How is speaker sensitivity measured

Here's a ready reckoner, that we believe could help you in choosing the right speaker. Sensitivity: Measured in dB decibels , it is one of the most significant albeit ignored, speaker specifications. A speaker's sensitivity indicates the loudness of a speaker - in either a non-echoing environment or a room environment. Some manufacturers specify the sensitivity measured in an average room environment, while others take into consideration a non-reverberant environment while measuring it.

Sensitivity measured in room environment will have results inflated by 2 to 3 dB over a non-echoing environment. The higher the sensitivity rating, the louder your speaker is. An average speaker comes with a sensitivity of around 87 dB to 88 dB.

A speaker with a sensitivity rating over 90 dB is considered excellent. Wondering how much 87 dB or 88 dB is? Here are a few common sounds with their decibel ratings that will help you understand how loud 87 dB is:.

Measured in ohms, this is another critical specification that you should take a note of. To understand what impedance means, think of a speaker as a hose and water that flows through it as electric current audio signals. If a hose has a narrow opening high resistance , less water will flow through it, and if the hose has a bigger opening low resistance , more water will flow through it.

Similarly, if a speaker has low resistance impedance , more current flowing from your amplifier will pass through the speaker and vice-versa. Therefore, the lower the impedance, the more current flows through the speaker. Now, the question is should you buy a speaker with high impedance or low impedance? Your speaker should neither have high impedance nor low.

Search form Search. NEXT: Page 4 ». Log in or register to post comments. It's best to keep in mind Submitted by delmas on March 27, - am. It's best to keep in mind that if the ammeter you use is not a "true RMS" meter, it will have material errors in its RMS measurements. Related Latest Galleries Recommended. Getting Real. Lighting Strikes: a Bolt From the Blue. Snake Oil: A Short History.

The Stereo Image. Listening Tests and Absolute Phase. Devialet Diary. Book Review: The New Analog. Of Headphones to Come. Capital Audiofest It's a Wrap. Infigo Audio plus Alta Audio and Resonessence. Semrad Audio. Superior Mass Audio Speaker Cable. For the given power output, the SPL is dB. When you multiply 64W by 1. So, the change in dB when increasing the power 1.

You would get the same value for any given point in the graph when you apply the equation correctly. What will be the SPL level db level for 1. So, the difference in dB between 1W and 1. Excellent article, glad I read this now. I was looking at two speaker options for my vehicle.

My vehicle currently has 3ohm nom speakers which need replacing. The 3ohm speaker will draw more power at any volume than the 4ohm speaker. Your email address will not be published. James Longman.

Hello, my name is James Longman. What Does a Speaker Switch Do? December 30, at am Reply. Hi, Bien In order to understand that 1. Hope this helps Your AudioReputation Team. January 7, at pm Reply.

August 9, at pm Reply. August 31, at pm Reply. Leave a Reply Cancel reply Your email address will not be published. However, pink noise fluctuates in level, which means it's not very precise unless you have a meter that performs averages over several seconds. Pink noise also doesn't permit much in the way of limiting measurement to a specific band of audio. One could apply weighting curves — such as A-weighting, which focuses on sounds between about Hz and 10 kHz — to an SPL meter to filter out the frequency extremes.

But that's added work. Many prefer to evaluate sensitivity by taking on-axis frequency response measurements of speakers at a set voltage. Then you would average all the response data points between Hz and 3, Hz. This approach is very good at delivering repeatable results with accuracy down to about 0.

But then there's the question of whether sensitivity measurements were done anechoically or in-room. An anechoic measurement considers only the sound emitted by the speaker and ignores reflections from other objects.

This is a favored technique, being that it's repeatable and precise. However, in-room measurements give you a more real-world picture of the sound levels emitted by a speaker. But in-room measurements typically give you an extra 3 dB or so. Sadly, most manufacturers don't tell you if their sensitivity measurements are anechoic or in-room — the best case is when they give you both so you can see for yourself.

Ever notice that internally-powered speakers, such as subwoofers, soundbars, and Bluetooth speakers , almost never list their sensitivity? These speakers are considered closed systems, meaning that sensitivity or even the power rating doesn't matter as much as the total volume capable by the unit. It would be nice to see sensitivity ratings for the speaker drivers used in these products. Manufacturers rarely hesitate to specify the power of internal amplifiers, always touting impressive numbers such as W for an inexpensive soundbar or 1, W for a home-theater-in-a-box system.

But power ratings for these products are nearly meaningless for three reasons:. Let's say a soundbar, rated at W, is putting out 30 watts-per-channel in actual use. If the soundbar uses very cheap drivers — let's go with 82 dB sensitivity — then the theoretical output is about 97 dB. That would be a pretty satisfying level for gaming and action movies! But there's just one problem; those drivers might only be able to handle 10 watts, which would limit the soundbar to about 92 dB.

And that's not really loud enough for anything more than casual TV watching. If the soundbar has drivers rated at 90 dB sensitivity, then you need only eight watts to nudge them to 99 dB. And eight watts of power is far less likely to push the drivers past their limits. The logical conclusion to reach here is that internally-amplified products, such as soundbars, Bluetooth speakers , and subwoofers, should be rated by the total volume they can deliver and not by pure wattage.

An SPL rating on a soundbar, Bluetooth speaker, or subwoofer is meaningful because it gives you a real-world idea of what volume levels the products can achieve. A wattage rating does not. Here's another example.