Sensitivity of human hearing

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Re: Sesitivity of human hearing

JDT said:
After reading this(below link) should we put less stress on subs and loudspeakers that deliver purly flat response?

If you record an event at 100dB with a flat microphone, then play it back on flat speakers at 100dB, theoretically you have achieved the best possible reproduction. If instead you play it back at 70dB, you will find that it sounds significantly less bassy than the original performance. The loudness control is a bass boost device developed for this nonlinearity of the ear.

Ever notice that people always seem to make their EQ in a U shape - this is partially due to loudness issues and partially due to the distortion from cheap midranges ;)
Some canny loudspeaker manufacturers develop speakers with a "designed in" loudness contour that sounds impressive in the showroom ;).....
 
Depends on what you are listening to

Is music already mixed with a loudness contour built in?

If youi like pop and rock yep you are listening to music that has been tailored for the sound they think you will hear on a cheaper stereo. Sounds kind of stupid untill you think about the demographics. Kids are the lifeblood of pop music. They usually don't have killer stereos that are flat to the basement. But everyone like BAAASSSSS! So with some creative EQ things sound decent on a cheaper system.

I once and a while get together some of the best equipment that I have built for clients over the years and we listen to music for an evening. Pop is always the first thing in. We are talking about a system with Bi amping and an agregate power of around 1200 watts / chanel. They all go whats up? It sounds terrible!

They end up listening to my stuff. Big orchestral and Pipe Organ show pieces and come off the night with " I've never heard anything like that before."

Rock can and is reorded well. It is just harder to find the recordings of it.

A system that is truly flat into the bass regions is hard to come by. And a flat response is what we all try to achieve. When you hear it you are definitely hooked.

Mark
 
The two main conclusions from the Fletcher-Munson curves are:

1). There is only one correct SPL value for sound reproduction in order to be perceived correctly.

2.) Since the audibility threshold in the bass range is frequency dependant, it is wise to take the right decision concerning the lower cutoff frequency for a given Vd. It doesn't make sense to EQ a tiny speaker flat down to 20 Hz if it can't reproduce it loudly enough to be heard while sacrificing SPL headroom at the same time by doing that.

Regards

Charles
 
hehee flatness isnt a problem for me right now

i own energy c-1s which are (according to the website) flat from 60 something hz to 24khz (IIRC), and my atlas 15(when sealed) is flat down to 19hz in my room(ported gives me a hump from 40hz down to 20hz peaking by +2db average at 25 hz, and is down 3db from 40hz at 16hz)

i noticed that with alot of cds, when listening at high volumes i gotta EQ some of the treble out or else theres just way to much treble, but with my remastered DSOTM and ummagumma sudio album, they both go at high volumes without painfully peaky treble.

also my dad gave my system a listen with some jazz cd, i cant remember which one, but we were listening at 85db and it sounded really good(better than my system usually does).

But back to the original topic, i stumbles upon this article recently
http://www.digido.com/portal/pmodule_id=11/pmdmode=fullscreen/pageadder_page_id=93/
 
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