Holly shit, that's some performance!
Catch the whole movie sometime...
Holly shit, that's some performance!
Please, GET A ROPE!Let's ask some experts!
While I don’t have any scientific basis for saying this, my subjective impression is that there might indeed be some matching between room and speaker size. In a big room, small speakers often sound thin to me. While they can sound full in a small room. Similarly, I do sometimes have the impression that big speakers can overpower small rooms. There might be objective reasons for this impression, or it might just be my imagination.
Doesn't it come down to loudspeaker output capability?
It does.
The small speaker is likely at a disadvantage compared with the larger one re LF output in a larger space(higher output required), tipping the tonal balance toward higher frequencies and thus being perceived as 'thin'.
Capability, like to be able to play sufficiently loud? That was not my impression.. Sound level was ok but they sounded "hollow". Hard for me to describe it.. like they were struggling to do it, while at the same time, when I switched back to Harlechs I was impressed with the "ease" they were filling the same space and creating a wide soundstage, while Richmonds were not able to create soundstage in spite of producing sufficient dB level.
I hope my description makes some sense to you..
But in a larger room, where reflections arrive later, it might be that the direct sound from the small speaker feels thinner because the low midrange frequencies aren't thrown forward to the same degree, and the reflections don't arrive quickly enough to compensate for this.
In theory, below a room's modal (a.k.a. Schroeder) region, there's a pressure zone where wavelengths are so long in relation to the room that they don't even get a chance to bounce, so instead of adding and subtracting chaotically like they do in the modal region, they just build up steadily (pressurise). In reality though most apartments and houses don't have solid enough walls, doors, windows etc. for this effect to be very significant, i.e. the room is not structurally solid enough to continue to support rising pressure at lower frequencies. This would be the case with e.g. drywall constructions with thin doors, lots of windows, etc. If you have more solid walls though, and well-sealed doorways and other openings, pressurisation will be a more significant effect.
One reason smaller speakers might suit smaller rooms and larger speakers larger rooms is not anything directly related to the speaker's size, but rather the result of intentional design choices. Smaller hi-fi speakers are often designed with a small room in mind, which means that the bass response might not be anechoically flat, but instead be shelved down by a few dB in anticipation that the speaker will be placed nearer to room boundaries and/or be in a room where there's significant pressurisation. Another way this is often looked at is in terms of baffle step compensation; a speaker designed for a small room will not have full baffle step compensation in anticipation of extra "room gain".
So although not directly related to the speaker's size, this is one reason small speakers may not tend to suit large rooms and vice versa in practice.
If you EQ your system in the low frequencies, none of this should be of much concern.
I've always lived in places with sold walls and floors, and have found the bass to increase enormously with decreasing room size. I moved my system around three different rooms in an old flat and find found the middle size room was just right.In theory, below a room's modal (a.k.a. Schroeder) region, there's a pressure zone where wavelengths are so long in relation to the room that they don't even get a chance to bounce, so instead of adding and subtracting chaotically like they do in the modal region, they just build up steadily (pressurise). In reality though most apartments and houses don't have solid enough walls, doors, windows etc. for this effect to be very significant, i.e. the room is not structurally solid enough to continue to support rising pressure at lower frequencies. This would be the case with e.g. drywall constructions with thin doors, lots of windows, etc. If you have more solid walls though, and well-sealed doorways and other openings, pressurisation will be a more significant effect.
One reason smaller speakers might suit smaller rooms and larger speakers larger rooms is not anything directly related to the speaker's size, but rather the result of intentional design choices. Smaller hi-fi speakers are often designed with a small room in mind, which means that the bass response might not be anechoically flat, but instead be shelved down by a few dB in anticipation that the speaker will be placed nearer to room boundaries and/or be in a room where there's significant pressurisation. Another way this is often looked at is in terms of baffle step compensation; a speaker designed for a small room will not have full baffle step compensation in anticipation of extra "room gain".
So although not directly related to the speaker's size, this is one reason small speakers may not tend to suit large rooms and vice versa in practice.
If you EQ your system in the low frequencies, none of this should be of much concern.
Thanks, interesting!
Btw, this is slightly related but a bit OT perhaps: Is baffle step compensation really a settled thing - does everybody agree that it's needed? Has there been done any listening panel tests on this, for example?
I have had a hunch that baffle step compensation may actually make speakers sound bloated in the bass. The rationale is that one compensates for the loss of direct radiation of sound energy in the low midrange and the bass, as I understood it. But at least in a moderately sized room, these frequencies will still get radiated to the listener indirectly, through delayed reflections. If we increase the bass to compensate for the baffle loss, won't the total reflected sound energy in the room then be too bass heavy? I.e. - my question is whether we actually perceive the loss of bass in the direct sound in a small to medium sized room, or whether the room will naturally compensate for it, so that no baffle step compensation is actually needed.