speakers for classical music

105db on Mikas Theodorakis? Sorry to hear that. . . I originally thought that Mikas Theodorakis was simply unbearably repetitive and tediously facile. . . now I learn that he can also be painfully loud. One more reason to avoid him, I guess. G.

Do we really need the use of an SPL meter and all this db talk? me being a simpleton I just hit the volume pot (or button on the remote) either up or down as required. When at a gig I have no control of the volume the band play at I just move further back if it is to loud, I always carry plugs for gigs other than classical. I have never found a classical concert to loud for my ears.

Once rid of artificial loudness cues, the normal urge is to turn up the volume.

Absolutely!

Distortion is what makes 99% of systems sound extremely loud when they are not. Either distortion from the system itself or distortion on the recording itself (often from compression which is necessary because most music is heard on crap systems).

An acoustic drum set can hit 115 db SPL if you stand close to it - so can a grand piano and a trumpet...sure it takes effort to play that loud and it will rarely last more than a few seconds or the performer will be quickly exhausted and so will the listener (or you are at a Metallica concert which is a marathon of loudness which the only the young may endure).

The reality is that to convey the entire musical performance and get those final crashing crescendos and "accents" to the music then you really do need something that can do a whole lot louder than 85 db spl max and even 100 db SPL is severely limiting in many instances (if a realistic reproduction is desired).

Imagine you are in a jazz club and you happen to be standing in front of Miles Davis... when he lets it rip we are talking about 140 db SPL at four feet (in the direction he points that trumpet)...for sure at 20 feet it will be a lot less maybe only 110 db SPL as he would bounce the sound off the ceiling (he is entertaining you and not trying to deafen you).

The 100 db SPL maximum that most consumer dynamic speakers will achieve (if lucky) at the typical listening position is missing a whopping 20 db of dynamic range! This is some 30% of useful dynamic range (above the noise floor) that just ain't there.

This shortcoming (be it most speakers or that over compressed modern pop CD) is the "elephant on the table" that hardly anybody dares talk about anymore because horns have been largely displaced from consumer markets and nobody likes to bring it up (especially reviewers)

Shadorne, I think you're really overstating the dynamic range of live performance and understating the dynamic level of widely available conventional speakers.

I've taken my SPL meter to big band and orchestra rehearsals and taken readings right in the middle of the trumpet section and rhythm section. The loudest readings have been 112dB about ten-feet from a particularly obnoxious rock drummer that didn't know how to play jazz. If I put the meter on the stand in the trumpet section it only hits 110dB with the section playing just over the stand tops. (Yes, I can put it inches front my trumpet and blast 130dB, but it's extremely directional and falls off very quickly).

At the conductor's stand you're only talking 105 to 110dB at the peaks, occasionally tipping up for "punch notes", but seldom staying there for a second.

So combine performance levels around 110dB with speakers that easily reach 105 to 110dB and there's no 20dB of lost dynamic range.

I DO agree that horns have something to offer in improved dynamic range, but I think that the improvement is more incremental and less dramatic than your example would lead one to believe.

Great discussion.

Dave

Ah yes, taking a sound pressure meter along to a classical concert is so very poetic. . . it reminds me of the guy who was so enthrolled by his girlfriend's amorous enthusiasms, that he always remembered to take along a digital multimeter to measure sceintifically the peak levels of various electrochemical responses during all their overnight dates. . . . for some very odd reason, I tend to trust my ears and my emotions instead. G.