After looking over Pi Speakers and thinking about what i might end up with, one thing caught my eye, the frequency resonse only goes up to 16khz. I am just curious at how you guys get the full spectrum, or if you don't how do they still sound with the high highs.

I am just looking for a pair off speakers that have great low end, but can also hit the high notes, i am going to mostly use these in a relatively small room, IE dorm room (don't laugh), but i listen to almost anything from movies in a HT set up to Nine inch Nails to Zeppelin.

Thanks for any help you can provide :P

The highest frequencies in concerts are provided by 1" compression drivers just like those used in π Speakers. So the best live sound events are similar in character.

There are other solutions that offer more top-end reach at the expense of reduced sensitivity and total output. I suppose it is really a matter of goal-setting, and implementing a solution that does what you need it to do.

If pianos covered 10 octaves, the range from 16 to 20Khz would be the last 3 white keys. (not a lot)

If being close to a TV set still bothers you, thats 15Khz. the hetrodyne squeal from behind the picture tube actually hurt my ears when I was young. It quit bothering me after 3 or 4 concerts. If a TV squealing doesn't bother you, I would say your acuity there is getting low and I wouldn't worry about the last half of the top octave too much. You aint gettin' it tweeters or not. There is something to be said for that air up there. If I play real loud I can still hear it, but it isn't pretty from most mass production recordings and players, so I can live without it.

Reviews and advertisements can make us feel like we all have the ears of a bat. If you are young you might, but if you have been to a few loud clubs or concerts, slammin' car systems, drove the highway with windows down often or worked any place louder than Kinkos, you are probably already losing a bit off the top. Americans adults who hear decent at 20KHz are seriously in the minority.

Oh! I have owned and sold a lot of nice speakers. I put hopped up Acoustats in the closet to make room for the Pi's.
Thomas

what do you mean by this? the sound on the recording isn't great to begin with?

I can still hear the TV whine, but i have been to my fare share of concerts 3 Tool, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Les Clay Pool, Incubus.

I am just worried that i will be missing the high notes of Gilmore and Hendrix.

thanks for your quick replies I guess i will still have to think about it, and oh yeah that whole money issuse :)

I can still hear the whine too, but it used to hurt 6 ft away. now I have to be within a foot for it to bug me. After 100 or so shows I don't really hear it unless i'm moving wires behind the TV. My hearing tests show the difference, but what I experienced with music is way worth it. Some have tougher ears so...

I think the slightly rolled off top end sounds better with pop, rock & alternative CD's coming out of the big labels. Even some of the remastered classic rock stuff is bright. For an example, play (or borrow then play) Sarah Mclachlin - fumbling towards ecstacy and crank the song possetion, if you make it through the first line of the song without wincing from the "s" sounds, you are a tougher man than me(or your tweeters are blown). Now if you were a golden eared classical fanatic I would be singin a different tune. Worst case, you might have slightly skewed timbre on violins with compression drivers.

As for the high guitar notes, I am not an expert, but a guitar has it's highest fundamental at 880 Hz. Playing artificial harmonics might get you to a 3520Hz fundamental, but the higher you make the aftificial harmonic, the weaker the fundamental is, and so less overtones for fewer octaves. You could use studio tricks to get several octaves of overtones out of a guitar, but limitations of the best 12" guitar amplifier speakers are far worse than the limitations of the average 1" exit compression tweeter. Between the differences in gear, studio monitors, engineers and mastering houses, compression drivers are probably small change.

So I say, give it a try. Just my two cents.