Don't get caught up in just one spec. Learn the whole story.
Often time people get caught up in on axis frequency response and to be honest that simply isn't enough to get an idea of how a speaker sounds.
While these speakers on axis gated frequency response is pretty impressive there are a couple things to realize about this type of measurement before deciding these speakers sound great - first being such extreme linearity is not perceived as pleasant. This is why many researchers recommend
gradual roll off. This by no means does not mean that the linearity is a bad thing, in fact I would say its a great thing as such linearity is ideal for use with an equalizer to achieve
any desired response.
In using a gated response to measure frequency response any coloration in these speakers due to resonance will not be seen on the graph. To see such coloration far field measurements at various angles must be made and averaged in an anechoic environment. Since this is often times very complicated it is far easier to attach an accelerometer to the cabinet at various points and average that response.
Also, off-axis response has been shown to be vital to a few areas of perceived loudspeaker performance. Firstly, the situation most of us are familiar with is imaging. Speakers with poor off-axis response will generally not image as well as those with good off-axis response in a room with reasonable resonance levels. The other issue at hand is that multiple different perceptual studies has shown that slightly delayed, but similar in magnitude, reflections to the listeners ears increase perceived stereophonic sound quality.
A cumulative spectral-decay is also needed to gain a larger understanding of the systems delayed resonance. Along side these measurements having access to impedance characteristics and SPL vs THD graphs would be vital to understanding the crossover network and true dynamic capabilities of the loudspeaker.
I have just hit the tip of the iceberg on this subject for more Stereophile has actually written an article on why they take the measurements they do. This is an extremely good article that has been back up by quite a bit of credible research in the audio field. While often times their subjective views are a little off the wall - their objective measurements are very accurate.
The article: Part
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