I was watching Erin's YouTube video on FR response, and he stated that speakers that measure flat in the room sound terrible. I felt that his explanation in the video didn't sound sufficiently well-explained, at least not for me.
Can anyone provide a different or better explanation?
I'll take a stab at a passable explanation...
I think a Speaker that measures flat in room will likely be devoid of satisfactory bass. When looking at Anechoic measurements (or quasi-), you will see flat responses which usually indicate that the Speaker is neutral and not overly colored. When put in-room, that response changes and the room give that boost down low, resulting in the downward tilt that we expect to see for "good" in-room response. For example:
and:
You see this trend pretty much everywhere in a "desirable" Speaker and when the line drifts from that, you see more unfavorable descriptions.
For example:
And:
We also know Erin has some distinct preferences, which is fine. He usually is very good at distinguishing between his preference on the subjective side and good science on the objective. However, it hasn't prevented some reviews from being skewed slightly, as his preference might shift.
Regardless, trying to make a Speaker flat, in-room, takes away from what makes it sound more exciting. In contrast, a smooth in-room decline from low frequency to high gives us a different feel.
Based on several conversations I've had, this should happen naturally with almost any well-designed Speaker in a medium-to-small room where there is some boundary reinforcement.
That's my shot in the dark. No, I did not watch his vid, though I likely will later.
