There are probably two things for me that are more fun in the audio designing world over the rest. Each part along the way is a chapter within itself but when I get to the speaker and room, I know this is an area where I have gone further than anyone else in the industry (probably
), and that makes me excited cause it's breaking new ground.
The speaker/room connection is by far the area that is the least explored and has the biggest impact on the sound. I don't want to discount the front end or amp, or electrical, but I do want to say that anything before the speaker can not make up or compensate for what happens in the speaker/room relationship.
an MGA small concert and recording room
As everyone in the biz knows, I don't think the listening hobby should be one that constantly needs fixed. In order for the audio world to move forward it's important to move to the next level. That level is making a system start to finish that is tunable, and in light of that the connection needs to be made between the transducers making the vibrations happen and the transducer forming the sound pressure we hear.
The acoustical instrument can not perform without space and vibration, likewise neither can the loudspeaker. These two objects are exactly the same in function.
The closer you make the loudspeaker in construction to the acoustical instrument the more it will sound like them. A loudspeaker should have the exact same set of values as an acoustical instrument, and follow the same type of build guidelines.
Because the loudspeaker is part of the audio system family in sales and marketing it has been lumped into a category as an electronic component, but it's main function is not electrical at all, but a mechanical acoustical one. This puts the loudspeaker in more the family of the acoustical instrument than the electronic component. It's a must to make this separation when tuning in what you hear. If you think of the speaker as this electronic device and not an acoustical device being set in motion by a motor you might miss the meaning and operation of the speaker altogether. The speaker has one main purpose, to vibrate. If the speaker can reproduce the same event that took place on the other end of the recording chain, space and motion, the event will appear around you.