Human's cannot hear sound below 20hz and amps and receivers only do 20hz - 20khz.. So what the point of being able to do 15/16hz? I don't even think the woofer itself can produce sound with such low hz rating. I believe they are doing some king trick with the port to get the low hertz. High end professional subs from EAW, Electro-voice and RCF don't even go that low.
It's not about what you hear, but what you feel. LFE channels are increasingly carrying information below 20Hz, in order to transmit the full effect of explosions, that helicopter blade "whump", and other movie effects.
And you can hear below 20Hz, it's just that most amps and speakers aren't powerful enough to play them loudly enough.
I worked as a DJ in big night clubs and also recording studios in my youth. Most professional subwoofers do not put out much amplitude below 40hz or so (except the Bag End subs, which I have never seen in action in NYC area). Of course there is still some output below that, but the output uniformity so non-linear that there is usually a big hump of output between 50hz to 80hz and the output for what is below is proportionally so much lower that it is not all that meaningful.
Professional applications require VERY loud sound pressure for LONG hours, and that most pop music recordings out there do not even contain such low frequency information (most pop recordings have a huge bump in the 50hz to 60hz range) that producing low frequencies below 40hz at equivalent volume is not practical and too power hungry and potentially risky for amplifier burn outs and voice coil melt downs... What is important in professional monitoring is loudness, low distortion, dispersion properties, and ruggedness. High fidelity sound is still attempted in design, but it takes last place behind all the above mentioned qualities.
In the old days when Technics 1200's turntables ruled the clubs, many clubs even add steep sloped filters to their systems so frequencies below 20hz are completely cut off, because the vinyl rumble can blow the entire system! Pop music does not sound that great with lower than 40hz frequencies emphasized anyway. Try it out with a parametric equalizer and you will see what I mean...
Professional application monitors have a completely different functional purpose and designed that way... So to compare professional monitors with quality home speakers is like comparing apples to oranges...
You're living in the 50's,...the human ear can hear all the way down to 3 hertz,...until recently we've only started making instruments that can actually make these frequencies loud enough for the human to hear below 20hz...Explosions,...thunderstorms,...and earthquakes...big trucks driving by,...big organ music...all produce frequencies down to 3 hz,..but the point is if a subwoofer can produce frequencies way below 20hz then it can produce 20hz and above that much easier without strain...and if you really do read specs....most amplifiers and receivers specs are 5hz to 100,000 hz now...especially digital receivers and amps...you don't change the crossovers from large to small,..you would blow most speakers in a short time...
“An engineer explained to us that hundreds of ear impressions were gathered in the name of research, and while each one obviously boasted its own unique shape and size, one single characteristic remained uniform across the board: the entrance into the ear canal is not a perfect circle, it's an oval.”
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Human's cannot hear sound below 20hz and amps and receivers only do 20hz - 20khz..
So what the point of being able to do 15/16hz?
I don't even think the woofer itself can produce sound with such low hz rating. I believe they are doing some king trick with the port to get the low hertz.
High end professional subs from EAW, Electro-voice and RCF don't even go that low.
It's not about what you hear, but what you feel. LFE channels are increasingly carrying information below 20Hz, in order to transmit the full effect of explosions, that helicopter blade "whump", and other movie effects.
And you can hear below 20Hz, it's just that most amps and speakers aren't powerful enough to play them loudly enough.
http://www.rotarywoofer.com/howlowcanwehear.html
I worked as a DJ in big night clubs and also recording studios in my youth. Most professional subwoofers do not put out much amplitude below 40hz or so (except the Bag End subs, which I have never seen in action in NYC area). Of course there is still some output below that, but the output uniformity so non-linear that there is usually a big hump of output between 50hz to 80hz and the output for what is below is proportionally so much lower that it is not all that meaningful.
Professional applications require VERY loud sound pressure for LONG hours, and that most pop music recordings out there do not even contain such low frequency information (most pop recordings have a huge bump in the 50hz to 60hz range) that producing low frequencies below 40hz at equivalent volume is not practical and too power hungry and potentially risky for amplifier burn outs and voice coil melt downs... What is important in professional monitoring is loudness, low distortion, dispersion properties, and ruggedness. High fidelity sound is still attempted in design, but it takes last place behind all the above mentioned qualities.
In the old days when Technics 1200's turntables ruled the clubs, many clubs even add steep sloped filters to their systems so frequencies below 20hz are completely cut off, because the vinyl rumble can blow the entire system! Pop music does not sound that great with lower than 40hz frequencies emphasized anyway. Try it out with a parametric equalizer and you will see what I mean...
Professional application monitors have a completely different functional purpose and designed that way... So to compare professional monitors with quality home speakers is like comparing apples to oranges...
You're living in the 50's,...the human ear can hear all the way down to 3 hertz,...until recently we've only started making instruments that can actually make these frequencies loud enough for the human to hear below 20hz...Explosions,...thunderstorms,...and earthquakes...big trucks driving by,...big organ music...all produce frequencies down to 3 hz,..but the point is if a subwoofer can produce frequencies way below 20hz then it can produce 20hz and above that much easier without strain...and if you really do read specs....most amplifiers and receivers specs are 5hz to 100,000 hz now...especially digital receivers and amps...you don't change the crossovers from large to small,..you would blow most speakers in a short time...