SNYDER

CLASSIC ROCK N' ROLL

     Rock n' Roll requires more aggressive levels of volume; the "punch." It denotes the genre and separates it from the many other music styles. Done properly it is supposed to be dynamic, gritty, with edginess. A sense of danger is what makes it exciting. If these elements are not present you are witness to an improperly constructed live performance. 

This is not to say it must be irritating.

     "Loud" is subjective, often misused to correctly define an issue. The way humans perceive "Loud" is more often about sound pressure level (SPL) in the sensitive human hearing frequency range around 2~4 khz, (See Graph). This is the range humans perceive clarity for speech.

     The image to the left is the Fletcher-Munson curves. This is the science relative to loudness perceptions. The dip you see is the sensitive area which when amplified becomes very uncomfortable to the listener.

     Managing these sensitive areas allows the power of the sound to come through without piercing irritation. 

     You may be familiar with a "Loudness" control on your home or car audio. This adjustment addresses the pictured curve by boosting the lows and highs for lower listening volumes.

     "Big" speaker size or a Pro-size cabinet does not equate to unbearable volume levels. What they do equate to is proper coverage of a given space. It's about the ability to move air. A small speaker must work hard to reproduce what a larger pro speaker performs with ease.

     A larger diameter speaker increases the initial air being compressed. Multiples of speakers increase overall efficiency and coverage.

     With so many local acts using pole mounted speakers a properly sized legacy speaker cabinet may appear new and different. This is a travesty as the footprint is typically smaller with far better sound, fewer wires, quicker set up and no tripod legs to trip over.

     At some point a system can be too big as it physically makes no sense. Suffice to say there is a time and a place with no selection written in stone.