3DsoundSurge Reviews: Labtec Edge-418 Flat Panel Speakers


	Mikael Hagén puts Labtec's Edge-418 Flat Panel Speakers to the test

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Labtec Edge-418 Flat Panel Speakers

Mikael Hagén - Last updated March 26, 2001

Performance

Sound Levels

All about sound levels

Maximum sound pressure level, without subjective interpretation, is about quantity and is not necessarily reflective of quality. In this case we don’t have to address RMS and as we have noted many times before in other articles, RMS doesn’t always tell the true story about the loudness since the speaker cone efficiency can vary quite a bit between two systems. That is, some speaker cones require more watts to deliver the same sound pressure level (dB) to your ears than other more efficient speaker cones.

If everyone measured maximum sound pressure level in a standard manner it would actually be a much more useful number than watts RMS when it comes to looking at multimedia systems. This is because unlike component hi-fi systems, it is highly unlikely that you will use the integrated amplifier with different speakers than provided with the system so you really only need to worry about integrated performance.

A Decibel (dB) is a unit of measurement commonly used for intensities of sound or sound pressure. This is a logarithmic unit defined so that an increase of 1 dB represents multiplication in signal power (what the speaker produces) of 1.258 or sound pressure (what your ears hear) increase of 1.122. When you place both yourself and the speakers in air the logarithmic scale of sound intensity and sound pressure can be considered identical.

It’s very important to note that these numbers do not correspond directly to the perception of loudness. We generally perceive loudness to be doubled when the intensity increases by a factor of 10. This corresponds to a 10-dB increase.

As usual we used a sound level meter to be able to test system loudness with more than a simple "they are loud" or "they are not so loud" statement. While using this sound level meter is better than just using ears and memory to compare the speaker system's loudness it's not 100% accurate. This is due to a number of reasons including the accuracy of the sound level meter. When we look at repeatability, the 1 kHz test tends to vary a bit between different tests.

To get some perspective on how loud the system is, I compare it to the numbers we got for the AVB's S-2000 ($40 2.1 system), Cambridge SoundWorks Digital 2.1 ($100 2.1 system) and Monsoon's MM-1000 ($200 2.1 system).

The other bit worth noting is that the Edge-418 numbers are done in a different room than the other systems so while the numbers should be similar they are not totally comparable.

When in the normal seating position, using the standard 1 kHz test tone, the MM-1000 tuned out to be the loudest of the four systems with the Edge-418 coming in second, 4 dB behind the MM-1000, 2 dB ahead of the SoundWorks Digital 2.1 and 7 dB ahead of the S-2000. Specifically the Edge-418 put out a peak SPL of 102 dB using the 1 kHz test tone. That's all well and good but we don't listen to test tones so lets look at the real world test results. Playing Rossini's William Tell Overture with the sound meter 3 feet from the front resulted in peak sound pressure levels of 95 dB using the Edge-418, 3 dB ahead of the SoundWorks Digital 2.1, 7 dB behind the MM-1000. We unfortunately lack numbers for the S-2000 in this test.

Test Parameters

The sound level meter was positioned where my head would be positioned when I am at the PC playing games. This means 3 feet away from the front speakers. I also did a test when the front speakers and subwoofer are 9 feet away which is a more typical movie set-up. We used a 1 kHz test tone, which is generally accepted for testing sound pressure, as well as a real world DVD test using the Fifth Element and a real world music test using Rossini's William Tell Overture.

For the music tests, all system tested had their subwoofers at normal listening levels and for DVD a bit above neutral where the system has subwoofer controls. For the 1 kHz test, the subwoofer of course does not matter. But for the music and DVD tests some units offers the ability for greater bass exaggeration using the subwoofer control. This type of exaggeration would result in higher sound levels that we get in our tests.

All sound level tests were done using an original Sound Blaster Live! with the windows mixer wave output set to maximum and the master volume just one notch below maximum. For the music test the peak sound pressure level is recorded where as for the DVD test we are only looking for the peak bass heavy effect. The results of those tests are summarized in the first and second tables below.

When playing a very bass heavy scene in a DVD movie (Fifth Element) I got the following results. The MM-1000 again loudest at 104 dB. The SoundWorks Digital 4 dB behind at 100 dB with the Edge-418 third at 97 dB and the S-2000 last place with 95 dB. When it comes to a more traditional movie seating arrangement (9 feet from the front satellites and sub) the Edge-418 peak bass heavy sound pressure level of 92 dB. This put it 6 dB behind the MM-1000 but 2 dB ahead of the SoundWorks Digital 2.1. I am not sure why the bass drops of so much for the SoundWorks Digital 2.1.

