23-Jul-2015, 20:59
I think it is a bit of a dangerous game, reading too much into equipment specifications. However, the above does make me think about my experience listening to the Phantoms at the recent OAC event. I posted previously about the Phantoms and the now slightly infamous Rudimental "Spoons" track. This has the most extreme low bass of any piece of music I have come across, so is not really representative of normal use, but the lowest bass section is on the limit of audibility (so not far off 16Hz), and is totally sustained for a couple of seconds. I cannot say for sure what volume level we were listening at, but a touch above 82dB would be possible, and yes, the Phantoms did struggle slightly, the bass was audibly being ramped down, and just after the low bass section the music became quieter for maybe about a second or so, as if some kind of thermal protection was kicking in. (although it was also very hot in the demo room). So we did manage to find some kind of limit to the Phantoms powers, which, perhaps a touch subjectively, does appear to be in line with the raw numbers above. To be honest, in the real world this is all fairly irrelevant. Other than for these few seconds on the most extreme piece of music known to humanity, the Phantoms didn't miss a beat and sounded like they were cruising all day with a myriad of bass heavy material.
