"Scott Dorsey" wrote in message
...
Other than the cabinet, how DO mfgs. achieve a relatively flat
response - no more than +-3dB from 50~20,000Hz/+-5dB 20~20k?
They don't. I have never seen any speaker whose narrowband response
is that flat, and I have seen some multi-hundred-thousand dollar monitor
systems.
Scott, you are so rarely wrong about anything that I had to mull this one
over overnight before commenting.
Ignoring the issue of /how/ one measure's a speaker's response, and what
that measurement "means"... *
Drivers have improved drastically in the past 20 years. A speaker that can't
get from, say, 50Hz to 15kHz, within a 6dB envelope, is a pretty bad design.
I'd expect a really good speaker's response to fall within a 4dB envelope,
or even 3dB.
For example, B&W claims +/- 3dB from 56Hz to 22kHz -- on an unspecified
measurement axis -- for one of its CM-series mini-monitors. The response for
the 800 Diamond is spec'd at +/- 3dB from 32Hz to 28kHz.
http://www.bowers-wilkins.com/Downlo...info_sheet.pdf
I'm reminded of the Thiel CS-5 which, almost 20 years ago, had a response
that looked as if it had been drawn with a ruler. Say what you like about
Thiel -- their products are the epitome of "blah"-ness -- but no one ever
accused Thiel of lying.
* Stereophile's recent review of a Linn speaker is an excellent example of
how measurements don't always correlate with what you hear. Of course, I
wouldn't own a Linn product unless I was paid a lot of money. And I doubt
I'd actually listen to it...