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[Aisle 6]

As with ALL specs. The context tells the whole story. Possibly they do reach those stated numbers and possibly the context is that they reached it for a nano second @ 1kHz after evacuating the space before the amp caught fire and the speaker cone shot across the room at mach II speed. So most likely not a real world specification. ; )

[Bob Leonard]

Constantly stuck in a world of how loud will it go. In the real world it will be how good does it do it's job, and how good does it sound. My wife can yell at 143db, just not for long so I wait her out and eventually she gives up. Very much like any speaker pushed to it's limit.

[Chris Grimshaw]

Constantly stuck in a world of how loud will it go. In the real world it will be how good does it do it's job, and how good does it sound. My wife can yell at 143db, just not for long so I wait her out and eventually she gives up. Very much like any speaker pushed to it's limit.

Bob,

An extremely important part of a PA speaker's job is to get loud.
A specification that describes that is, therefore, extremely useful - it tells me what area I can cover at what volume level, and how suitable a given system is for a given event.

Putting BS specs on things has taken us back to guesswork, which is a shame IMO.

Chris

[Luke Geis]

I'm in the same camp Chris. I too feel that the peak SPL is an indicator of performance. I would rather run a speaker at a walking pace than try and make one scream to death trying to get the SPL desired. I never intend to find out how loud the speaker will go, but rely on that number to help determine if I can actually get where I need to be.

I pretty much take 16db right off the top to calculate what my real world SPL will be. I subtract 6db to calculate the RMS power level spl and 10db to account for crest factor. I then take that number ( whatever it may be ) and subtract for my needed distance. My current belief is that any speaker realistically capable of 136db peak should be able to get the needed volume up to about 50'. 136-16= 120db real world and by the time you get to 50' you should be able to acquire 98db. while you won't be kicking people's chest in, it is enough to get the point across and you should still have a couple db in left in the bank. This doesn't factor any sort of band limiting ( such as X-Over points ) and you in theory should have 6db left before clipping from that 98db. That is not where we want to be though. If a speaker can truly acquire 143db and we do the same math, we would have an additional 7db to play with. This gets us into the 100+db range at distances over 100' without having to flog the speaker to death.

I would love to believe Yamaha, but I am not so sure.

[Tim McCulloch]

Peak SPL is a matter of science interpreted into "legal fiction" by the marketing department.

One of the things I've learned in the last 20 years - auditioning, specifying and buying "packaged" systems well into 6 figures - specs don't mean shit if you're looking at max SPL as a primary criteria.  Just buy whatever you think gets loud and go home.  I'll be soliciting your clients

When you're serious about dropping real money on a system you don't have a problem getting demo systems or other accommodations to audition that system.  And it takes a real audition or 3 to get a grasp of what a rig is capable of, how it responds and how it works mechanically.

Ultimately, though, it's about the auditioning.  The rest is pretty pictures and window dressing.

[Bob Leonard]

Which I suppose is the intent of my comment Tim. Have you ever read a post that started out with how great the array or cabinet sounds in comparison to how loud it gets. Loud is important, but it's only one factor in the design of the system. And I say system because regardless of type one cabinet does not a system make.

[Tim McCulloch]

Which I suppose is the intent of my comment Tim. Have you ever read a post that started out with how great the array or cabinet sounds in comparison to how loud it gets. Loud is important, but it's only one factor in the design of the system. And I say system because regardless of type one cabinet does not a system make.

Pardon my "geezer-splaining"...

[ProSoundWeb Community]