Speaker Asylum General speaker questions for audio and home theater.

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RE: Speakers in rooms - final thoughts

Posted by tomservo (M) on December 12, 2014 at 10:55:56

In Reply to: Speakers in rooms - final thoughts posted by J. Phelan on December 10, 2014 at 14:39:32:

“- The plus-minus thing should be stated "window". If it's +/-5db, it means a 10db window.”
And one must also settle on what degree of smoothing is applied. Without smoothing, a high resolution measurement of a small cone / dome system may well measure + - 10dB or much more at the listening position, compared to the loudspeakers actual response
“- I wonder how a cone speaker compares to a panel. Are Magnepans flatter in the listening area ?
- How a horn would compare to cones and panels. Even a "waveguide" like Tannoy or a (passive) Emerald Physics.”
These two can be tied together through the systems directivity. The Maggies project a figure 8 and so do not produce strong reflections from the side walls and this helps preserve the recorded stereo image. Horn loud speakers can have much more directivity, in other words more of the total sound power is projected at the listening position and less to the side walls, rear walls, floor and ceiling. When they refer to “near field listening” they mean at a distance close enough to the speaker that you are where the direct sound field is significantly louder than the reflected sound which arrives later. In a given room and speaker location, the greater the directivity, the larger the nearfield area is. The LESS directivity the speaker has, the greater the difference between the loudspeakers response and what you measure at the listening position.
“- What measurable improvement does a DSP Xover (like Holm and DEQX) make ? I understand that these are tough to dial in - but do we have the data ?”
I have not used either of these specifically but in general, DSP Like conventional EQ, it can make a great positive difference correcting something and it can also be used to try “fix” what shouldn’t be fixed and even make things sound worse in ways hard to describe. If there was ever a double edged sword in audio, it would be equalization. Correction via FIR convolution is another ball game but has some of the same rules.
Also another invisible pitfall is that you eq based on a measurement, a measurement that represents one location in space while the only thing you can EQ is the signal going to the speaker. As a result, your best bet is to measure the loudspeaker on a step ladder out doors etc, when you are trying to eq it. That way you greatly reduce what your room does, much of which is comb filtering which can’t be fixed and may confuse. Limit in room EQ to cutting peaks, gradual lifts or roll offs, deep cancelation notches cannot be filled.

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