What Speaker Measurements Mean

T.H.E. Show Newport 2012

What Speaker Measurements Mean

By Stephen Mejias • Posted: Jun 5, 2012

Several excellent seminars were held throughout the course of T.H.E. Show Newport, including Friday afternoon’s seminar, “What Speaker Measurements Mean,” hosted by John Atkinson.

John discussed his measurements techniques and used a number of slides to show not only how individual graphs relate to one another but also how they can be used to interpret a speaker’s performance.

While describing the unusual frequency response of one unnamed loudspeaker, John commented that the speaker sounded “unacceptably colored” with nasally highs, too much energy in the upper midrange, and a quick roll-off in the bass. A nice chuckle emerged from the crowd when JA, in his typical fashion, deadpanned, “It quite puzzled me then that the speaker received good reviews elsewhere.”

For more info on JA's speaker measurements, go here.

Comments

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Submitted by DetroitVinylRob on June 5, 2012 - 12:30pm.

Wow, Now that is a valuable lecture that I would like to have been to, after reading and respecting John Atkinson's analysis for years, it would be nice to fill in the blanks. Maybe even get a question or two answered.

Happy Listening and Learning!

"Measuring Loudspeakers"

Submitted by remlab on June 5, 2012 - 2:52pm.

John

Have any of your thoughts changed in relation to your origional, outstanding three part article from 14 years ago? Or is this going to be more of a supplemental video tutorial?

Seth

Re: Measuring Loudspeakers

Submitted by John Atkinson on June 5, 2012 - 6:11pm.

Quote:

Have any of your thoughts changed in relation to your origional, outstanding three part article from 14 years ago? Or is this going to be more of a supplemental video tutorial?

It was basically an illustrated versopn of the 3 articles, with some updates.

John Atkinson

Editor, Stereophile

It was mandatory for me

Submitted by c1ferrari on June 7, 2012 - 2:03pm.

It was mandatory for me attend this seminar, which I did, Friday. It proved invaluable as John articulated some of the cause/effect relationships depicted in Stereophile graphs and clarified their interpretations. I'm hoping the slides will be available for study and perusal.

Thank you for the talk, John!