Test Equipment vs The Ear

Just as listening to music with an electrical engineer is a waste of time.

Not if that EE is also an audiophile, as then he could tell you where you could improve your system, with mods to whatever you have if it's not sounding the best.
And you can bet he'd be using the laws of EE and measurements to do those mods if he's worth his salt.

Cheers George

Appeal to Authority Alert! Whoa! That’s two in one day! What are the odds? 🎲 🎲

@williewonka    

I am surprised you are not aware of Soundstage linearity measurements on Speakers.

These show how bad most speakers are. Severely lacking in dynamic range and audibly compressing at 90 DB in most cases.

@shadorne - if you are referring to...

https://www.soundstagenetwork.com/measurements/test_loudspeakers.htm

I do not believe any of those tests indicates the ability of a speaker to respond to a very dynamic transient signal - such as a drum strike.

They would need to record the transient response i.e. the slew rate and rise time of such transients

It is something the ear can discern very easily and something you can see on an oscilloscope, but to my knowledge (which has its limitations) I do not know of any such measurement reported specifically for speakers at present.

From Wikipedia...

Transient response
.... In loudspeakers, transient response performance is affected by the mass and resonances of drivers and enclosures and by group delay and phase delay introduced by crossover filtering or inadequate time alignment of the loudspeaker’s drivers. Most loudspeakers generate significant amounts of transient distortion, though some designs are less prone to this (e.g. electrostatic loudspeakers, plasma arc tweeters, ribbon tweeters and horn enclosures with multiple entry points).

As for the tests above
- I do appreciate the value of such tests if a person does not have resources (i.e. good audio stores) for audition purposes
- Personally, I have been fortunate in the past to have access to some very good stores that allowed me to audition their very high end products. which has helped me in choosing the components i now own.
..
Mostly, I value the opinions of forum members - but ultimately I trust my ears.

Cheers

@williewonka    

Yes. This non linearlity as measured by Soundstage affects dynamic range directly. Acting as a limiter or compressor to the louder sounds. The Speaker will sound dull boomy and congested - nearly all speakers do at louder levels - Soundstage readily admits that the majority of speakers have problems with this test.

Group delay is important - especially in bass where many resonant designs have excessive audible group delay in order to deliver more bass output - however this is not so much a dynamic range effect but a smearing that does muddy the sound.

I n speakers I think transient performance is more related to driver integration, flat frequency response and a lack of coloration or "ringing" from the driver - as a percussion strike has many frequencies that all need to be delivered seamlessly and correctly placed in time. A good test is the waterfall plot - a nice clean waterfall will present transients well and without adding coloration. Electrostatic panels like Quad present transients very well.