Sensitivity and Frequency Response

[Good4it]

Speaker makers all list this, why? Can you tell anything from this?

 

[ski2xblack]

Well, sensitivity specs are more often exaggerated than not, and simple frequency response specs only tell so much.

But, ignoring that for a second, sensitivity tells you how loud for how much power, so it has relevance to amp choice. Speaker choice is dictated by your room and general taste in sound (no two speakers sound the same, but the good ones share more similarities than differences) and appearance (aesthetics matter), and that specific speaker choice in turn dictates minimum power requirements.

As for frequency response specs, it's better to have measurements than mere claims, and a whole bunch more than a single on-axis measurement. The measurements can be indicative of good or bad design, but the simple spec of 'flat on axis response' is no guarantee of quality on it's own, and tells nothing of compatibility with your local acoustics or sensibilities.

 

[shadyJ]

The basic specs that most speaker manufacturers list are worthless. You really need to look at reliable third-party measurements to be sure of that information.

 

[Good4it]

Where do I find third party stuff?

 

[lovinthehd]

Third party reviews use a search engine, may not be any. Sensitivity would be the more useful spec than some vague frequency response spec, like was said in determining roughly how much amp would be needed. Specs don't tell the whole story as far as what you may like or not....

 

[shadyJ]

Where do I find third party stuff?

Audioholics does good measurements, Stereophile, Soundstage who gets their measurements from the NRC. There are other sources, but those are a few.

 

[KenM10759]

The specs given by KEF on their R500, R100 and LS50 matched what was given in a very detailed test by Soundstage Networks pretty closely. There were minor discrepancies in sensitivity and average impendence, but they were actually overall very close. Soundstage Networks does seem to do very intensive, detailed testing. Other 3rd party reports do concur. What I take from that is that at least KEF and I'm sure some number of other makers, do put out accurate numbers. The fact that it's just a few means you really should look around at as many as possible for a given speaker under consideration...then dismiss all of it until you've listened to them in your home.

 

[Swerd]

Where do I find third party stuff?

Others have already mentioned the best 3rd party speaker measurements are published by Stereophile (as part of their speaker reviews), and by the website SoundStage. SoundStage publishes measurements done by the Canadian National Research Council (NRC), whose measurements are widely considered as the gold standard. SoundStage shows the measurements only, without review or comment. The list on the page I linked shows all the speakers they've done. Stereophile includes their measurements as part of a comprehensive review. The measurements Stereophile shows are almost always the work of John Atkinson, but the reviews are done by a variety of different people. I usually ignore the reviewers comments. I find it easier to find a particular Stereophile speaker review by asking Google to search for: "KEF LS50 review", and look for Stereophile in the list of results.

Both are good because they have used reproducible standard methods to measure a large number of different speakers over the years. As a result, their measurements of different speakers can be compared even if they were done at different times. Other review sites don't seem to be using methods as reliably constant, and they aren't always comparable.

The Stereophile reviews usually mention the manufacturer's sensitivity and frequency response specs, and later, on their measurement page compare those values to their own measurements. SoundStage will mention what their measurements showed for sensitivity and frequency response, without further comment.

I though I would include some examples. The graphs of loudness or amplitude (SPL in dB) vs. frequency (in Hz) make it clear that those specs as numbers alone mean little compared to how much or little they vary across the audio frequency.

The first example are measurements of a well-known good sounding speaker, the KEF LS50:

Stereophile LS50 review
SoundStage LS50 measurements​

The second example is what I consider poor speakers, two similar models made by Zu Audio. (I haven't heard these speakers, so to be fair, I should say "poor measuring speakers".)

Stereophile Zu Essence review
SoundStage Zu Druid measurements​

Have fun looking at them, and ask if you have questions.

 

[Good4it]

Thanks for the info and links.