Assessment of

Loudspeaker System
Short-Term Maximum
Output
D. B. (Don) Keele, Jr.
DBK Associates, DBK Labs
Bloomington, IN 47408
DKeeleJr@Comcast.net
www.DBKeele.com
(Copyright 2009, Mod: Oct. 8, 2009)
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System Maximum Output

The maximum level a system can generate for long or short time periods
using a prescribed test signal

Is

Long Term Max Output:

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time and frequency dependent!

Sine Wave
Broadband: EIA 426B Standard
Shaped-spectrum pink noise with prescribed crest factor
Usually limited by thermal considerations

Short Term Max Output:

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The ability of a system to play loudly for a short period of time.

Usually limited by excursion-related driver non-linearity's
Also limited by available amplifier power.
How Short is Short! Usually related to the requirement to reproduce a
certain fixed number of cycles of the test frequency, i.e. for a 6.5 cycle
tone burst: 20 Hz (325 ms), 200 Hz (32.5 ms, 2 kHz (3.25 ms), 20 kHz
(0.325 ms).

Why Measure Short-Term Acoustic

Output?

The measurement of short-term maximum peak SPL and max peak shortterm input power capabilities of a loudspeaker as a function of frequency
are extremely important when comparing one speaker to another.

It basically tells you how loud a speaker will play for short periods of time in
certain frequency bands and still sound acceptable.

Unfortunately, this data is hardly ever supplied by the manufacture (either

pro or consumer).

All the loudspeaker reviews I did for Audio magazine (1989-2000) included
a max peak input power and peak SPL graph that I measured using my 6.5cycle tone burst (usually the last graph in the review).

This knowledge is crucial when selecting crossover frequencies.

It allows you to answer questions such as: Will subwoofer A play louder
than subwoofer B at a specific frequency? Whats better, a stack of 2 X
subs or a stack of 3 Y subs.
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Types of Short-Term Test Signals

Tone Bursts:
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Essentially a narrow-band signal

Pure or Unshaped (Rectangular window)
Has relatively wide uncontrolled spectrum

Shaped or Windowed (Usually a Hann window)

Narrow controlled spectrum

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Gaussian Noise Bursts:

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Harmonic distortion only

Can add together several bursts to create wider-band signal (essentially
a windowed sine sweep)

Inherently a broad-band signal but can be band-limited

Can assess incoherence to determine distortion levels
Requires many signals to be averaged

Multi-tone Burst:
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Good measure of both harmonic and intermodulation distortion.

Bandwidth is easily controlled.
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Selected References

S. Linkwitz, Shaped Tone-Burst Testing, JAES (April

1980).

D. Yong-Sheng, A Tone Burst Method for Measuring

Loudspeaker Harmonic Distortion at High Levels, JASA
(March 1985).

A. Voishvillo et. al., Measurement of Loudspeaker

Large-Signal Performance Comparison of Different
Short-Term Testing Signals, Presented at the 21st AES
Conference, (June 2002). An excellent reference!

Shaped Tone Burst Tests

> Also called Boink Tests, Credit to Tom Holman, TMH Corp, and The
Hollywood Edge, Test and Measurement Disk Series,
> These bursts are also on available on the EIA-426-B Loudspeaker Power
Rating Test CD available from ALMA,
http://www.almainternational.org/EIA-426-B.html)

Used

to measure short-term maximum peak SPL

levels in sound systems versus frequency.

Used

to detect the peak overload levels at

various points in a sound-system signal chain
(also is frequency dependent!)

Etc.
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Waveform of 1-kHz 6.5-Cycle

Shaped Tone Burst
(Hann Windowed)

AMPLITUDE

1.0
0.5
0.0
-0.5
-1.0
0

4
6
TIME - ms

10ms

Spectrum of Shaped Tone Burst

(Exhibits one-third-octave wide spectrum)
0

One-Third
Octave Bandwidth

-10

LEVEL - dB

-20
-30
-40
-50
-60
-70
-80

4 6

4 6

4 6

100 Hz
1kHz
10kHz
FREQUENCY - Hz

Measurement Setup for

Peak Input/Output of
Loudspeakers
Note: Choose a power amplifier that is more powerful than any speaker
that might be tested!

TONE
BURST
SOURCE

POWER
AMPLIFIER

PEAK READING
VOLT METER

MIC

PEAK READING
SPL METER

1m

SCOPE or
FFT

Shaped Tone Bursts

Peak Input/Output of Loudspeakers
Procedure
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1. Use suggested test setup.

2. Energize speaker with tone burst at low level.
3. While monitoring the speakers acoustic output, raise the level
gradually until 1) the output sounds objectively distorted or 2) the
acoustic output waveform (as observed on the oscilloscope)
appears unacceptably distorted, which ever occurs first. Note:
Distortion criteria can also be applied.
4. At each burst frequency, record the maximum peak input voltage
and the corresponding peak acoustic sound pressure (usually at
one meter on axis).
5. Calculate the peak input power by assuming the measured peak
voltage is applied to a resistor whose value is the speakers rated
impedance.
6. Plot a graph of the speakers maximum peak input power and
maximum peak SPL versus frequency.

