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From: rfg@hound.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.audio
Subject: Re: Speaker Dynamic Range Estimate
Message-ID: <290@hound.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 17-Aug-83 13:35:16 EDT
Article-I.D.: hound.290
Posted: Wed Aug 17 13:35:16 1983
Date-Received: Thu, 18-Aug-83 00:10:23 EDT
References: <1074@dvamc.UUCP>, <286@hound.UUCP>, <242@cdi.UUCP>
Organization: Bell Labs, Holmdel NJ
Lines: 14

Estimates involving human perception are difficult to make and
difficult to defend.  In an earlier item I estimated the "effective
dynamic range of home type ('average acoustic suspension'type)
loudspeakers as "around 70db." Actually, the numbers I used could
have been added as high as 76db (+3 for 200 watt peaks and +3 for
two loudspeakers in stereo).  Let's not be so conservative. My
AR-9's will probably handle 2kw instantaneous peaks (add 10db).
Human's can sort signals out of noise by a variety of signal
processing techniques such as the "cocktail party effect" etc.
(add 10db). My house is in the middle of a desert on a windless
day and I have turned off all appliances, hold absolutely still,
etc. (add 20db). Result 116db. Reasonable? ...Why doesn't
someone (I forget who started this) ask what is the dynamic range
of human hearing?    -Dick Grantges HO