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Post by swurveman on Apr 3, 2017 9:24:51 GMT -6
When speaking about a monitoring speaker, when someone says "it has a tighter bass extension" what does that mean? I would interpret this to mean that the speaker's bass response is limited to a certain frequency and doesn't go below that, but I'm not sure
Trying to understand the arcana of monitoring speaker-speak is one of the most confusing things to me in audio.
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ericn
Temp
Balance Engineer
Posts: 15,012 
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Post by ericn on Apr 3, 2017 10:33:59 GMT -6
One of the biggest problems in our world of audio is the fact that there is no universally excepted language, we all use the same words and often mean different things so what we have to do is start with some common ground, in other words listen to the same piece to under similar conditions so that you can understand the reviewers perspective. Unfortunately this makes the typical internet review or comment worth less than the bytes that hold their place.
Now in the semi excepted vernacular of the speaker world "tight " in the bass region has to do with the perception of the loading of the bass tightest being a seals box and loosest being a box designed for going as low as the driver can go. Think of the loading like the suspension in a car tight quick responsive can be almost harsh.
Popped notes pop, maximum perception of pitch vs weight more snap than thump.
Extension is a relative term, most think of it in terms of how low you perceive a speaker to go, many confuse one note thump thump with extension. Distortion or how you hear distortion colors extention, many think a highly distorted ( think BOOM) equals extension, others view low a low distortion but limited bandwidth that relies as much if not more on the harmonics to define never never land ( ATC or electrostatics or planers)
So the original description leaves me scratching my head a bit without knowing the taste / language of the originator or the speaker.
This is why much of the review of the highend audiophile playback
World references specific reference recordings, if I at least know what your listening to I can better get an idea of what your telling me about what your hearing.
For instance I understand what JK, Cowboy and Svart are describing because I have not only heard many samples of what they describe but been in the room with them, add Ward. I know what Vincent means from his samples and knowing his opera and classical background as well as taste in recordings.
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Post by svart on Apr 3, 2017 11:25:21 GMT -6
To me, tighter bass means how fast a cone can react to a transient. Since the cone has weight and the spider/surround have resistance, the strength of the coil(motor) determines how fast a cone can react, and the velocity of the cone at full speed.
Lighter cones mean faster reaction time, and thus translates to "tighter" response in speaker-vernacular.
Now, you can also account for box-related cone dampening. A sealed box resists the cone movement as the speaker cone moving inward creates a compressing volume of air, while the cone moving outwards creates a vacuuming volume of air. Each one resists the amount of movement and the speed at which the cone can move, but at full inward or outward excursion, the pressure or vacuum "help" the cone move faster than the motor would otherwise move it. This leads to the perception that sealed boxes are "tighter" as they assist the cone acceleration.
Similarly enough but inversely, a ported box does something similar, but the volume of air can move freely until you reach the point where that volume becomes greater than the port can pass in a specific amount of time.. Which in layman's terms creates a resonating volume, and means that the box supports a specific frequency of resonation that supports the speaker's natural rolloff. This is the "box extension" where the box helps the speaker create tones lower than the cone would naturally, but those tones are increasingly harder to control as the the frequency goes down.
These are all things that need to be balanced, and they are all parts of what make speakers difficult to design.
You can then add things like the power of the amp, the gauge of cables, etc. Most people spec amps to be around 3x more powerful than needed and do so with the thought that much more current is needed to change the direction of the cones during fast transients. Sometimes this is true, but you need to account for the cable gauge, impedance, and contact resistance.
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Post by Pueblo Audio on Apr 3, 2017 15:02:54 GMT -6
While pondering what tighter speaker bass extension might be, it's just as important to consider what tighter ROOM bass extension might be. If the room won't contain it, the speakers can't fill it. If you had a mega-horsepower monster truck in sloppy mud with no traction, all that power won't pull you out of the muck.
Think avoidance of resonances and nulls due to poor room proportions. Think equal reverb time at all frequencies (you don't want a bass note hanging in the air long after the speaker cone finished its excursion.) Think minimal first reflections and avoidance of canceling superpositions at the listening position.
Small rooms are the most difficult for correct bass impulse response. Most spare-room project studios are acoustically tiny for long wave, distortionless bottom end. They don't truelly achieve tight, extended bass (20Hz?) unless you have a bass-trap sized in the vicinity of 2000cf (amongst other treatments).
The acoustic, imo, has more influence on the monitoring rendering than the speakers. In reality, one shouldn't think about one without the other. It's more fruitful to conceptualize wholistically as a system.
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