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Musical accuracy in subwoofers

I'm hoping some members who are more musically & technically knowledgeable can answer my questions about subs. While sub shopping, web research and sales people make referrence to subs with accurate timbre. The Linn & REL lines were reported to be more accurate than Sunfires in this respect. After playing my sub at a 45-48 hz. crossover without the main speakers, listening leaves me wondering how timbre ( at this low a crossover point) can be an attribute of a sub when most aspects of timbre are a product of higher frequencies. It seems that pitch accuracy, lack of bloat & "overhang," freedom from cabinet resonance, and the ability to tune crossover, volume, & phase accurately are paramount. But timbre?
photon46
detlof
1,899 posts
 
Its the timbre of the instrument being reproduced, I referred to, not the timbre a subwoofer might have. If the sub has timbre, a sound of its own, it distorts and you will never get the timbre of the instrument reproduced right. You have to have a lot of intimate experience with live music to test subs this way, i.e. to see if it reproduces the timbre of differet instruments properly. If you don't have this experience, Esmeralda is right, stick to maths. By the way, its necessarz to develop a language to describe musical experience. No maths will tell you, how a rig will sound.
pls1
432 posts
 
I've only been to about 1000 professional live classical performances and counting. Aside from degrees in physics and EE so I know some math, I also completed a major in musicology and played french horn in a student orchestra. I have also have measured a fair amount of live and reproduced music. I stand by my example, 3%-10% harmonic distortion will significantly shift the reproduction of timbre in the lower bass octaves.
detlof
1,899 posts
 
Nobody said it didn't.
sedond
1,387 posts
 
while low-frequency extension is obviously important, i agree that thd is a critical spec for subwoofers. perhaps that's why the vmps subs, when used w/a quality outboard electronic x-over, are such over-achievers at their price-point. vmps' published distortion specs are, if not the lowest in the industry, right up there w/whoever is. most subwoofer mfr's don't even publish their distortion specs.

doug s.

ezmeralda114405
55 posts
 
10% distortion from a sub playing at a sound pressure level of only 70db is ridiculously high, assuming the sub is engineered for 30hz performance (alot aren't sadly enough, then again they aren't true subs), which shouldn't be a problem for the $1k+ subs like REL, Velodyne, VMPS, etc. Now then again, maybe I don't know, I haven't seen all their specs. But, I can only see those type of massive acoustic anomalies plsl mentions kicking in at somewhere towards the subs maximum output, not normal listening. This is all assuming we are talking "real" subwoofers since Photon mentions REL, Linn, and sunfire, along with others in the price range like the Velodyne's (which claim very low distortion values) not the $449 msrp Jamo's.
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