Is There A Device For Home Use That Can Measure How Low The Bass In My Speakers Is?


How can I measure how many hertz my speakers measure for bass?

128x128mitch4t

dgluke complains that suggesting SPL meters when the OP had asked for Hz is "braindead." But--duh!--Hz are audible as SPL. And then dgluke suggests the Hsu test tone CD, like everyone who mentioned SPL readings also did (even if not the Hsu CD specifically).

The easy way to "measure" if your speakers go down to 20 Hz, or 16 Hz (if you’ve got a Hsu sub, apparently) is to play such a test CD and LISTEN! If you can’t HEAR your speaker producing the tone, measure the output with an SPL meter. If you’re still skeptical, take the grill cloth off and watch the cone move.

B weighted is the method used in stereophile in my experience reading the magazine. A weighted is used at times as well. But this is all nonsense. Mentioning it is nothing more than adding your own attaboy. SPL  and spectrum analyzers made for audio are not going to have to be taken off construction mode in order to measure your speakers. My dB meter has an OSHA mode, among others, but it is still measuring music…because that’s what it was meant for. Buy or download music related products and stay off PPG, manufacturing, farming, aviation and construction safety we stores and you’re golden. A simple google search turns up excellent no brained results. I believe you’d have to go out of your way to mess this up in the way you suggested.
 

https://www.stereophile.com/content/measuring-loudspeakers-part-one-page-4ok 

@mapman 

Took up guitar and piano a while back so most of my listening is either me warbling badly through my studio monitors or in the car. Not much to contribute here since my hi fi gear is mostly laying silent. However I got an email on this thread and thought the OP might have interest in the SMS-1.  

Thanks, dgluke, for the John Atnkinson Stereophile link. The whole article is interesting and informative. In any case, I did not know about "B weighting"; my SPL meter only gives me a choice between "A" and "C". There are, of course, several other equalization curves in use; "A" and "C" are just the most common. But, as Atkinson remarks at the beginning of the article, "A weighting" does not correspond to perceived loudness levels, which is what I've certainly experienced and pointed out above—and the SPL meters mentioned, and even linked, elsewhere in this thread are all to "A weighted" devices.

As for the relevance of using an SPL meter to judge how low a speaker's frequency response might go, let me quote Atkinson's own words from that same article: "If you plot, say, a loudspeaker's sound-pressure level against frequency for a given input voltage, the result is the typical amplitude or 'frequency' response."

In short, using an SPL meter in conjunction with a low-frequency test track is, indeed, a valid way of determining "how many [H]ertz my speakers measure for bass," in the OP's words.