Why are we talking about faraday cages? And your both right, a cage dosnt need to be grounded but it helps depending on your application. That pic of the lightning, if the guy in the cage was grounded what would happen to him? Now replace the person with sensitive electronics thats always grounded. I believe EM will cause currents to flow in an ungrounded shield which cause EM inside the shield. Less EM due to IR losses in the shield but still there.
It helps to listen to music you're familiar with.
Other than tonal balance (bass/treble balance) which is the basics, I listen to clarity in the midrange when tweaking crossovers. Sometimes impedance correction helps. Sometimes it's better to adjust the crossover for impedance. Sometimes it's better to use a notch filter. I adjust the Q of the notch filter and listen. Too much of a good thing is bad. Even 6 or 8 dB of attenuation in the notch can make a huge difference and going beyond this can be subjectively counterproductive, even if the math tells you otherwise. The notch interacts with the crossover so you have to take all that into account.
I knew I had it right with my 8" two ways when I listened to a 40 year old live recording I'd been listening to for 36 years, and I was startled when I thought there were people in the room with me - I was really fooled! I could place them in the room and clearly hear what they were saying. It was like I was in the audience and I could hear the people three rows up to the left coughing and talking. That's when I knew it was
and properly sorted. I'd never heard it before! I did this by going back and forth with the notch filter and adjusting the crossover for each iteration. They're crystal clear and that's easier said than done when the crossover is 2 kHz, a frequency where our hearing is particularly sensitive. My Bose (sorry) 201s I have hooked up to my computer sound like mud next to them. I also listen for dynamics and power compression, but there's not a lot you can do about that except go bigger. That's assuming you're using a woofer with decent power handling and efficiency in the first place. My 8 inchers aren't 15 inchers, but they still deliver punch you right in the chest bass. They're also power hogs, but there's no free lunch.
I also used felt and wool on the baffle. The baffles are felt lined. I took some thick wool acoustical mat from an ancient console (circa 1960s) and cut a couple of pieces and glued them to the baffle between the woofer and tweeter. The woofer and tweeter almost touch so I had to use two pieces. This one trick made a subtle but noticeable difference. The speakers didn't sound different; just a little clearer. This shows that even a small difference, like a few decibels, can have a large impact. It also makes me appreciate the virtue of waveguides, which I intend to incorporate into my next build. I used dome tweeters which I now realize are better suited to three ways. How much dispersion does an 8 inch speaker have at 2 kHz? It's an obvious flaw but in reality it doesn't make an objectionable difference.
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I did find some speaker cables once (they were some moron's creation) that had 220 nF of capacitance between them. Yep- there was a cap in there! They were supposed to sound "magical".
Maybe they just liked getting high on the magic smoke from blown output transistors.
Great example, thanks. What recording was it as a matter of interest? Finding something you haven't heard before in a well known recording is definitely a good sign and something you wouldn't be fooling yourself about, that is, not a subtle and/or non-repeatable difference that could have been due to any number of things not necessarily related to any changes you made to your set up. I think most of us who have tried to improve our systems have had similar experiences, I know I have.It helps to listen to music you're familiar with.
I knew I had it right with my 8" two ways when I listened to a 40 year old live recording I'd been listening to for 36 years, and I was startled when I thought there were people in the room with me - I was really fooled! I could place them in the room and clearly hear what they were saying. It was like I was in the audience and I could hear the people three rows up to the left coughing and talking. That's when I knew it was
This is something I've kept meaning to try but haven't gotten around to yet, mainly I think because I'm put off be the, let's face it, pretty awful aesthetics
. I use a wideband driver, so have eliminated the crossover except for in the low bass I crossover to subwoofers. I've found I prefer the sound of a point source and since my room is small and I generally listen at moderate levels in the nearfield they seem to serve me well.Derek and the Dominos Live at Fillmore East 1970, "Why Does Love Got To Be So Sad?"
That's the light bulb that came on in my head.
It's important to be skeptical of your own conclusions when "voicing" a speaker. This experience seems to remove subjectivity from the equation.
A layer of felt on the baffle does not impinge on aesthetics. And wool dampers are useful for mitigating interference between two speakers playing at the same frequency, so they probably wouldn't help you with a wideband driver. They won't help you cross them over to a subwoofer either.This is something I've kept meaning to try but haven't gotten around to yet, mainly I think because I'm put off be the, let's face it, pretty awful aesthetics
Point source is ideal if you can pull it off.
If you place two drivers close enough together so that their axes are less than a quarter wavelength apart, and your listening position is at least a wavelength away, then the speaker behaves exactly like a point source. That's why you want to put drivers as close together as possible.
What this means is that a 6" two way with a two inch tweeter crossed over at 2 kHz is almost a point source.
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Ribbon cable
Hi gents, been following this thread from the start. There is so much BS going on with so many of the vendors.
Question - what sort of effect would you expect to get from a ribbon cable (2-core solid copper ~ 1 mm diameter spaced 10 mm apart) connected between amp and speakers. This is not to cause unnecessary debate - just an honest electrical question about capacitive and inductive loading.
Regards, Kevin
Hi gents, been following this thread from the start. There is so much BS going on with so many of the vendors.
Question - what sort of effect would you expect to get from a ribbon cable (2-core solid copper ~ 1 mm diameter spaced 10 mm apart) connected between amp and speakers. This is not to cause unnecessary debate - just an honest electrical question about capacitive and inductive loading.
Regards, Kevin
Thanks
Agreed, it does seem to be a very objective listening test?
I take your point.
I was thinking of it reducing radiation getting to the baffle edge and diffracting, the diffractions becoming secondary sources.
The first thing that springs to mind is that sounds very similar to indoor FM aerials, so not a good idea. It's best to keep all flow and returns tightly coupled to keep loop area small, ie, not create an aerial.
This is still subjective until it’s measured right?
When it gets to the point in voicing that you can no longer tell much difference between changes the micro details are indeed a good tell....but, what exactly are these micro details, are they uncovered from proper phase alignment/relationships?
And at what level are these micro details measureable......has anyone ever done studies on it?
And by micro details I mean exactly what fast Freddie is referencing......subtleties in a recording never heard before uncovered through fine tuning.
The irony is few appear to be aware of the abysmal quality of cheap or bundled interconnects. In my experience <50% shield coverage and clear evidence of chemical reaction between conductor and insulator are common. The days of shield and foil with foamed insulation once typical with 'name' hardware appear to be gone.
Yes, I know that. It's very obvious for video, I'm not sure that cheap, short audio cables are audibly different.
But no continuity at all is a different kettle of fish. I mean, what percentage of high end gear is installed by an installer? They are not going to miss something that big.
No, I don't think so. Correlation to measurements and/or detailed description of what was changed could be interesting.
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