Hi Vinny
Today I was at our speaker shop, and we were having the new guys learn about tuning the speakers. Our speaker designs are free resonant and tunable. We have there in the shop identical speakers for the guys to do tapping tests on. Identical except for the mid dividing board that is. The one you can take a set of drumsticks and play it going up and down the scale in-tune. The other one you start to play it and you can hear that the pitch is off and out of tune. Same exact speakers with one board 7"x9" making the difference. Folks who visit are always shocked. I don’t build speakers like typical HEA speakers. Mine are made from instrument wood on the front baffle, .3" thick (yes only .3" thick, just over 1/4"). The rest (not including the base) is made from our own soft pulp compressed board 3/8" thick. On the FS (floorstanding) models there is a mass loading chamber on the bottom. And of course there is a Tuning Bar & Bolts so the user can change the tone.
My speakers are specifically designed to work like any acoustical instrument. What makes an acoustical instrument work? They are made to use the room as part of their components. Take any acoustical instrument and tune it in a room. Now take that instrument into another room. What do you notice? The instrument has gone out of tune slightly or major. Rooms and instruments work as one, so do speakers and rooms. You can put the best speaker in the world in a room and if it doesn’t tune to that room it will sound out of tone, timbre, pitch or phase. Audiophiles experience this all the time and can’t figure out what is wrong. I tell them "it’s not the speaker". I go through this every day somewhere in the world. Someone buys this raved about speaker and it sound horrible in their room. Or the other thing I get a lot is, someone moves and when they setup their new room it doesn’t sound as good as their old space.
This is why I’m thinking about starting some threads here about tuning. It will really help folks understand some things that maybe they haven’t done or even heard of before. And so yes, Vinny you are right on the money. It’s all about tuning.
Michael Green
www.michaelgreenaudio.net
PS: here’s how fine tuned you can design a speaker. Do you guys know how many parts I have in my crossover? "1" it’s a ERO cap, and that’s it. Do you know why? Because I have done what Vinny says, I tune my drivers to my cabinet, and to whatever room they get used in.