An Interesting Observation

After conducting many subjective boink tests on

speakers for Audio Magazine I noticed that:
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At low frequencies (f < 200 Hz), my sensitivity to distortion was

quite low, i.e. a horribly distorted tone-burst waveform generated
by a speaker didnt sound all that bad!
Conversely, at mid- and high-frequencies, a reproduced burst
waveform that appeared quite clean would often sound quite
bad!

Why???

Answer: Masking thresholds.

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Sinewave Masking Thresholds

Threshold of Human Hearing

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Sinewave Masking Thresholds

High-Frequency Masking: 1 kHz Tone at 80 dB SPL

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Sinewave Masking Thresholds

Low-Frequency Masking: 50 Hz Tone at 80 dB SPL

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Compare Short-Term Max Output

of Three Home Loudspeakers

NHT Pro M-00

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Focal JMLab Cobalt 820

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A Small Self-Powered 4.5

Woofer Two-Way Mini-Monitor
System
$500/pair
Floor standing 3-Way BassReflex system
$5000/Pair

PSB Stratus Goldi

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Floor standing 3-Way BassReflex system

$2700/Pair

NHT
M-00

JMLab
Cobalt 820

PSB
Stratus Goldi
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A Graph of Maximum Acoustic

Output vs. Frequency is not
Small-Signal Frequency Response!
This

is a very crucial distinction!

The long- and short-term maximum acoustic output depends only on

the available amplifier power and the power handling and nonlinearity's of the loudspeaker.

Any speaker can be equalized so that its small-signal frequency

response is perfectly flat over any arbitrary bandwidth.

All three of the measured loudspeakers had commendably flat

frequency response and differed only in sensitivity and low-end
extension.
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NHT M-00

JMLab Cobalt 820

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JMLab Cobalt 820

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PSB Stratus Gold

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PSB Stratus Gold

The 10,000 Watt

Loudspeaker!
Above 800 Hz the
system could handle
200 Volts Peak and
generate peaks of
126 dB SPL!

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System Design Goals

An optimum sound system design matches the measured frequency

response of the maximum peak SPL with the expected spectral
content of the program material played through that system.

This allows the system to play the program material at the loudest
level with equal likelihood of overload in each frequency band.

In addition, each intermediate stage in a properly designed sound

system should reach overload at roughly the same input level to the
system (Very Important!).

Other considerations may come in to play such as the spectral

content and level of the background noise (very important in
automotive applications!).

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Consumer Electronics Association CEA-2010:

Standard Method of Measurement for Powered
Subwoofers
This is the Burst You Put in at 50 Hz:
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RECORDED SIGNAL

10x10

COUNT

5
0
-5
-10
0.00

0.05

0.10

0.15

0.20

0.25s

TIME
0
SIGNAL SPECTRUM

LEVEL - dB

-10
-20
-30
-40
-50
-60dB
10 Hz

100 Hz
1kHz
FREQUENCY - Hz

10kHz

Consumer Electronics Association CEA-2010:

Standard Method of Measurement for Powered
Subwoofers
This is what comes out of Sub A at 50 Hz:
COUNT

RECORDED SIGNAL

107.4 dB
Peak SPL

0
-5
3

-10x10

0.00

0.05

0.10

0.15

0.20

0.25s

TIME
0
SIGNAL SPECTRUM

LEVEL - dB

-10
-20
-30
-40
-50
-60dB
10 Hz

100 Hz
1kHz
FREQUENCY - Hz

10kHz

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Consumer Electronics Association CEA-2010:

Standard Method of Measurement for Powered
Subwoofers
This is what comes out of Sub B at 50 Hz:
RECORDED SIGNAL

117.3 dB
Peak SPL

COUNT

10x10

0
-10

0.00

0.05

0.10

0.15

0.20

0.25s

TIME
0
SIGNAL SPECTRUM

LEVEL - dB

-10
-20
-30
-40
-50
-60dB
10 Hz

100 Hz
1kHz
FREQUENCY - Hz

10kHz

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CEA-2010 Measurement Results:

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Sub Woofer A:
20 Hz: 50.0 dB (No usable output)
25 Hz: 50.0 dB (No usable output)
31.5 Hz: 104.9 dB

Ultra-low bass (20-31.5): 68.3 dB

40 Hz: 109.0 dB
50 Hz: 107.4 dB
63 Hz: 108.6 dB

Low bass (40-63): 108.3 dB

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Sub Woofer B:
20 Hz: 103.1 dB
25 Hz: 109.7 dB
31.5 Hz: 114.0 dB

Ultra-low bass (20-31.5): 108.9 dB

40 Hz: 111.7 dB
50 Hz: 117.4 dB
63 Hz: 119.6 dB

Low bass (40-63): 116.2 dB

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Thats It!

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