Understanding The Frequency Response Term Of Today's Cordless Speakers

By Tom Landau


Cordless loudspeaker suppliers normally present the frequency response of their products which, sadly, doesn't automatically tell you a great deal regarding the audio quality. I am going to shed light on the meaning of this term and also provide some recommendations on how to interpret it whilst looking for a set of cordless speakers.

A set of wireless speakers are only able to operate within the particular frequency range. Any signals just outside of this range are going to be eliminated. Therefore the frequency response gives an essential clue about whether or not a specific set of cordless speakers could be appropriate for a specific use. If the frequency range is 20 Hz to 20 kHz as an example, the cordless loudspeakers can transmit all signals with a frequency higher than 20 Hz and less than 20 kHz. You could be tempted to go with a set ofwireless speakers that gives the greatest frequency response. However, there is much more to comprehending a cordless speakers's functionality than simply understanding this simple range.

The fact is, a set of cordless loudspeakers which has a frequency response from 10 Hz to 30 kHz can actually have much lesser audio quality than a set which offers a frequency response from 20 Hz to 15 kHz. Different manufacturers seem to utilize different ways in order to establish frequency response. The most regularly used method is to describe the frequency response as the frequency range within which the cordless loudspeakers have quite constant sound pressure level having a greatest drop of 3 decibel (dB). Commonly the decline in sound pressure level is greatest at the upper and lower frequency.

Then again, the frequency response commonly is used to misinform customers by way of stretching the frequency range a good deal beyond the range in which the wireless loudspeakers still operate properly and also conceals the fact that the cordless speakers may not be linear. If possible you ought to attempt to obtain a frequency response chart from the producer. In this diagram, you will discover how the wireless speakers function inside the frequency response range. Additionally you can spot any kind of peaks and also valleys the wireless speakers may have. You might also desire to request a phase response chart which provides important hints in regards to the sound quality.

You also want to look at the circumstances under which the frequency response was calculated. You normally are not going to find any specifics about the measurement conditions, however, in the producer's data sheet. The fact is that a large number of amps which are incorporated into the wireless speakers are going to function differently with different loudspeaker loads. This is because of the fact that different loudspeaker loads can cause changes to the behavior of the output power stage of the amplifier.

This change is most apparent with many wireless speakers that use digital amps, often known as Class-D amplifiers. Class-D amps have a lowpass filter within their output to reduce the switching components that are created through the internal power FETs. However, the frequency response of the amplifier now depends upon the speaker driver load since the behavior of this lowpass filter is influenced by the load impedance. Usually the lower the speaker driver load impedance the lower the upper cut-off frequency of the amp

Some of the most recent digital amps feed back the audio signal after the lowpass filter to be able to compensate for this tradeoff and to make the frequency response of the amplifier independent of the connected driver load. However, if the amp is not designed well, this sort of feedback might cause instability and also result in loud noise being generated by the amp if specific speakers are connected. Another method is to offer dedicated outputs for various loudspeaker driver impedances which are connected to the amplifier power stage through audio transformers.




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