Speaker Analysis for Armchair Critics


Hello everyone,
There’s a very important discipline called "Speaker Analysis" or "Speaker Testing" which though complicated, is brilliantly illustrated in this breakdown of the B&W 685.


http://www.audioexcite.com/?page_id=6070

Speaker analysis is to measure each of the components both separately and as they come together in a complete system. It is a part of creating a new loudspeaker, but it can also be used to analyze an existing speaker, to understand it and perhaps to make it better.  I prefer the term Analysis because it better reflects that the goal is not merely quality assurance, but to build a complete electro acoustical understanding of the system as a whole so changes can be considered, and their final results predicted.


This particular article does just that, and comes up with a couple of suggestions for re-working the crossover to end up with hopefully a better end result. At the very least, it is a significantly different speaker at the end, and achieves a far greater level of change than cables can.


I share this with all of you just as an example of the work that goes into making a loudspeaker from parts, and the tools, and how much of what we hear has to do with choices made in the crossover.


Best,

Erik
erik_squires
my signature is flat to the last band on the eleven band analog bass EQ with a Q of .72, unless I am listening to Steely Dan: Two Against Nature, then i tweak it back a whisker....
Teachable moment: flat is relative because human beings don't measure they hear. Metering is a scientific process of measuring the physical movement of air. Hearing seems on the surface to work that way but in reality is a whole lot more complicated. What sounds flat or balanced at one volume level will sound completely different at another volume level, even though it may measure flat both times. This is why the loudness control used to be so common. See Fletcher Munson curves.

Now this creates a bit of a challenge for recording engineers. Because they want to get a certain sound. But they know the sound they get changes dramatically depending on the volume its played at. They tend to monitor at a fairly high level, and tend to EQ for that level. They know a lot of people will listen at lower volume, or higher, where either way the EQ will be off. Most people though when they are really listening will tend to have the volume fairly high. So they EQ for that level.

So you can twiddle all you want with your EQ, it will only ever sound right at the one volume level. Even then, only with recordings that were mastered at about that same level.
"There is no signature sound its a myth."

Really? 

How do you figure???

Harbeth, Tannoy, Klipsch, Ohm, B&W..

They don't have a signature?

If its not by design, then your rationale would be that the designers keep making the same mistakes over and over...

special, very special...


They don’t have a signature?


So what makes a DIY speaker made by a novice who has no degree, no knowledge and no experience, less good than a speaker made by a true speaker designer if in the end its just a matter of a particular signature and theres no right or wrong signature?


"So what makes a DIY speaker made by a novice who has no degree, no knowledge and no experience, less good than a speaker made by a true speaker designer if in the end its just a matter of a particular signature and theres no right or wrong signature?"

What does that have to do with anything?

Like everything else you state, absolutely nothing.

Your statement said quite clearly that "There is no signature sound its a myth"

The comment had noting to do with bad or good, it had to do with a signature...

Genius

The most important point to remember is:

THERE ARE NO RULES IN SPEAKER DESIGN. 

Revel thinks even dispersion from top to bottom is best but clearly, many speakers fail to meet this goal. We also do not know whether speakers measure the way they do intentionally or by chance. The measurements too are not infallible. Some designers think mdf is good enough, others disagree. Some may deliberately make their cabinets sing along with the music. You have opened a can of worms here you dont know what youre getting yourself into. 

Speaker design is a mishmash of ideas with a bit of hogwash for good measure.