What is frequency response

No excuses. If you paid attention in Mr. Look at Figure 1. This chart tells you what frequencies roughly correspond to bass, midrange, and treble sounds. Now look at Figure 2. The black line is a speaker or headphone with excellent frequency response. Figure 3 shows what response curves look like that correspond to various commonly-used subjective descriptions. All other products or company names are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respected owners.

Privacy Policy Terms of Use. Recording Monitors Headphones View Accessories. Company Info Careers. Customer Help Knowledge Base. A comparison of an ideal green , a likely imperceptible real-world example yellow , and more audible red frequency responses for speakers. This is most often an issue with headphone drivers and speakers, where mechanical properties, electronics, and acoustics combine to produce non-linearity that impacts the sound.

Every component in the signal chain should ideally have a flat frequency response, so that the sound passes through unaltered. But the reality is that many components don't offer ideal performance. But multiple deviations 3dB or above will more likely cause some perceivable alteration to your music. Resonant frequencies, which appear as notable isolated humps on a frequency chart, can be particularly problematic, as certain musical notes and tones then become exaggerated or masked.

A smoother frequency response is better than a highly variable one, with flat being the ideal target. While headphone speaker components may exhibit wide variations in frequency response, DAC and amplifier components should be flat. When it comes to DACs , the output should always be almost completely flat across audible frequencies, even in modern low-cost designs. Music producers have their work cut out for them, as changes to emphasis mean changes to sound quality overall.

To get our head around this more subtle aspect of how non-linear frequency response can affect what we hear, we need to turn to Fourier analysis.

In a nutshell, Fourier analysis and the Fourier transform reveal that a complex waveform can be expressed as the sum of a series of sine waves of differing amplitudes. So a square, triangle, or any other wave shape that appears in the time domain can be represented by multiple different individual frequencies of varying amplitudes in the frequency domain. This includes the waveform shapes that are created by musical instruments, ranging from sharp beats of a snare drum through to fat square wave electric guitars.

Source: Lucas V. Barbosa, Wikimedia. In musical instruments, these sine waves are predominantly harmonically related, occurring at odd and even octaves multiples of the fundamental note frequency above the root note.

So for example, if you play natural C on a violin, that sounds the fundamental frequency of Hz, plus some second harmonic at Hz, third at Hz, fourth at Hz, and so on with diminishing amounts of level. A straight frequency response means: little variation in the volume of the speaker with regard to the frequency played.

A graph displays the frequency response. How to interpret the frequency response. You should critically analyse the frequency response display. Hence, if we want to evaluate a speaker on the basis of the frequency response, we have to consider two quantities: The frequencies which the speaker reproduces, i.

This is shown on the X-axis in the coordinate system. The sound pressure sound level , i. This is shown on the Y-axis in the coordinate system.

An example: One advantage of this display: you can compare speakers at first glance. An ideal i. The bass range in the frequency response up to Hz Please have a look at the left side of the frequency response first.

Orientation for the bass range: Too much emphasis in the bass range will result in a dull and somewhat muffled sound.

Most male voice have a fundamental note of Hz and a frequency range of , Hz. A valley of Hz can take the warmth from a music reproduction. However, this is often uncritical with background music.

For primary PA applications, a speaker should be selected which already reaches a certain volume level from Hz on. The midrange in the frequency response , Hz The range between and Hz is particularly important for a high-quality music reproduction. Orientation for the midrange: Significant increases just below Hz make the sound a bit softer but also make the sound less dynamic.

The treble range in the frequency response 2,, Hz When the high frequencies are high, the speaker emphasises instruments such as acoustic guitars, violins or parts of high-pitch voices. Orientation for the high range: If a speaker particularly emphasises on the high frequencies, it may provide a more metal sound. Too much relative power in the range around 3, Hz can result in a highly dynamically and somewhat agressive sound. With strong valleys in this range, the sound becomes muffled and undynamic or in the worst case, the speaker 'mumbles'.

The range from 14, Hz on, however, can be neglected for backbround music applications. So, do look carefully at the axes: How big are the steps in decibels on the X-axis?

Is it necessary to stretch the length of the axis like this? The same applies to the Y-axis: where does it begin and where does it end? Does it start at 50 Hz instead of 20 Hz and thus, simply leaving out an audible frequency range? How to analyse the frequency response independent of the display Please check beforehand the volume level of the speaker with an average 1 W power.

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