Labtec Spin-55 Speakers

Reviewed by Shadrach 02.25.2003

Sound Reproduction - How it works

It is not surprising that consumers consider low frequency response the most tangible measure of audio performance. Games, movies, music all sound better with a full range of sound. Bass however is the most expensive part of sound to reproduce. Creation of low frequency sound requires power, airspace to house a large cone speaker, and heavy magnets right? Not necessarily, porting can be used to produce low sounds with minimal power.  Ported speakers may sound ok at low volume, but normally produce distorted sound when listened to at high volume.

Large, low frequency wave forms (bass) are difficult to create with small speakers. Large speakers fit best in this role, but immense speaker cones innately have high mass making it difficult to stop and start them quickly, therefore, heavy drivers and voice coils are necessity. Bass has to cover a difficult range of sound reproduction, from ground shaking booming bass to tight marching band type thumps, to accomplish quality sound. For this to happen, the voice coil may need a quick short full extension, or a ground shaking rumble for any extended period.  Both of these are made possible by quality materials.

Sound reproduction is best achieved with many speakers performing small parts together.  Tweeters produce high pitch sounds. Some are made of exotic lightweight materials enabling them to vibrate hundreds of thousands of times per second. Mid range speakers are a bit larger and take care of voice and middle sound ranges. Subwoofers, as mentioned above, are normally larger unwieldy speakers to produce great volumes of air movement. Woofers, which can be used to subsidize a subwoofer by picking up the higher end low frequency sounds allowing the subwoofer to be dedicated to ultra low frequency.

What does it all mean?

Why, do you ask, is this information in this review? Because these speakers do not supply these features.  Most non-component desktop speakers are "full range" speakers.  In other words, it is one speaker that attempts to produce ALL sounds.  Does this work? Yes, it works for mid-quality sound reproduction at moderate volume levels. Using enclosures can help to "fool" the listener into thinking the speaker is bigger than it really is. But the fact stands that it can not produce all sounds at one time, as a component set of speakers can do. This is the reason an orchestra sounds much better live than any replay on a speakers system. A flute is allowed to be only a flute, a tuba can be a tuba, so forth and so on.