A Subjective Blind Comparison of 2in to 3.5in drivers - Round 5

Select the driver that sounds best to you.

  • A

    Votes: 10 32.3%
  • B

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • C

    Votes: 1 3.2%
  • D

    Votes: 3 9.7%
  • E

    Votes: 5 16.1%
  • F

    Votes: 6 19.4%
  • G

    Votes: 6 19.4%

  • Total voters
    31
  • Poll closed .
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I have followed all the 5 rounds of speaker test, but voting for the First time. :)
I listened short pieces of music comparing 2 pair of successive sample files. The choice of first pair was compared with choice of second pair and so on. Thanks very much for all the effort xrk971.
Best Regards.
 
I have the crackling noise in all the clips. This noise was absent on the previous rounds.

You mean all of them from round 5, but not before? Can you go back and download previous clips and listen if you can hear it there also? I did that and heard same noise as in round 5 but only with mentioned song....

I have quite low noise floor around 20-25dB in evening despite living in middle of half million town. I checked yesterday evening and noise is present with lower volume also. Don't believe my laptop is clipping. This is the first time I listened carefully to these clips, so my guess is the recording mayhaps....

Peter
 
Noise floor in my house is circa 44dB at night and circa 50dB when HVAC kicks on. You may be hearing limitation of my recording environment if you have good equipment to listen.

44db! Let me guess, when you opening your front and back door, grand view is interstate?

Joke aside, it's a quite high noise floor. What about the rest of you reading this?

Peter
 
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44db! Let me guess, when you opening your front and back door, grand view is interstate?

Joke aside, it's a quite high noise floor. What about the rest of you reading this?

Peter

44dB is not loud - probably the hum from the computer's fan and such. Equivalent to a babbling brook and above a whisper according to this table. You need to be inside a sound damped anechoic chamber to get below 20dB.

Noise Level Chart: dB Levels of Common Sounds

I think if I were to shut off my computer it would be 30dB or so. But then I couldn't take any data. :)
 
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I am thinking of posting the measured frequency responses for you all to see before the reveal. Is that a bad thing or do you think that may provide too many clues for folks to de-construct the answer key? Let me know your thoughts.

One suggestion was to make it hidden as a downloadable file so only those who really were curious could see by clicking.
 
I am thinking of posting the measured frequency responses for you all to see before the reveal. Is that a bad thing or do you think that may provide too many clues for folks to de-construct the answer key? Let me know your thoughts.

One suggestion was to make it hidden as a downloadable file so only those who really were curious could see by clicking.

I think there will only be one driver that would be obvious from a frequency response measurement. I suspect it would have a rolled off high frequency.
 
44dB is not loud - probably the hum from the computer's fan and such. Equivalent to a babbling brook and above a whisper according to this table. You need to be inside a sound damped anechoic chamber to get below 20dB.

Noise Level Chart: dB Levels of Common Sounds

I think if I were to shut off my computer it would be 30dB or so. But then I couldn't take any data. :)

Don't sweat it. I've been inside the Klipsch anechoic chamber in Indianapolis. The noise floor inside the chamber is around 12dBA. You can actually clap your hands outside the chamber and the microphone inside will pick it up. Typical anechoic chamber noise floor is between 10dBA and 20dBA. Anyone claiming a listening room noise floor below 35dB in a conventional house is full of it.
 
X
You asked this question in round4. At the time, I didn't see why not. After all, the manufactuers data was on the web. After listening, mostly with clip2, I've changed my mind. One of the drivers is pretty flat in FR but has a slight shiny overlay to it. Two are redessed and/or muffled. One is has a fat midrange and one is thin(suck out). Lets stay with tradition and post them ofter the reveal.
Jay
 
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Don't sweat it. I've been inside the Klipsch anechoic chamber in Indianapolis. The noise floor inside the chamber is around 12dBA. You can actually clap your hands outside the chamber and the microphone inside will pick it up. Typical anechoic chamber noise floor is between 10dBA and 20dBA. Anyone claiming a listening room noise floor below 35dB in a conventional house is full of it.

I tried turning off the main CAD workstation which has a huge power supply and cpu fans. I got 34dB :)

Amazing there is just neighborhood din. I live near a major airport (Dulles) but that is when a plane is not flying by.
 
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Round 5 Measurements

Here are the measured responses. Gated 5ms after the t=0, 0.5ms before t=0, 1/48th octave smoothing and shifted 10 dB per driver for easy viewing.

Don't view it if you think it will spoil your objectivity or may tempt you to deconstruct the answer key.

We have a record of how many people view it so it's not totally anonymous. :)
 

Attachments

  • Round-5-Meas-HR.pdf
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Two were easy to eliminate. The remaining four were difficult. I finally had to close my eyes and listen to which sounded most like a live experience.

When compared to the reference tracks, the four were all remarkably close.

In round one, I was surprised how the speakers in the group sounded so different. In this group, I am surprised how the four sounded so similar. Not only that, they compared remarkably well with the reference tracks from round 4, better than the speakers from round 4 did--in my humble opinion.

Thanks, it was a great experience. Looking forward to finding which of the four I choose.
 
xrk971 thanks for measured responses, your real world baffle and room change some their response compared to factory datasheets although FR88EX is some close, surprised low cost TC7FD looks that good.

there's one in this group which sounded brighter to me than the reference - it will be fun to find out which is which vs the poll and data

Agree one is brighter non EQed, guess its the one with decoupled dustcap/dome : )
 
In round one, I was surprised how the speakers in the group sounded so different. In this group, I am surprised how the four sounded so similar. Not only that, they compared remarkably well with the reference tracks from round 4, better than the speakers from round 4 did--in my humble opinion.

Yes, in this round the clips are better than the previous rounds. My suggestion is to redo either 10F or B80 with the same circumstances (because I don't believe it is the driver quality I'm hearing), but of course it might not be possible as they are recorded in batches.
 
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