of greater consequence when designing with tube amps in mind than when optimizing for solid state amps. It would never occur to me to hand over my crossover parts count to my marketing department lest they attempt to ascribe virtue to the sheer number, but I got a chuckle out of something that happened at an audio show: This guy came into the room and sighed as if he was finally hearing something relaxing, and said to me, "I can tell you’re using a very simple first-order crossover." He was close! There were actually twenty-seven elements in that crossover, but the acoustic rolloff WAS first-order for about 2/3 octave on either side of the crossover frequency. Duke dealer/manufacturer |
How about single driver speakers sans any crossovers. I think there is a purity and simplicity there that is another avenue to pursue. Your hearing also has some inherent frequencies deficiencies especially as we get older. The pursuit of audio perfection is something you can chase your whole life. I guess that’s why it’s a hobby. |
@audiokinesis can you expand on how low, or how much of the phase curve that's low inductance, at low impedance is acceptable for most tube gear? I don't want to hijack the thread but isn't this the crux of amp/speaker "synergy" save perhaps efficiency? Also, every XO has a resistor value on at least one driver so the designer is making an "eq" choice for us (other parameters notwithstanding) whether we know it or not. Lots of speaker DIY sites will show final responses with different R values for the builder to mull over. Not all ears and rooms are equal.
|
- 39 posts total