I absolutely agree. People worry too much about this sort of thing. Those peaks and valleys are very narrow on the whole. He needs to use some smoothing on his traces. The smoothed response is actually much closer to what is perceived.
What is not shown is that smoothed response in relation to the response in the 500 to 1K range.
And once again those traces are not in the upper bass range, but still on the lower bass range.
It is definitely bass up to 600 Hz or so, and you can argue between 600 and 1K.
From what I have found because of BSE the real power required is between 70 Hz and 600 Hz. However there is lots of power demands right out to 2.5 KHz. That is why I don't like crossing over tweeters below that point.
The myth that subs off lead receivers is bunk. They do however limit main woofer excursion. However there is still a lot of cone excursion required in the 500 to 600 Hz range. X-max of many if not all bookshelves is easily and often exceeded in this range.
It is not true a bookshelf and subs is as competent a system as one with good larger speakers. It is not even close.
From a musical perspective, the sub bass range extends from 20hz-60hz, bass is 60hz-256hz, lower midrange is 256hz-500hz, midrange 500hz-2khz, upper mid from 2khz-4khz, presence 4khz-6khz, and brilliance 6khz-20khz, don’t see why audio shouldn’t use the same ranges when describing where something lies.
You won’t get any disagreement from me on whether or not a sub reduces power requirements, it often doesn’t, especially with ported speakers. Woofers are their most efficient at (and slightly above and below) the resonant frequency, and port tuning frequency, which often lie close together. A bookshelf speaker tuned to 50hz could easily meet or exceed the output of a sub tuned to 20hz, at the tuning frequency, using a ton less power as well (assuming the port is designed well enough to avoid noise). A sub sat system with respective tuning frequencies of 50hz and 25hz crosses over at 50hz is much more efficient than a single sub playing up to 80hz, especially when you consider massive amounts of efficiency is traded for extension is subwoofer drivers.
Do you mean power or xmax at 500hz? A 5” woofer with a typical 6mm of xmax could mechanically reproduce 500hz at 130dB @1m, thermally, we all know it would fail long before that, since impedance generally is the lowest from about 80hz-1khz. At 4ohms using a woofer rated at 87dB 2.8v, (2w), you’re looking at about 105dB @ 100w/1m, which is really pushing the limits of most woofers.
With direct radiating tweeters, an xover point of 2.5khz is definitely a compromise that places a lot of stress on tweeters, much in the same way sub bass frequencies stress smaller woofers. Almost all direct radiating speakers tend to start breaking up at high spl levels because of this, yet a higher xover point generally runs the risk of operating a woofer into its breakup mode, along with mismatched dispersion causing lobing and beaming, with poor off axis response. The best solutions, are either three way speaker made 4 way with a sub, allowing a tweeter to be crossed over above 3khz, or horn loading, when done correctly xmax at low frequencies is significantly reduced, the speakers in my setup are crossed over at 1500hz, using a 1” titanium dome tweeter, yet there is no breakup even at very high volumes levels because of horn loading, exceeding the output capabilities of most direct radiating tweeters crossed over at 2.5khz, with lower distortion to boot.
As far as whether or not a sub sat system is more capable than two large full range speakers, that really depends. A bookshelf using one 6.5” woofer with a f3 of 50hz, crossed over to a sub with an f3 of 30hz is going to be more capable than a floor standers using two 6.5” woofer tuned to 30hz with no sub, especially considering it’s likely the same tweeter is used, with no more output capabilities. A three way system using a 15” woofer, 5” midrange, and tweeter crossed over higher above 4khz would definitely outperform it. In modern consumer speakers, the only thing you get with most floor standing upgrades are deeper bass and more bass/midrange headroom. No two way direct radiating speaker with small cabinets/woofers and puny tweeters will ever truly be capable of high spl and low distortion. Cinemas don’t use these crippled designs and neither does pro audio, for good reason.
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