GoodSoundClub - Romy the Cat's Audio Site

In the Forum: Horn-Loaded Speakers
In the Thread: A single worst thing in today’s acoustic systems.

Post Subject: Low SensitivityPosted by JLH on: 11/17/2009

The principal problem with today’s speakers is low sensitivity. I cannot consider any speaker remotely serious unless it has a 1W/1M sensitivity of at least 98dB. There are so many problems created by low sensitivity speakers it could fill a book. Of course sensitivity alone does not mean a speaker will be good, far from it. However, high sensitivity is the starting point.

Different discussion points to explore about low sensitivity speakers:

Conversion efficiency: How much information is lost due to it being converted into heat inside the voice coil instead of making sound?

Materials of construction: Is the cone made so over dampened and heavy it cannot resolve differences in tone?

Magnetic circuit strength: Does the driver have enough motor strength to accelerate the cone fast enough to accurately reproduce the higher order harmonic textures of the fundamental tone?

Voice coil inductance: Does the driver have so much inductance that it experiences large phase rotations through it bandwidth. Large phase rotations can shift the harmonics of separate instruments such that they are no longer in harmony.

It goes on and on…

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