Design calls for .7mh, is .68 OK?

[Jay]

I have seen quite a number of people getting themselves into trouble with the 100% scientific way of doing things. When something sounds bad but measures good, they seem to get stuck in a dead end road, as they would have to actually listen their way through, they just continue with the measurements.

Yes I have too. There's something that I would say a misconception about speaker building among newbies, that building speaker is easy, especially if you have downloaded the free softwares

Often it is not even easy to judge which speaker is good and which is bad!!! So anything you build by your own is always sound good, especially if you use Scan-Speak Often forget that with the expensed cash, you can buy a better speaker in the market.

But choosing a good commercial speaker by listening is also not as easy as it seems. And I hated it when they used expensive CD player and an XRCD when I auditioned a $150 Yamaha loudspeaker

I like to support my listening experiences with measurements, but I listen first and tweak to what I like best, then I measure just to confirm that there is nothing exceptionally wrong with what I made. I have though had a case or two where I had to give up the tuning by ear approach and measure, just to get a hint about what had gone dead wrong.

I'm still curious with our human listening abilities, and I'm most interested in this. I mean, is it really good when we think the sound is good? This is important when we rely on ears.

Since years I thought that (passive) speaker is the most important part in the audio chain to deliver enjoyment in music listening (compared to amplifiers). But knowing which scientific parameters that turn on the hormon is the interesting part.

In amplifier design, it might be zero NFB, transient, transconductance, 2nd harmonic, I don't know, it's amplifier designer's business.

In speaker design, what is it? I still learn.

Which one is more important and how they are important, quality bass, sweet vocal, or smooth treble?

Even though XT25 can create a remarkable sound, why the smoothness of things like 9500 can create more enjoyable sound?

Unique vocal quality or remarkable soundstage may impress and get us into thinking that the speaker is good, but will it be an enjoyable speaker? Unique vocal quality sometime is a sign of defect in other certain areas! We smile when it is Eva Cassidy but we cry when it is Sepultura.

In the last stage of my speaker design process, I don't think much about physical parameters. I try to find out my emotions related to the speaker. I must be absorbed with the music and forget the speaker or the electronics. Reflexly moving my body with the music (and don't want to continue the design ) is usualy a quick sign that the design is okay. But I have other ways to find out. Surprisingly, often this enjoyment can be found in speakers which have nothing 'special'!

 

[Jay]

how about design the best active xover, build the best possible speaker for any amount of money, build crazy SS amps, and be content

Haha i have explained the answer. Beside, I'm not going to do things that I think I can never be very good at. I can read amplifier building article and build my own SS and tube amps, but I know that it will take me more than 10 years to beat the Blameless amplifier