Ouch. That explains it--about the sub being placed "in the corner". I'd love to listen to your setup. Maybe not beyond 100 dB, but loud.
How much is the roll-off around 12.5 kHz?
Why ouch? Even my tin-eared wife understands that this pursuit is a part of me that will never go away. Well, it will stop, but when it does, you can steal my toe tag.
Above 12kHz the JBL tens drop like a rock. It's been a while since I powered them, but it was around twelve dB per octave, quite unlike the roll off at the lower end of the spectrum. I set a cap in line to bring the bullets in at around 9kHz and there is no ill effect. Bullets are good above normal human hearing, but with titanium/beryllium diaphragms.
My monitors (the ones I use for movies - they are too "clinical sounding" and a little to inefficient to work with my SET amps) are good to 22kHz, but I have lost some hearing in that octave, since my fall. The sound is perfect for movie soundtracks though.
My Visatons are really only good to around 18KHz, where they have a slight (but, pleasing) peak, then a rapid drop in response. Most of the music I listen to privately (jazz) has little in that range, but a few classical and acoustic recordings benefit from one of the three different Heil tweeters I can throw in there when I want.
I have just not ever fallen in love with the ribbon designs, though. It's their un-natural propagation patterns that are offensive. On axis, they are very nice, but there is more to music reproduction than a sweet spot. Few other dynamic systems can reproduce the ultra-highs like a ribbon, though. I wish I had paper drivers from end to end, but the only paper drivers capable of reproducing tones above 20kHz with authority, I can not afford, realistically. (before you admonish me, I know I have little hearing ability above twenty KHz these days, but I also KNOW that I can still hear a remarkable difference in music when I have a super tweet running, In fact I can easily tell the difference between two of my Heil drivers, when the only real world difference is one of them has response to twenty five KHZ, while the other boasts response to thirty two KHZ. Again, it's in the music that requires more listening and recordings that are done acoustically where you can sense the difference.)
Yes, I have tried to re-do some of my JBL horn drivers (which have incredibly fucking powerful, well machined magnet structures and highly sensitive voice coils) with paper diaphragms. What ever magic the JBL wixards have created with their aluminum membranes, I can not yet achieve with paper or leather. Another back-burnered project.
If we watched "Master And Commander," with the center speaker set at eighty seven dB (which is where I prefer action movies) you would experience low frequency pulses in the ten Hertz range in excess of one hundred twelve dB when they fire the cannons. It moves you.
Last night I was watching the (jim carey/ron howard) Grinch movie with the kids and I had forgotten how seriously Ron had lain in the LFE at certain times. I didn't get out my meters, but I was listening to Yngwie on the headphones and suddenly my chair quaked. (the tiny car had exploded
)
I don't think most people can conceive of what sub-audible tones can do for a movie lovers enjoyment. Only a select few have ever heard/felt what a DVD movie is capable of re-producing. They put the shit in there, but you need "speshul stuff" to experience it all.
I am just beginning to look into Blu-ray, but it seems that the sound stream is the basically the same. Only the vid has been upgraded.
I am sorely disappointed.