This is a Journey into Sound(easy)

[pinkmouse]

Well, I need some new speakers for my front room. My old mains, (well documented in this forum), have bitten the dust due to the Audax HD3P tweeters finally starting to leak.

Eventually, I will be building a fully active all singing and dancing 5 way HT setup, but to get going with Soundeasy, a new program for me, I have decided to use up some of the drivers in my collection to create a new three way stereo pair for interstitial use.

What I intend to do in this thread is to go through my experience getting to know Soundeasy, posting problems and solutions as I go, hopefully helping others avoid my errors and come up with a fully documented design process that will be of general use. The specific design is unlikely to be of course, as I have some very unique drivers, and don't intend buying anything new unless I absolutely have to.

So, to get started. My testing laptop is a fairly old P3 running XPpro, and I have a M-Audio transit as an audio interface. The jig pictured below has a single channel amp built in, along with basic voltage deviders to protect the sound card inputs, switching for calibration and mic/amp and testing is done with a 10 ohm load resistor. Nothing complicated there.

[pinkmouse]

Testing space is fairly limited, so I will be relying on lots of different techniques to get usable measurements. One of the first things needed, after the jig, is a way of mounting the DUT. I glanced around my workshop, and saw a nice lump of 12mm MDF, 600x600mm. This will serve as a test baffle and mounting frame for the driver, so out came the trusty router and a 250mm diameter hole was cut into the centre, a 10" being the biggest driver I'm likely to test for the time being. As I go, I'll make up different size adaptor pieces for other drivers that fit into this cutout size.

[pinkmouse]

So why not a 1m square baffle as is industry standard, I hear you ask. Well, ceiling height in my workshop is 2m, so measurements of below 250/300Hz I will have to go for near field/ close miking anyway, and the path length of the rear wave will still have further to travel than the first reflection. 600mm is a good compromise for my space, big enough to mount decent sized drivers, yet not too bulky to store.

So back to the construction. A few rebates and some glue and screws, and it fits firmly to one of my portable workbenches. I could have built a stand for it, but why bother!

[y8s]

This is great Leon. I'm hammering my way into soundeasy as well. Will be interesting to see you go through the process.

[augerpro]

pinkmouse what version of SE are you using?

BTW the IEC 268-5 standard baffle is 135cm (w) by 165cm (h) and the driver offset 15cm to one side and 22.5cm to the top.

[pinkmouse]

Well, I definitely couldn't fit one of those in my workshop! It just shows how things have changed, just about everything used to be referenced to a 1m baffle in my day.

I'm using SE V14, I originally bought it as V10, but took advantage of the wonderful upgrade terms so I could use USB soundcards properly. If you have an earlier version, then upgrade now!

It's the kids' bedtime next door, so no measurements tonight, time to start sorting through my drivers for possibles.

Just a quick plug for SE newbies, get John K's guide. It's worth every penny and gets you over the initial steep bump in the learning curve.

[ShinOBIWAN]

Originally posted by pinkmouse
It's the kids' bedtime next door, so no measurements tonight, time to start sorting through my drivers for possibles.

Get that AV15 going

[pinkmouse]

In time, in time...

Well, I was going to post possible driver pics, but my camera batteries just ran out, so stay tuned.

[y8s]

Originally posted by ShinOBIWAN


Get that AV15 going

haha I have four of those (one is hooked up as a linkwitz transform sub at the moment--they're eventually going to do dipole duty) but am lucky to live in a brick-walled row house that transmits almost zero low frequency information between houses.

the basement apartment, however, is another story!

Pinkmouse: i just got the JohnK guide and, yes, it is incredibly helpful.

[sfreak]

I shall be keeping an eye on this thread. Should hopefully myself get soundeasy up and running soon once I get the time. Working on a 3 way atm. Mind you, be taking the driver measurements in the box since thats pretty much done.