Is that true even if the 1m rating is peak rather than continuous? I guess I should have stated that in my post...
The same numbers apply. If you start with a "peak" rating-then at a distance it will still be a "peak" rating.
Of course what exactly does "peak" mean? Some random freq that is higher than all the rest? Or an "average" of the "peak" output?
There are all different kinds of ways of lookng at the numbers-even for the same loudspeaker.
One example I like to use is a particular cabinet-that I will not mention- who claims a "peak" output of 142dB. And yes the cabinet will produce that-HOWEVER it is right around 1300Hz. There is a large peak in the response there. THE REST of the freq band is around 131-132dB max output.
So while the cabinet WILL produce that SPL-nobody wants to listen to a response that has a peak in it (especially at that freq). So that peak has to be eq'ed down to the rest of the response.
While the manufacturer is not lying-they are not telling you the information in a way that you think it would be useful. So when you eq that peak down, the maximum you can get out of the cabinet is 10db LESS that you would think, That would be twice as loud.
To me-THAT is a big deal-not being able to get anywhere near the published spec-but the spec was not wrong-but how people "understand it" would lead to a wrong conclusion.
Sometimes you HAVE to dig a bit deeper.
BTW our undustry is FULL of misleading specs like that. Not every manufacturere does it-but a lot do. And some of the guys who say they hate misleading specs-are the worst offenders!!!!! LIke trying to "redirect" to say "Look how wrong he is". While they-themselves are worse.
Kinda like politics-Let's shift the focus to someone else-so maybe they won't notice how bad I am.
But we don't want to get started going down that street.
