measurement questions for John Atkinson (or anyone else) - Sonar_Vermin - General Asylum

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measurement questions for John Atkinson (or anyone else)

Mr. Atkinson,
I have noticed a fundamental difference between the measurements of loudspeakers and the measurements of other components. When measuring loudspeakers, primarily acoustic measurements are used, whie for electronics, the measurements are exclusively electrical. While the electrical properties of, say, an amplifier are important to it's operation, I would think that the ultimate acoustic effects of any device are more important to the behavior of the device in the listener's system.
It would seem to be valuable to develop a range of "measurement reference" speakers, whose inherent acoustic behavior is well understood. An amplifier, preamp, source, or wire could then be inserted into the system, and a full spectrum of acoustic measurements taken. Software can normalize the results to the inherent behavior of the speakers, and the changes to the sound plotted. Obviously, several reference speakers with different characteristics and using different design methodologies should be used for these tests. After all, the sound energy in the room is what our ear/brain system decodes, not the electrical energy at some arbitrary node in the system.
Also, have you considered the use of long-integration-time narrowband analysis? There is probably considerable infomation that is averaged out of 1/3 octave measurements that could be revealed by FFT software using a 1/8 or 1/16 Hz (or smaller) vernier. As my user id indicates, I spent several years as a US Navy Sonar Technician, and I spent many hours observing the fine-scale structure of sound. Truly a fascinating subject. Sound is an amazingly tricky and intricate thing.
Thank you for making Stereophile happen, and for being available to the community for conversations both fair and foul.
--Shannon Menkveld

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Topic - measurement questions for John Atkinson (or anyone else) - Sonar_Vermin 01:14:08 10/02/02 (9)

Re: measurement questions for John Atkinson (or anyone else) - Curtis J 08:24:35 10/02/02 (1)

Re: measurement questions for John Atkinson (or anyone else) - Sonar_Vermin 09:52:08 10/02/02 (0)

Just knock at the amplifier and measure what happens - ro-s 07:53:03 10/02/02 (5)

Re: Just knock at the amplifier and measure what happens - Sonar_Vermin 09:41:37 10/02/02 (4)

Re: Just knock at the amplifier and measure what happens - ro-s 12:21:42 10/02/02 (3)

Re: Just knock at the amplifier and measure what happens - Sonar_Vermin 13:02:23 10/02/02 (2)

Re: Just knock at the amplifier and measure what happens - ro-s 01:44:20 10/03/02 (1)

Re: Just knock at the amplifier and measure what happens - Sonar_Vermin 11:17:56 10/03/02 (0)

Re: measurement questions for John Atkinson (or anyone else) - Jitter_by_Coffee 05:09:56 10/02/02 (0)

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