What the maker puts in writing
All three bullets, in full:
- “Featuring custom-designed woofers (11.4cm) and tweeters (2.5cm dome) from Wavecor Ltd., this speaker boasts a frequency response of 56Hz-32kHz ±3dB and a maximum power handling of 100W/channel”
- “The custom-designed units accurately reproduce the full frequency range, delivering deep bass, strong treble resolution, and high power handling compatible with various amplifiers without significant distortion”
- “HiFi enthusiasts can enjoy cinematic stereo sound, experiencing high fidelity and rich layering whether listening to bass-heavy classical music or delicate treble vocals”
Three bullets. And the first one contains the only tolerance on this shelf.
Plus or minus three decibels is the whole point
A frequency response of 56Hz-32kHz ±3dB.
That tolerance is what turns a claim into a fact: output stays within three decibels of flat across the entire band.
Now consider a range quoted without one. Every speaker produces something at 40 Hz — forty decibels down and inaudible, but something. So a bare “40 Hz” is a claim almost any cabinet can make.
The shelf, on this question:
This — 56 Hz – 32 kHz ±3 dB
Micca MB42 — “60Hz-20kHz”, no tolerance
Micca MB42X G2 — “55Hz-20kHz”, no tolerance
Micca COVO-S — “usable bass extension down to 90 Hz” — an honest hedge
Micca OoO — “usable bass extension down to 60 Hz” — likewise
Eight products — nothing at all
Note how close the MB42X G2’s 55 Hz is to this 56 Hz — and that only one of the two is guaranteed.
And it names who made the drivers
Custom-designed woofers (11.4cm) and tweeters (2.5cm dome) from Wavecor Ltd.
Wavecor is a named independent driver manufacturer: it supplies units to speaker builders rather than selling finished speakers.
That is a different kind of statement from the rest of this shelf, where Micca says its drivers are “carefully picked”, Audio Express says “precision-wound voice coils”, and Polk names in-house technologies — Dynamic Balance, Terylene — that cannot be looked up anywhere else.
A supplier can be looked up. It does not prove the drivers are good, since a custom design to a budget can be anything. It does tell you they were specified rather than taken off a catalog page, and it gives you something to research before paying.
Thirty-two kilohertz, and what it actually indicates
Human hearing tops out around 20 kHz when young, and considerably lower with age. Nothing at 32 kHz is audible as a tone.
What a high upper limit indicates is where the tweeter’s first breakup resonance sits — the frequency at which the dome stops moving as one piece and begins to flex. A resonance at 22 kHz can color sound you do hear; one well above 32 kHz cannot.
And this is the only product on the shelf publishing a figure above 20 kHz — which makes a nice irony, since it is also the only one of the extension-minded speakers here making no hi-res claim. The Polk XT15 at $149 is “Hi-Res Audio Certified” and publishes no response; the Audio Express at $99.88 claims “Hi-Res Audio” and publishes nothing at all.
Eleven point four centimeters, in context
That is about 4.5 inches — between the 4-inch cones of the Daytons B40, the Edifier and both Miccas, and the 5.25-inch cones of both Polks at $149.
Cone area goes as the square of the radius, so 4.5 inches has about 27 percent more area than a 4-inch and about 27 percent less than a 5.25-inch.
Which makes the published 56 Hz ±3 dB the more impressive figure: it is a guaranteed number from a mid-sized driver, where the nearest unguaranteed claim comes from a smaller one.
What a hundred and eighty-eight dollars does not tell you
No sensitivity, the figure that decides how loud it plays per watt — every 3 dB being a doubling of required amplifier power. Only the two Micca MB42 models publish it (85 and 86 dB), and only Dayton’s B40 publishes a recommended amplifier range (10–50 W).
No impedance, where four products here do: the two Polks (4 and 8 ohm), Dayton’s B40 (6 ohm), both Miccas (4–8 ohms).
No enclosure type — sealed or ported. Dayton’s B40 is the only sealed cabinet here and explains the trade; the Polk ES20 names its Power Port and claims 3 dB more bass than a conventional one.
No crossover slope, which is the entire forty-dollar difference between Micca’s two MB42 models.
No weight, where nine products here publish one.
216 × 266 × 140 mm is published.
Prices quoted in this text were read on October 4, 2026. The live price is at the top of the page.
