Should Speaker Manufactures provide a Frequency Response Graph?

So if they or ASR wants to post frequency curves that's fine, neither will tell me what they measure in my room.  

@sunshdw Your speakers will dominate the measurements until the room starts to take over. If you have a larger room, the room will start to dominate the response at around 500hz....for a small room it's around 250hz...

However, if you have a very small room or speakers very close to sidewalls for example, you're going to end up with phase cancellations or peaks at much higher frequencies. 

Lets say a speaker has a 5dB frequency response error due to a rising response...and then your small room is reinforcing that peak another 5dB...at that point a 10dB peak in the mids or higher frequencies will make the speaker unlistenable...this is a core argument for mitigating frequency response errors at the factory.  

@seanheis1 It is rare now for speakers to have a 5 dB anechoic amplitude error except at the very ends of the audio spectrum. On the other hand early room reflections can cause errors over 10 dB. I had a window adjacent to the right channel speaker I had to remove because of a 12 dB response error it caused above 10 kHz. 

Amplitude errors do not just occur in the bass. They are usually more pronounced in the bass, but if anything in the room is resonating, like my window, strange things can and do happen. Using "room control" only in the bass is inadequate. It has to cover the entire audio band. When a processor can perform room control an added benefit is that it can also do EQ given the user the ability to voice their system the way they want it.

I want to also add that the knowledge of what an audio system is or should be capable of is gained only by experience. You have to have heard a system performing at that level. Live performances can be useful, but only if acoustic in nature. Once you add amplification, particularly in large venues, all bets are off. The sound quality at large stadium concerts is typically hideous and in mono. A good system with a good live recording has no problem outperforming that circumstance. IMHE, as an audio insider in the late 70's and 80s, experienced listeners always know when they are in the presence of an exceptional system. It only takes 30 seconds of a familiar recording, you can see their eyes widen, and exceptional systems will do this to every honest experience listener that hears them. Not that these systems have no faults, their faults can be glaringly obvious, usually in the low bass, but their performance extremely convincing none the less. 

@seanheis1 - I am not sure what the graph will tell you.  You may know more than I do in that regard.  BUT in manufacturing equipment, I guess I can tailor components to produce the sound I prefer.  I am not convinced that you can tell from a graph what the overall sound will produce.  Maybe an emphasis but not the overall sound.  Magico speakers use computer modeling I think and they changed the way that model works recently so who knows.  Vandersteen uses more of his ears to design and finalize what those speakers sound like.  I can only go by our experience on what we have heard, modified and repaired which has been a lot over the years.

Happy Listening.  

@bigkidz if you manufacturer hi-fi components...you would notice if the response of an active component was +/- 3dB. Having said that, I have never heard of a component that creates such large frequency response errors....maybe a tube amp with a very low damping factor trying to drive Magnepans would create some big response errors. ;-) 

@seanheis1 Maybe.  I am always up to learn new things.  If you are ever in New Jersey, shoot me a message and swing by,  We should be at Audio Connection in Verona real soon with our 6SN7 tube preamp and 6SN7 hybrid power amplifier.

Always, Happy Listening..