I consider myself an amateur audiophile who is obsessed with having a variety of speakers and headphones that all have their own place for different types of music.
That being said, I’ve never understood how each one can sound so different and be better at certain things when some can have the exact same specs like size, ratings and frequency response. I’m sure housing has something to do with it, as does the material the diaphragm is made of. But even then it still doesn’t make much sense to me.
Edit: when I say frequency responses I mean on paper.
In: Technology
1) Frequency response is only half of the story, you also have phase responses which can differ between drivers. For two (ideal) speakers to truly sound identical, you need both an identical frequency response *and* an identical phase response.
2) Everybody measures frequency response differently. To get an accurate comparison, you need to measure it in a controlled environment, such as measuring both in the same environment using the same microphone and visualizing it using the same software.
3) Frequency/phase responses only capture a speaker’s *linear* response, which is, simply put, the part of the speaker’s response that *only* depends on the frequency. However, all real systems are non-linear, including speakers. The differences you hear in practice can easily be explained by non-linear contributions to the speaker’s output.
4) You could be imagining the difference. Audiophiles are prone to this failure mode, especially when the price tag of the speaker is known.
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