What makes a speaker sound "big" or sound "full"?

[bcodemz]

What makes a speaker sound "big" or sound "full"? Is there any objective characteristics of a big and full sounding speaker?

[Pete Schumacher]

Re: What makes a speaker sound "big" or sound "full"?

What makes a speaker sound "big" or sound "full"? Is there any objective characteristics of a big and full sounding speaker?

Full frequency range. Low distortion. Able to hit peaks uncompressed. An enclosure that doesn't "talk." Uniform off axis response (good polar response).

[fpitas]

Re: What makes a speaker sound "big" or sound "full"?

Everything Pete said; plus the room can make a big difference. After hanging broadband absorbers at first reflection points on the ceiling, I get a lot better midbass & lower midrange, which makes everything sound warmer and fuller.

[kanemack]

Re: What makes a speaker sound "big" or sound "full"?

Helps when the speaker is rather large also...just saying;)

[fpitas]

Re: What makes a speaker sound "big" or sound "full"?

Helps when the speaker is rather large also...just saying;)

Interesting you should say that. The only obvious "fault" I can find with the girlfriend's JBL LSR305s is the tiny image. My speakers are washing machine size with 511 horns, and throw a life-size image.

[kanemack]

Re: What makes a speaker sound "big" or sound "full"?

Interesting you should say that. The only obvious "fault" I can find with the girlfriend's JBL LSR305s is the tiny image. My speakers are washing machine size with 511 horns, and throw a life-size image.

It's the motion of the ocean then...



These sound huge and just so happen to be huge. I like big speakers. But to be honest, I have not been unhappy with a single project I found here. Small or large.

[fpitas]

Re: What makes a speaker sound "big" or sound "full"?

It's the motion of the ocean then...

[ATTACH=CONFIG]56748[/ATTACH]

These sound huge and just so happen to be huge. I like big speakers. But to be honest, I have not been unhappy with a single project I found here. Small or large.

Don't get me wrong, I don't dislike small speakers, and the LSR305s are great speakers. It's just that, everything being equal, I prefer a lifesize image.

[filmslayer]

Re: What makes a speaker sound "big" or sound "full"?

Helps when the speaker is rather large also...just saying;)

was my thinking and why i built these ...

[tyger23]

Re: What makes a speaker sound "big" or sound "full"?

It's not always about the size... The continuums throw one of the largest soundstages I've ever heard, and they're tiny in comparison.

To me, the soundstage presentation is more about phase and distortion and less about size. However, when you talk about bass extension, there's no replacement for displacement.

[craigk]

Re: What makes a speaker sound "big" or sound "full"?

totally disagree about a larger speaker having a larger soundstage. good 2 ways and mtm's almost always have a larger, more accurate soundstage, and disappear better than a large design. when you crank a larger speaker you get the impression of larger soundstage because it is louder, but its not.

[fpitas]

Re: What makes a speaker sound "big" or sound "full"?

Well, I never mentioned the soundstage. I found the soundstage comparable between my big speakers and the LSR305s. Where the LSR305s differed was in having tiny images, like tiny people singing and tiny instruments.

[contoursvt]

Re: What makes a speaker sound "big" or sound "full"?

I kind of always found that a speaker that had a tad bit of extra energy in the midbass / lower midrange area sounded larger - due to this coloration.

[djg]

Re: What makes a speaker sound "big" or sound "full"?

Well, I never mentioned the soundstage. I found the soundstage comparable between my big speakers and the LSR305s. Where the LSR305s differed was in having tiny images, like tiny people singing and tiny instruments.

My new little Velodyne clones have a very big sound, 2.1 nearfield any way.

[fpitas]

Re: What makes a speaker sound "big" or sound "full"?

My new little Velodyne clones have a very big sound, 2.1 nearfield any way.

Huh; now that you mention it, the singers did have little squeaky voices, too ;)

[r-carpenter]

Re: What makes a speaker sound "big" or sound "full"?

Large speaker systems like Line arrays, Horns, Symmetrical WMTMW will create a more life like VERTICAL virtual image. A very easy comparison would be to listen a single cello recording on line array and switch to a TM. Spacial recognition of a smaller TM will be very obvious while a Line Array will fake the virtual size. Of course, all speakers are different in how they create the virtual image. TM for example can create a very precise center image.