I'm pretty sure I've read though this entire thread and there are a few things I'd like to clear up:
It's very probably that a single spider more efficient floppy suspension would appear to have 'more output' on the bottom end because it is much easier to move on a per watt basis.
Please explain how Cms factors into efficiency, because efficiency is based on BL, Mms, Re, and Sd. Cms does not factor into the equation.
It has everything to do with size and mass at higher frequencies. If it had nothing to do with it then Why do you even have smaller tweeters? Why do you have midbasses?
Actually, for a speaker moving mass has NOTHING to do with frequency response. It's inductance. Moving mass will affect efficiency. The measurements don't lie; you can see bandwidth not affected by Mms but strongly affected by inductance.
We have smaller tweeters for two reasons:
1. Wider dispersion
2. We have a tiny voice coil for low inductance, and that means not a lot of BL. If we want to keep the efficiency up, the rest of the Mms must be small.
Look at the number of 2", 3", 4" and larger speakers which reproduce right up to 20 kHz and beyond. There are hundreds of such examples, and most have moving masses 10 to 100 times beyond that of a tweeter. It seems that moving mass does not limit your bandwidth.
See the image below. Concerning high frequency extension, 'wanna guess which response has mass added and which one has inductance added? The red line is the stock driver. The blue and green lines are the responses of the modified driver.
I asked the question, How does this impulse delay due to inductance apply in a car, in the real environment, not in a lab?
Take your time alignment adjustment and skew it 2 milliseconds. Can you hear the difference?
Also...can a human actually hear it?
Timing differences down to
10 microseconds can be perceived.
What I am asking is...how does that lab data apply to the scenario that the speakers are actually in?
Quite well if you understand the effects the environment plays on the lab data. If you don't, then you get a lot of "lab data is irrelevant" type statements. Lab data is not irrelevant at all (otherwise why even post T/S parameters?) - rather, a lack of understanding what the lab data tells you and how your application of the data will change the sound makes it difficult for people to understand.
It's tossed out as "does not apply" because people don't understand how to apply it. That is not a failure of the data as much as a failure of the user.