Looking back to the logarithmic nature of a dB, this means that at full volume the Edge-418 has a signal power 1.6 times stronger than the SoundWorks Digital 2.1. The MM-1000 is in turn 2.5 times stronger than the Edge-418 in the 1 kHz test. Taking the real world example of the William Tell Overture and the DVD scene we see that the MM-1000 pulls ahead and is as much as 5 times stronger. The SoundWorks Digital 2.1 also catch up and pass the Edge-418 in the DVD scene where it's twice as powerful but in the music test it's the opposite with the Edge-418 being twice as powerful as the SoundWorks. This means that the DVD scene played back on the SoundWorks Digital 2.1 is perceived to be just 30% louder than when played back on the Edge-418.

Our numbers above are not distortion free levels and at these reported levels there are varying degrees of distortion and no one should be driving their systems at full power levels for extend periods. Risk of damage aside, there is also sound quality.

When you try to push a speaker system to the maximum distortion will usually become a problem. Distortion, when used in the context of sound, is defined as a change in the waveform of a signal during processing, often caused by the signal level being too high for the hardware or software that is processing it. Something to keep in mind is distortion is a fact of life when it comes to sound reproduction. The higher quality something is, the lower the distortion is going to be at normal operating levels.

Pushing the system to its maximum will result in higher levels of distortion and it's at this stage where what is acceptable will depend for the most part on three factors. First, you don't want to push the system so hard that you damage it. The next two are personal as its your ears and your tolerance as distortion starts long before your system sounds like its going to blow up

Risk of damage aside, there is also sound quality. I only have first hand experience with the Edge-418. Mark noted in his reviews that he had to reduce the MM-1000 about 4-5 dB, the SoundWorks Digital 2.1 5 dB and S-2000 6-7 dB. I found I had to reduce the Edge-418 about 5-6 dB from full volume, slightly more if I wanted to exaggerate the bass beyond neutral. This still leaves the Edge-418 with plenty of clean volume for desktop listening or even to fill a small room with reasonably loud music. Considering the price of $80 it's slightly better than what you might expect, offering about the same volume overall as the 25% more expensive SoundWorks Digital 2.1 but as expected significantly behind the more than twice as expensive Monsoon MM-1000.

One other issue that is often more noticeable when pushing systems to the max is noise during quite parts of a movie or a song. Using a Live, a Philips Acoustic Edge, a VideoLogic SonicFury and the Terratec DMX Xfire I had no issues with hiss even at max volume and playing nothing when seated 1 foot away. This is better than several other units at this price point where you often have to reduce the volume to about 75% or move 3 feet away for the noise to not be noticeable. The lack of highs for the Edge-418 is probably one reason why it has even less issues with hiss than what’s typical in the lower price range.

What this tells you is that the Edge-418 distortion free volume should be enough for anyone sitting at the computer. However, for a party or in a large room you may want something that's more powerful.

1 Khz - this is a test of satellite response.

Distance to front (and sub)	Edge-418	S-2000	SW Digital 2.1	MM-1000
3 feet	102 dB	95 dB	100 dB	106 dB
9 feet	93 dB	86 dB	92 dB	102 dB

Music - Rossini - William Tell Overture - this is a multi-frequency test.

Distance to front (and sub)	Edge-418	S-2000	SW Digital 2.1	MM-1000
3 feet	95	N/A	92	102 dB
9 feet	89	N/A	86	94 dB

DVD Scene in Fifth Element
This is a multi-frequency test with emphasis on low end.

Distance to front (and sub)/rear speakers	Edge-418	S-2000	SW Digital 2.1	MM-1000
3 feet	97 dB	94 dB	100 dB	104 dB
9 feet	92 dB	88 dB	90 dB	98 dB

So the speakers are as loud as what?

For a little more perspective, a typical conversation is 65 dB, a loud orchestra is 80 dB, unsafe levels start at 90 dB, thunder is around 109 dB, a rock concert is 110 dB and the pain threshold is around 130 dB. U.S. Department of Labor regulations set permissible noise exposure to 105 dB at no more than 1 hour per day! Its definitely worth noting that when Mikael watched Star Wars: Episode 1 in a movie theater that featured Dolby Digital–Surround EXand THX the sound level meter rarely went above 100 dB even during the action scenes and never past 105 dB. He didn't check the meter the entire time but since it was the second time he saw the movie he checked at least most scenes with loud sound effects.

It's important to realize that in case of games the dynamic range is much more compressed and in a first person shooter like Quake 3 you will hit the max volume pretty much ever other second. This means that while it's fine for DVD movies to offer peaks of above 100 dB you will most likely get a headache if you use that volume setting for games. Music has better dynamic range than games but it is still much more often very close to the max volume. This again means playing music where the peaks go above 100 dB isn't exactly an enjoyable experience for most people as it will be more than the peaks that are very loud most of the time.

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