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General speaker questions for audio and home theater.

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RE: Do speakers put out the same volume?

Posted by jrlaudio on June 14, 2020 at 20:27:36:
Relative SPL differences of loudspeakers as measured are not always causally the loudspeakers in isolation. The cause can be a combination of multiple or other factors; relative output of the source, relative output of the system components, relative output of any passive XO system, loudspeaker driver differences, and most importantly room acoustics.
Even if you use a mono source, there can be differences in any part of the audio chain, from the source cabling all the way to the drivers in the loudspeakers. Also they all tend to act cumulatively. Simply adding volume pots on loudspeakers does not correct for the imbalance, since stereo signals can incur balance (not panning) differences, which cannot be resolved with simple volume pots since doing so would create a skewed stereo image where the "center" is no longer that. In my experience, most system imbalances between one channel and another occur at the major gain stage ... the amplifier. Power supply, transistors (tube) components and many other aging aspects of an amplifier can create gain differences between channels; and due to the high-gain involved the differences are more readily noticeable. This is particularly common when using monoblocks.
Room modes especially tangential type anti-nodes can reduce the apparent output of one loudspeaker, however most times these are frequency dependent and rarely effect the total bandwidth aurally. However, those lost (cancelled) frequencies can show up on SPL measuring devices as a reduction in total output, since they are part of the whole. This is one of the main drawbacks of using broadband SPL measuring devices to measure loudspeaker performance.
Without testing the relative levels at all points in the audio chain and by not taking proper room measurements using more complex analysis methodology, assuming the loudspeakers are to blame is just that ... an assumption.