jamhead said:
Prove it Flint.
Remember, I own Contours.
Okay.
Here's a cumulative spectral decay of the Klipsch Palladium P-39F tower speaker which is often considered to be one of the more dynamic speakers on the market:
Note that in our most sensitive hearing range (1,000Hz to 10,000Hz) the speaker is still making sound all the way out to at least 1.26mS, and the amplitude of the "ringing" from 1,000Hz to 3,000Hz is nearly identical to the original impulse out to 0.8mS. It takes 12 samples before the residual output is 12dB SPL lower than the initial impulse.
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Here's the same measurement of a Dynaudio C1 done by the same person with the same equipment:
In this chart you can see that the critical range between 1,000Hz and 10,000Hz has residual sound out to 1.26mS, but the initial ringing in the 1,000Hz to 3,000Hz range almost immediately starts dropping at significantly higher rate than the Klipsch. In this case it takes 6 samples before the residual noise is 12dB SPL less than the initial impulse.
Thus, I have scientifically proven the Dynaudio C1 recovers from stimulus significantly faster than the Klipsch horn loaded speaker making it more dynamic in terms of decay. I call this "downward dynamics" which refers to the silence between spikes in the content. How quickly does the listener experience silence after the click of a stick on muted triangle or a slap of a snare drum. The downward dynamics is what separates the truly outstanding speakers from the really good speakers and is hard to achieve, especially with outboard amps and passive crossovers which significantly reduce the benefits of a high damping factor on an amplifier.
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Part II
Here's the impulse response of the same Klipsch Palladium P-39F speaker:
Note that the acoustic peak of the output isn't achieved until after 0.75mS after the initial motion of the output. That means that for every impact in the signal, the sounds will be smeared across nearly 1mS of time and reach your ears at different times.
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Here's the exact same impulse measurement of the Dynaudio C1:
This time you can see that from initial motion of the speakers to peak output is 0.25mS, which is 66% faster than the "dynamic" sounding Klipsch speakers. Also, the impulse is significantly cleaner with less smearing of sound across frequency arrival times and the decay is smooth and fast (which is demonstrated in the decay response charts above).
Thus: I have proven that the Dynaudio C1 has better upward dynamics in terms of linearity of impulse response.
Dynamic accuracy has three characteristics: 1) Rise time, 2) Level of peak, and 3) Decay time. I have proven that for two of those characteristics, the C1 is more dynamic than a very well respected and much larger horn loaded speaker from Klipsch.
So, why would someone think the Klipsch is more dynamic? Well, in terms of frequency range the Klipsch can put out a massive amount of bass which is out of the capability for the C1's single, small woofer. However, if we simply put a high pass filter on the Palladium speaker we could make an apples to apples comparison and I think we'd find much of the difference in terms of bass dynamics to be more similar.
The other big difference is the frequency response.
Here's the Klipsch response:
And the Dynaudio response:
Clearly the Klipsch has the classic V-Curve response with boosted bass starting at 250Hz going down and boosted treble at 9kHz upward and depressions centered at 600Hz and 4.5kHz. All of these are well know frequencies for adding a
sense of impact and dynamics. Work done by the BBC in the 1960s determined what frequencies translated into perceptions of punch, clarity, and detail and speakers were produced to represent the ideal sound and speakers were built to represent the opposite curve (so that mizing on them resulted in music which was inherently perceived as more dynamic and detailed) and EQs were designed to focus on those specific frequency bands.
So, if you want to literally experience better dynamics and clear sound, the Dynaudios are the best choice, but they will need a good subwoofer to match the Klipsch Palladiums in the frequencies below 100Hz. If you want to be fooled into thinking the sound is more dynamic due to non-linear frequency response or time distortion, the Klipsch are a better choice.
That said, I am willing to accept that for the greatest peak acoustic output the Klipsch will significantly beat the Dynaudio speakers.
I also want to point out the Palladium speakers are outstanding speakers and I would never say they are not worthy of a great system for most users. They are amazing and I love them. But for scientific demonstrations of accurate acoustic reproduction of the source signal, even in terms of dynamic reproduction, the Dynaudios win every time.