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In Reply to: Hi Alan! posted by Presto on November 13, 2006 at 15:58:01:
Hey Presto,I've found that ticks and pops usually reslt from the wrong buffer size in the sound card's driver control panel; that or some energy saving setting on another device is wreaking havoc with the system.
I have to agree with you regarding the sound of the Allocator as a crossover. I can't match it with the passive crossover nor the active Marchand. The only thing I don't like is the fact that my tweeters are vulnerable if I do something stupid like turn the computer off while my amplifier is on.
I am almost done comparing the multi-channel Lynx to the M-Audio 410. I won't sell the 410, but I won't be using it much longer either. Send me an email if you have an interest in checking it out.
Follow Ups:
Hey Alan:We could experiment with "failure and shutdown" modes for the Allocator. Using a separate PC for recording, we could record the output of the tweeter signal path for a hard-reboot, regular shutdown, "end-task" program shutdown... etc etc.
I really think that once the Allocator "shuts down" you are no longer streaming... aka NO damage to tweeters. This is the nice thing about it. Also, it would be unusual for Windows "startup/shutdown" or "system" noises to come out of channels used for the tweeter, since these are usually only mapped to channels 1,2 and not 3,4 or 5,6 which are more likely used for the tweeter.
Thanks for the tip on energy saving settings... back to the lab!!
Hi Presto,I have every sound going through the Allocator, and when it is shut down no sound gets to any output channel in my setup. The problem is on system bootup and shutdown. At that point a nasty spike gets generated through the sound card to the amps which doesn't go through the Allocator. No problem as long the amps are off, but a big problem if the amps are left on. Jan recommended a simple 20 uF capacitor to in line with the positive lead on the tweeter to protect it.
Here is another interesting PC crossover withe room-correction.
I whish any one of you could test it agaist Allocator.
A 20 day full functional trial is available..acourate.com
Klaus:Acourate is a crossover filter development tool. It is very powerful by the looks of things. It does NOT, however, act as a stand-alone convolution engine, but instead requires the use of the "Brute FIR" convolution engine. (BruteFIR is available from the Acourate site.)
The major difference between the two is that the Allocator uses IIR filters and Acourate/BruteFIR uses FIR filters. The FIR filters used in Acourate/BruteFIR are inherently linear phase and therefore transient perfect. The Allocator "Full" package comes with a "Phase Arbitrator" which uses special "correction filters" ("Arbitrators") that correct the phase response of the crossover filters without modifying the amplitude response, thus ALSO qualifying as a transient perfect crossover.
Of course, Acourate is a filter (crossover) design suite - where Allocator requires the user to have some knowlege of which filters he wants to implement.
Some prefer the "sound" of IIR filters as opposed to FIR filters. FIR filters have a phenomenon called "pre-ringing" which some associate with an "edge" to the sound. Myself, I'm not at the point yet where I would promote one or the other as a panacea. The fact that the Allocator is the best sounding crossover I've heard yet could be because it uses IIR filters OR for some OTHER reason. (I don't care at this point... I'm just glad it works!) So in fairness to Acourate/BruteFIR, I can't make a fair comparison never having used it or listened to it. But I have used different IIR/FIR filters in Foobar and so far, there is no going back from the Allocator.
My hobby dollar budget does not include for buying the Acourate setup this month, and my hobby TIME budget is getting slowy eroded as well!! ;)
I *will* try Acourate/BruteFIR one day. There is no question.
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