3 ms·

Any time this comes up I wonder: isn’t the ideal setup aimed at giving you a flat frequency response curve? Why reviews? Why experts and subjective opinions of

Any time this comes up I wonder: isn’t the ideal setup aimed at giving you a flat frequency response curve? Why reviews? Why experts and subjective opinions of online reviewers? Sure other factors can be a part of it like longevity of the product, price for performance, power, but at the end of the day sound quality can be objectively measured, no?

diroussel 4y ago
If you look at measured frequency response of any audio equipment then you never see a truly flat response. At least I haven’t. And the phase shift of often far from flat. So if you have two systems that have near flat responses it’s possible that one sounds better for certain inputs. Also Bose plot (frequency and phase plot) is a type of analysis that assumes the system is linear. If the system is not linear, what is the plot showing you? I imagine many systems are very close to linear, but at the edges of dynamic range they can’t be.
323 4y ago
With our current technology it's impossible to make a flat frequency response speaker. It's possible for amps, mics, DACs, but not for speakers, unless you talk about million dollar facilities. So you need to pick from different non-flat speakers, which means listening test if you really care. You can't figure out which one you'll like just from looking at the frequency response graph.
- IgorPartola 4y ago
  Why is it not just picking the flattest response you can afford? Will a less flat response ever sound better than a more flat response?
  - 323 4y ago
    Flatness is a curve, not a number. If you try to distill it into a number (by integrating the error for example), you can have two speakers with the same "flatness number" which cost about the same, yet sound very different. This is not theoretical, I've experienced it - two professional speakers (or monitors as they are called) from different manufacturers, which cost the same and the frequency plots look the same to a human eye if you put them side to side, but sound very different. Which is why it's preferable to listen them if you really care. But there are "safe" recommendations for every price range.

diroussel 4y ago

If you look at measured frequency response of any audio equipment then you never see a truly flat response. At least I haven’t. And the phase shift of often far from flat. So if you have two systems that have near flat responses it’s possible that one sounds better for certain inputs. Also Bose plot (frequency and phase plot) is a type of analysis that assumes the system is linear. If the system is not linear, what is the plot showing you? I imagine many systems are very close to linear, but at the edges of dynamic range they can’t be.

323 4y ago

With our current technology it's impossible to make a flat frequency response speaker. It's possible for amps, mics, DACs, but not for speakers, unless you talk about million dollar facilities. So you need to pick from different non-flat speakers, which means listening test if you really care. You can't figure out which one you'll like just from looking at the frequency response graph.

IgorPartola 4y ago
Why is it not just picking the flattest response you can afford? Will a less flat response ever sound better than a more flat response?
- 323 4y ago
  Flatness is a curve, not a number. If you try to distill it into a number (by integrating the error for example), you can have two speakers with the same "flatness number" which cost about the same, yet sound very different. This is not theoretical, I've experienced it - two professional speakers (or monitors as they are called) from different manufacturers, which cost the same and the frequency plots look the same to a human eye if you put them side to side, but sound very different. Which is why it's preferable to listen them if you really care. But there are "safe" recommendations for every price range.