What does a speaker's 'frequency response' actually mean?

[martinlest]

I bought a pair of inexpensive (but wonderful, IMHO) Micca speakers last week - the response is rated by Micca at 55Hz-20,000Hz, but I tried some speaker tests today, including this one on YouTube:

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=URrEtyFSENc


The speakers react impressively right from the start, at supposedly 20Hz. So what is the deal here? I was expecting not to hear anything much at all until around 50Hz, given the specs. What does the stated '50Hz' actually mean then, given they give a powerful response at 20Hz, if the test is accurate, up to as far as I can hear (about 11,000Hz: good for my age apparently!)? (My TV, of course, produces nothing audible until a much highr frequency).

 

[manicm]

Roughly, above 3khz is high frequencies, below 100hz is considered bass. Midrange is in-between.

If a speaker's minimum frequency is > 55hz then you'd want to consider a subwoofer to bolster the bass, depending on your taste/preferences/bigger rooms.

 

[nopiano]

It’s a big subject! Two immediate thoughts:-

1. From 55Hz to 20kHz is actually not a response but a range. A response needs decibel limits, typically plus or minus 3dB, to indicate how much loss there is at the extremes, and how uniform it is in between.

2. You need to hear a pure tone, not a harmonic distortion - which will be double or half the the wanted frequency. Or three times or a third. And so on. Even the iPad I’m typing on makes some sound on your example at 30Hz but it’s definitely not accurate bass!

 

[Gray]

What does the stated '50Hz' actually mean then

You might see, for example, that they quote 55Hz at -3dB.
As you've found, that doesn't mean that there will be no response from the speaker at frequencies below 55Hz.
It means that they will all have an increasingly less significant response.

EDIT: just seen that nopiano has beaten me to the reply.

(No relative dB levels quoted, then no meaningful frequency response quoted)

 

[gasolin]

my sub starts at 31hz and up

 

[RoA]

Manufacturer rated frequency responses are mostly a vague indication of what you can expect. A bit like sensitivity.

They all have wildly differing ways of interpreting this. All of which can vary substantially if used in-room, different angles, different positions etc etc and measured independently.

 

[martinlest]

Thank you for the replies: being a musician rather than an audi 'techy', I am not sure I follow the finer details, but the general message is clear (and the bottom line, that (as mentioned in another thread I posted here), since I play and listen to the organ, a subwoofer that goes down to at least 20Hz would be a great addition to my system 🙂)

 

[abacus]

If you are a musician then you are probably familiar with parametric equalisers which alter the frequency response of the sound, thus allowing you to get the sound you want, a frequency response of a speaker is the same, in that it gives you an idea of what it will sound like in general terms, however you still need to go and hear them as frequency is just one of the many parts of a speaker.

Bill

 

[manicm]

Thank you for the replies: being a musician rather than an audi 'techy', I am not sure I follow the finer details, but the general message is clear (and the bottom line, that (as mentioned in another thread I posted here), since I play and listen to the organ, a subwoofer that goes down to at least 20Hz would be a great addition to my system 🙂)

Subwoofers that truly go down to 20hz will be fairly expensive - usually several thousand pounds or more. And then it's down to the recording as well.

 

[nopiano]

Tangential observation:- I have a number of musician friends and family members. They seem remarkably tolerant of what I’d call fairly poor reproduction. I put it down to their better understanding of the music which ‘prepopulates’ what they anticipate hearing.