How to Compare two Speakers you Don’t Have?

Needing to replace a loudspeaker, how does one make a sensible selection when it's not possible to make a side-by-side comparison between two different speakers ?

Unhappy with the performance of the loudspeaker in his small amplifier, Tal would like to replace it. He's looked up the original speaker, which the manufacturer describes as:

"Very loud, touch sensitive and responsive with nice bell-sounding top end and a little bite."

He is thinking about a speaker recommended by a friend that has this description:

"Performance optimized for lead guitar. Also suitable for bass guitar, vocal P.A., keyboards, club music systems and stage monitors."

Unimpressed by marketingspeak, and slightly troubled by the fact that the same manufacturer actually makes BOTH speakers, our man decides that a comparison between the two should be based on measurements of the two speakers under consideration. A side-by-side comparison being impossible, he makes a brief search of the products on the internet and finds two sound pressure level (SPL) curves, one for his existing speaker and one for the new speaker being considered.

Then, looking at both performance curves carefully, Tal observes that "his" Yankee has higher SPL (it's louder) but less bandwidth (total frequency response) than the Empire. He makes what he believes is a reasonable assumption: that the total power the speakers can project is actually about the same. He believes the difference is in the way that the power is distributed across the frequency range.

Tal doesn't spend money carelessly and he wants to make this speaker exchange only ONCE. He feels that the speaker decision needs to be based on how he's always made decisions about music: with his ears, but how to do this?

For the rest of this excellent article, see:
Comparing Speakers That You Don't Have - The Jazz Guitar Forum

October 21, 2009 | Filed Under amps, maintenance, miscellaneous

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