T
tbewick
Senior Audioholic
Audiosouse, I think you'll find the Stereophile article I referred to earlier interesting, as it explains how various speaker tests are done and how they can be interpreted.
http://stereophile.com/features/99/
The impulse response test tell you how good a speaker's timing is, which has a considerable effect on its sound quality. A speaker with poor timing will have a residual response in certain areas of the signal, like the treble or mid-range. This can result in the speaker having a harshness to its sound, quite disturbing when playing back a difficult signals, such as those from a violin. An example of a speaker with excellent transient response is the classic Quad electrostatic speaker.
The reason for a speaker having poor transient response is that there is a delay in between the voice coil being energised and the speaker cone moving. Also the cone has mass associated with it, which further delays its response. Thirdly, the cone will distort (flex) when it moves. The delay would not be a problem if it occurs evenly across all frequenices, but this is not the case.
These distortions are not imaginary, and can be verified experimentally. The Stereophile reviewer did not have access to an anechoic room when running his tests, and had to model his data on a computer. I have seen speaker response traces taken in an anechoic chamber, which clearly show the difference between speakers with good transient characteristics (they were more expensive) and those with poor transient characteristics.
http://stereophile.com/features/99/
The impulse response test tell you how good a speaker's timing is, which has a considerable effect on its sound quality. A speaker with poor timing will have a residual response in certain areas of the signal, like the treble or mid-range. This can result in the speaker having a harshness to its sound, quite disturbing when playing back a difficult signals, such as those from a violin. An example of a speaker with excellent transient response is the classic Quad electrostatic speaker.
The reason for a speaker having poor transient response is that there is a delay in between the voice coil being energised and the speaker cone moving. Also the cone has mass associated with it, which further delays its response. Thirdly, the cone will distort (flex) when it moves. The delay would not be a problem if it occurs evenly across all frequenices, but this is not the case.
These distortions are not imaginary, and can be verified experimentally. The Stereophile reviewer did not have access to an anechoic room when running his tests, and had to model his data on a computer. I have seen speaker response traces taken in an anechoic chamber, which clearly show the difference between speakers with good transient characteristics (they were more expensive) and those with poor transient characteristics.