Chapter 5: Understanding SPL Requirements
Seven Frameworks for Understanding SPL Requirements
I would also like to build and expand on the reality of loudspeaker distortion typically falling with output, as it relates to the value of ‘headroom’ that will likely never see the point of stress, that the behavior in which loudspeakers do this carries a lot of nuance, and I have seen ‘headroom’ discussed as a rationale equating higher maximum SPL capability with better fidelity at any level. This is very clearly wrong.
With different loudspeakers, when you find a point at which they are equal, even ‘qualified’ maximum SPL requirements and capabilities cannot describe output quality, qualitatively.
For those interested in nuance, I think it’s worth spelling out. If you just want to believe that the ability to play loud means that it plays cleaner at any level than something that will not, abort, abort, abort!
If so, don’t let me waste any more of your time. Life is short, and you’re going to die one day. Do something more worthwhile. Watch a movie, hold hands, live, love, drink responsibly, or don’t.
I don’t think CEDIA is claiming that louder maximum output capabilities between devices automatically means better playback below those levels, at any level. That’s just TOO stupid to have the involvement of an industry that often puts real effort into delivering comprehensively good sound quality. Harman, for one, would never go along with that. Choose your favorite loudspeaker manufacturer that actually spends time and money on R&D. That probably includes them.
But sometimes people seem to believe this, and it is understandable why, because it is a product of logical, even if simplified, reasoning. If distortion falls with level, and a loudspeaker distorts less as you lower the level, then it will sound better as you back down away from ‘maximum’. Yes. The error in thinking is applying that between different devices, which have different distortion profiles, objectively, categorically, qualitatively, and the complexity of that variation is immense.
If system SPL delivery capability ‘headroom’ actually remains headroom, because things happened as designed, that means you don’t use it. In a perfect system, if you don’t use ‘headroom’ beyond the ‘Reference Level’ ceiling, the headroom gives you nothing directly, nada.
In the weeks to follow, we will be dissecting the 7 frameworks to build real context around SPL.
- Framework 1: The Headroom Illusion
- Framework 2: The Reference Ceiling
- Framework 3: The Distance Tax
- Framework 4: Output Economics
- Framework 5: The Boost Penalty
- Framework 6: The Black Hole Fallacy
- Framework 7: The Distortion Trap
Originally published by Totally Hypeless
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