Measuring Freq response at home?

[doctor_vine]

Hello all. I am new to the forum and trying to garner advice for my 1st DIY FR speker. But as the late Sean Penn said in Reservoir Dogs, "First things freakin' last."

Right now I am so utterly disappointed with my speakers (given all their rave reviews and positive press) that I'm wondering what is "it" these things are missing, or what about them I don't get. So, I was thinking it might be interesting to get some data on paper so I could perhaps "see" what's going on.

My question is how do I go about measuring the output vs. freq of my speakers in this system. Is it difficult / time consuming/ expensive/ o even worthwhile? While am getting rid of them,I would like to gain some insight and understanding about what I "heard" and perceived vs. what was measureably going on.

Any help would be greatly appreciated. Also my apologies if this is a stupid question.

Thanks so much,
Tony

[Cloth Ears]

Welcome Tony.

What speakers do you have? And where do you have them? A lot of problems with speakers are not necessarily the units themselves, but where they are placed (ie. what the room is like and their location in it).

[JRace]

Last things first...it was Chris Penn...

You need:
Calibrated measurment mic
measuring software, a good free one is room eq wizard, check out www.hometheatershack.com

However...freq response don't tell you much (unless you really know what your doing).

Start by telling us what your speakers are, amplification, source, room type and also what you are referencing your disapointment to...

[doctor_vine]

Originally posted by JRace
Last things first...it was Chris Penn...

You need:
Calibrated measurment mic
measuring software, a good free one is room eq wizard, check out www.hometheatershack.com

However...freq response don't tell you much (unless you really know what your doing).

Start by telling us what your speakers are, amplification, source, room type and also what you are referencing your disapointment to...

Well, "First things freakin' last" it was indeed Chris Penn, not Sean, but I hope you can see I meant Chris as he is dead and Sean is not.

As far as he speakers go, I have jacked quite a bit with their placement and toe-in with some minor success. As far as my room goes, we're 12w x 15"l x 9'h. With regards to my system, I have an Arcam 73 CDP running through a SOnic Euphoria passive preamp, to a Sonic Impact "son of T-amp" T-amp, to a pair of Zu Druid Mk IVs.

As far as listening experience goes, it sounds to me that certain places and or voices in every track either are overshadowed by something else, or that they sorta fade into the background when they shouldn't. As an example, on many of my jazz recording (as well as other genres) the sax-man can come through very detailed and live, but even during the same trac, the trumpet lead can come in and sound like in comparison that someone had just thrown a sheet or blanket over him. This is not unique to just one recording, but rather common to every audio CD I play. It seems that what I really heard and liked about the omega 3xrs,
was not to be found in this speaker. BTW the druid were purchased used about 5 months ago and I have not been able to make much of an improvment to what seems to be very big fluctuations in the speakers freq. response.

Bottom line is that I will be selling these things to cover the cost of building my own pair of speakers once I figure out what plan/system will fit the bill.

Any and all suggestions and /or ra ecommendations with experience of speaker and enclosure that might work for me would be much, much appreciated,
Thanks so much,
Tony

[planet10]

They must do something people like... they certainly should be dynamic... i have thou been skeptical of how well they can work as a hifi speaker especially of you seriously value midrange finesse.

That said, i am exploring similar concept, a 12" with Whizzer XOed to a tweeter. It is primamrily aimed at PA work, but i won't be happy unless i can get it at least acceptable for hifi.

I will be taking a different design tact that attempt to minimize the (theoretical) weaknesses of the Zu

dave