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Designing for Accurate Bass Reproduction
How, then, does one arrive at the goal of a loudspeaker that provides tonal accuracy in the
listening room? The answer, in large part, comes in the form of the digital computer. It is
possible to create a mathematical model of a listening room, and predict the response of a
given speaker in that room. With the computer model, it is quite easy to change the position of
the speaker in the room, or other parameters of the model. In this way, a composite picture
can be created of a wide variety of rooms and speaker locations. This enables one to design
the speaker so that it interfaces properly with the listening environment and provides correct
bass response in real-world environments.
The accuracy of the computer model must also be tested in the physical world, using pink
noise, warble tones, and time-delay spectrometry for verification. The final, and most
important check, is the listening test. Theory and measurements become useless if they do not
agree with what our ears tell us. Even the best measurement methods provide little more than
a simplified, one-dimensional translation of what is, in reality, an extremely complex,
multi-dimensional experience. Again, the goal is the recreation of a musical event, and the
faithfulness of that recreation can only be determined through listening.