Do Not Be Mislead By The Manufacturer Specs Of The Latest Wireless Speakers

By Michelle Finger


When selecting a new set of wireless speakers, you probably are going to take a glimpse at the technical specifications. An often found spec is the frequency response. This specification whilst significant isn't going to tell the entire story with regards to how great the speakers will sound. I will make clear the meaning of this term and also provide a few recommendations on how to interpret it whilst looking for a set of cordless loudspeakers.

A set of wireless loudspeakers are able to only work within the specific frequency range. Any kind of signals just outside of this range are going to be removed. Consequently the frequency response gives an essential clue with regards to whether or not a certain set of cordless speakers might be well suited for a specific use. Usually a lower and upper frequency are shown, for instance 20 Hz - 20 kHz. This particular spec shows that the cordless speakers are able to transmit and then reproduce audio inside that frequency range. You could think the greater the frequency response the higher quality the cordless speakers. That, on the other hand, might not necessarily be. You should check out the specs a lot more meticulously so that you can properly interpret them all.

A large frequency response doesn't mean the wireless speakers offer great audio quality. For example a set of wireless loudspeakers with a frequency response between 30 Hz and 15 kHz might sound better than a different set having a response between 10 Hz and 30 kHz. Moreover, every producer, it appears, utilizes a different technique of specifying the lowest and highest frequency of their wireless speakers. Usually, the frequency response displays the standard working range of the wireless speakers. Within this range, the sound pressure level is largely constant. At the lower and upper cutoff frequencies the gain is going to drop by at most 3 decibels.

Yet, numerous makers ignore this particular established practice. They push the lower frequency and upper frequency to where the wireless speakers barely have any sound response. On top of that, these figures say almost nothing about how linear the cordless speakers are working within this range. Ideally you should really try to get a frequency response chart from the manufacturer. In this diagram, you will discover how the cordless loudspeakers behave inside the frequency response range. You can also spot any peaks and valleys the cordless speakers might have. Peaks along with valleys leads to colorization of the music. Preferably the cordless loudspeakers ought to have a constant sound pressure level inside the whole frequency response with the exception of the drop off at the lower and upper limit. In addition to the frequency response, a phase response diagram will also say a good deal in regards to the functionality and audio quality of the wireless loudspeakers.

Generally contemporary wireless speakers which use digital or "Class-D" amps will show changes in the frequency response with various driver loads. The reason is the fact that Class-D amps employ switching FETs as the power stage which generate quite a lot of switching components. These components are removed with a filter which is part of the internal speaker amplifier. Then again, the frequency response of the amplifier now depends on the speaker driver load since the behavior of this lowpass filter is affected by the load impedance. Typically the lower the loudspeaker driver load impedance the lower the upper cut-off frequency of the amp

Some of the newest digital amplifiers feed back the audio signal after the lowpass filter in order to compensate for this tradeoff and to make the frequency response of the amplifier independent of the attached driver load. On the other hand, if the amp is not designed properly, this kind of feedback can cause instability and lead to loud noise being produced by the amplifier if specific speakers are connected. A different method is to provide specific outputs for various loudspeaker driver impedances which are attached to the amp power phase through audio transformers.




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