What are the specs of a full range speaker?

For me above 15.5 Khz I hear nada....so I would agree that linearity in higher frequency response in a system is not very important to me at least above this level.

I respect that some can hear up to 20 KHz and when I was younger I could hear somewhat higher than my limited upper range today... so it is relevant.

Above 20 Khz, however, I have a hard time accepting there is any need for a system to reproduce these...maybe my dog appreciates it.

Low frequencies seem audible somewhere between 15 and 25 Hz to me...not that I don't hear something lower but that I suspect the sub excites vibrations in the walls which may be principally what I am hearing or feeling (some of these excited vibrations undoubtedly include higher harmonics and rattling which are clearly audible and are really added "distortion" but they make for convincing effects in movies). I have not found that higher frequencies (above my hearing ramge) are capable of inducing lower frequency audible harmonics in the room...the sound or test tone just disappears for me.

IMHO, due to the range of my hearing and for the added distortions that ultra LF excites, extended low frequency response is more important than extended high frequency response.

I have to agree with Mdhoover and some others who are arguing against the "greater frequency reposnse is necessarily better" viewpoint.

Quality reproduction in the 80 to to 12Khz range is more desirable than a speaker that is "flat" from 20 to 20 Khz but suffers from significantly more harmonic and IMD distortion.

Furthermore, an SPL meter and a test CD will give practically everyone who owns a speaker with a flat reponse from 20 to 20 KHZ a surprise....as most rooms have between 10 and 20 DB response fluctuations (peak to trough) below 80 HZ. This is unavoidable and is caused by standing waves....room treatments can help some but fundamentally some fairly big bumps will remain unless they are equalized out, and then, even equalized, the reverberation problem remains and any EQ'd flat response is limited to a small sweet spot.

A further problem of a speaker with flat extended LF response (no roll off) is that LF frequencies radiate in ALL directions...therefore they reflect off the rear wall and will boost by +6db at some frequencies and will cancel out a quarter wavelength from the wall (producing more frequency response bumps in addition to room modes)

Which all goes to show that flat frequency response down to 20 Hz may not necessarly be a good thing in a speaker.

Macrojack,

Others have answered your question very well and better than I could.

"Small" can be of the order of a few feet at low frequencies.

As Dave points out above, a small amount of EQ (Behringer, Rane, Rives Parc or other PEQ) can help smooth out LF bumps but cannot be used to eliminate nulls (if it aint there it ain't there and besides it is risky to apply boost as this may cause your amp to clip and damage your speakers). A PEQ should always be used sparingly and is probably best avoided above 100 HZ (use shelving functions at most and stay well away from very narrow filters above 100 HZ).

Room design, speaker placement and room treatment are preferable to EQ because this helps with the root cause. These can improve the sweet spot size and will reduce overall reverb levels (delayed vibrations). The reverberations are unlikely to be much improved by an EQ as it reduces the primary signal but has no affect on the relative size of primary signal to reflected energy.

Good luck with setting up your new speakers. Like a Ferrari, speakers with highly accurate extended LF response need careful attention and setup or they may not perform to expectation. Speakers with a smooth LF roll off are easier to handle but, have no doubts, an accurate full range speaker will perfom best under the right conditions.