Stereophile Class A and Frequency Response


According to the Recommended Components Loudspeaker section in Stereophile, "to be eligible for inclusion in Class A, the system must be full range- ie feature bass extension to 20Hz."

I then noticed that the B&W 802D which is in Class A has a frequency response of 34Hz–28kHz (as mentioned in Stereophile's report on the speaker), which is nowhere near 20Hz.

Why is this speaker included in Class A?
smeyers

Showing 4 responses by eldartford

Gawdbless,,,It's that last octave, down to maybe 16 Hz, which lets you FEEL some organ music. If you don't play that kind of music 30 Hz is plenty good.
The definition of "bass extension" is a bit subjective, and said to be responsive to advertising revenue.
I just received a CD (Boadwalk Pipes and Bach on the Biggest" ACCHOS/CD/02). The two organs are in the convention center at Atlantic City NJ. The original master tapes, digitally remnastered for this CD, were made in 1956 by Mercury's renowned team of Wilma Coozart and C. C. Fine using their three channel recorder of Living Presence fame. Proceeds from sale of this CD go towards restoration of the organs.

The larger of the two instruments has a 64 foot pipe, 36" square at the top, which sounds at eight (8) Hz. My audio rig, with a custom subwoofer system that includes three 15" drivers and three 12" drivers, powered by six 600 watt amps, had to be turned down a bit from what I would consider realistic SPL for this instrument. Awesome. Try this CD with your 6" woofer!
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