What Is A Reference Loudspeaker?

A Reference Loudspeaker is what audiophiles and home theater enthusiasts use to describe a high quality loudspeaker that is used as a reference to what an excellent speaker should sound like.

Unfortunately the term “reference” is tossed around way too often by loudspeaker manufacturers, audiophiles and home theater enthusiasts, even to the point that sometimes a truly inferior speaker is called a reference loudspeaker.

Sometimes stereo and home theater manufacturers will label an entire system “reference” implying that their system is the best you can get and can not get better with the technology that exists. Even record labels do that too. That’s a shame because it just confuses the whole issue and makes what might really be a reference loudspeaker suspect.

So what exactly is a reference loudspeaker? Shouldn’t it accurately reproduce (reference) the sound of a live performance? The term reference loudspeaker originated from recording studios where in North America they would use a large bass reflex speaker like a JBL L112 and mount it on a wall facing the recording console. These speakers were not the most accurate but they could withstand the rigors of long often 24 hour recording sessions at super loud levels without damage.

In European recording studios, the reference loudspeaker was usually a speaker from Kef, Spendor, Tannoy, Rogers and sometimes Urei. Sometimes studios would even use an especially funky speaker known as an Auratone as a reference loudspeaker even though the Auratone is not at all what audiophiles would in a million years consider a reference loudspeaker. It works well for its intended purpose though, and that is to see how their recording might sound on a system with bad speakers like a mediocre car stereo or boombox.
What is considered a reference loudspeaker seems to go in and out of fashion. Back in the 80’s, the Yamaha NS-10, which was a small two way bookshelf speaker was the speaker to use in many recording studios and usually they would tape a piece of tissue to the tweeter to tone down its treble.

Sometimes an exceptionally high quality loudspeaker designed for consumer audio like home theaters or home stereo systems makes its way into recording studio and becomes a true reference loudspeaker. That is true of several Canadian speaker manufacturers including Axiom.

Over twenty years ago the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (the CBC is a federally subsidized state radio and TV broadcasting system in Canada) did extensive testing with numerous loudspeakers from the U.S., Japan, Canada and England. Using the NRC facilities in Ottawa, they used scientifically controlled testing to find a tonally accurate speaker for control room monitoring of music broadcasts and live concerts. This was supervised by Dr. Floyd Toole (resident NRC scientist and psycho acoustician in charge of the Acoustics division). The tests also included many of the popular loudspeakers used at the time as reference loudspeakers in recording studios. When the testing was done they chose an American speaker and several British and Canadian speakers as reference loudspeakers.

Most stereo and home theater enthusiasts consider their own speaker a reference loudspeaker regardless of how old or flawed it is. Even though the sound of this speaker might be inaccurate and highly colored, they will still consider it as their reference loudspeaker. However, once they’ve heard the sound of a true reference loudspeaker, only then do they appreciate how much they were missing from their old “reference loudspeaker”. In fact, they are truly astonished!

A reference loudspeaker must be one that naturally and accurately reproduces the sounds of both a singers voice and musical instruments. If you have ever heard a true reference loudspeaker with your favorite recordings then you will understand what I’ve been saying in this article. A reference loudspeaker is neutral, meaning that it won’t color the sound because it doesn’t add or subtract anything from the recording. A reference loudspeaker does not get in the way of the music you are listening to. A high quality recording played through a reference loudspeaker will absolutely send a shiver down your spine and touch your soul.

Click here now to see how attainable a true reference loudspeaker can be for your home theater.