I heard that stuffing the ports alters the woofers behavior very negatively, I learned this while doing research on speaker design as well, but funny enough a lot of people recommend it. I stuffed some Paradigm Titan v6 I had a while ago in the rear port as they have two ports, but I didn't notice a difference, I used wool socks. I could try stuffing these as well if you promise it doesn't alter the woofers behavior hahah. Would sound dampening panels behind the speakers help this as well? instead of stuffing the woofer
Being able to provide the minimum (or avearge) spl doesn't mean you are limited to it. The average toom spl is usually reached about 150-500 mW. That means, you have at least 25dB of headroom. And you fail to realize the low level of the hearing doesn't apply to the digital level. That means, the usual level of listening (no matter if it's average 85dB or loud 90dB) affects the source level of noise. If your source has a greater dynamics, then the analogue as well as the digital dynamics still apply. Both can achieve more than 120dB - which exceeds way the spe´cifications of a CD. Your Audio Review link only shows what the specific speaker can do and even that doesn't apply to the whole frequency spectrum. That means, the classification/judgement of the page is completely irrelevant, esp if you are using a subwoofer. Apart from that, you can build a speaker a lot better than that by DIY.
What exactly are you saying is wrong? The powerful bass I am experiencing? Its not like its rattling the door or things in my room, the sub can do that but the bass from the speakers just sound overbearing over the rest of the sound. I just did some tests, and up close the bass has a very tight and strong punch (this is much stronger than the rest of the music to my ears, it feels a bit like I turned a bass knob to +6), sounds like a pop when anything bass related hits, from 3m away, the bass is very soft and sounds closer to coming out of a barrel. I think somewhere right in between is probably a better balance, but overall from all positions except 3m away, the bass is pretty strong in comparison to the music, to me anyways). I have never experienced such a vast difference between listening positions tho, the B&W's sounded pretty similar all around, the sound signature wasn't rlly altered.
Yes I will get to a diy speaker eventually, I am planning on building something relatively high end, I assume around 600CAD for the tweeters and woofers and another 600 for the cnc wood work plus wood materials and crossover. I do not have this sort of money to spend atm so I will wait, I also think I have some more learning to do about speaker design before spending this amount of money. I had a thread about it a while back but put the project on hold. These audio physic speakers cost me 400CAD, and audio physic seems to be well regarded in general so I thought it would be worth it.
Another thing I am noticing at the moment with my current setup is that the cimbals or some items in the high treble range are very powerful too, but the overall treble and voices are pleasingly less high pitched than on the B&W's (which is a good change for me). That being said, some items have this sort of very loud punch, in the treble region, it hurts my ears, this is from all listening positions at loud volumes. Would this (hopefully) be an amplifier thing? I mostly noticed this on the weeknds song Pretty, streamed from youtube music on my pc (don't worry I prefer listening via my turntable for better quality but for quick testing I do use youtube music).
I was a bit worried about the Peachtree Nova 150 as it is a class D amp, but I just read this following link explaining amplifier classes and I thing the D class is pretty interesting! I believe the Peachtree is a very well engineered amp, at least in its budget so maybe it would be a good option, the seller claims immaculate condition and has original boxes so it will be properly shipped. It is also the most recent amp on this list, dating from 2016. The Simaudio is about 10 years older while the CXA60 is also from around 2016.
https://www.crutchfield.ca/S-5QDhnurAGis/learn/which-amplifier-class-is-best.html
https://www.crutchfield.ca/S-5QDhnurAGis/learn/which-amplifier-class-is-best.html
As far as 40W being enough , that depends on what you are listening to. Older classic rock rarely has much sub 60Hz content.
A lot of midbass /vocals , rarely a bass guitar E1 (42hz).
My Hypex400 sub amp never gets a workout with that content.
I have a 60W sonance 260 amp for 60Hz +. Since I am a bi-amped 2.1 system , 60W (or 40) would be quite sufficient for my 90db
bookshelf speakers.
Newer content (Rush,Tool , rap/techno) is where you need the wattage !! When I "turn it up" my Sonance is just at 20-30W versus
the 200-300W my hypex uCD 400 needs to keep up below 60hz (my Xover).
Just casual listening (right now) , my 60W sonance is just idling ... most dissipation is just the class AB bias.
I can dim the lights in my room with the 400W uCD pumping my 50mm Xmax kilowatt sub.
I have my full range (DIY-Dayton's) 8" 3-ways running off my Wolverine DIY. Same music ,same loudness , 10W average - 150W + peaks.
The 2.1 system is far more efficient having the "job" split between the 2 amps. Plus , you can shut the sub off and really save on power bill.
OS
A lot of midbass /vocals , rarely a bass guitar E1 (42hz).
My Hypex400 sub amp never gets a workout with that content.
I have a 60W sonance 260 amp for 60Hz +. Since I am a bi-amped 2.1 system , 60W (or 40) would be quite sufficient for my 90db
bookshelf speakers.
Newer content (Rush,Tool , rap/techno) is where you need the wattage !! When I "turn it up" my Sonance is just at 20-30W versus
the 200-300W my hypex uCD 400 needs to keep up below 60hz (my Xover).
Just casual listening (right now) , my 60W sonance is just idling ... most dissipation is just the class AB bias.
I can dim the lights in my room with the 400W uCD pumping my 50mm Xmax kilowatt sub.
I have my full range (DIY-Dayton's) 8" 3-ways running off my Wolverine DIY. Same music ,same loudness , 10W average - 150W + peaks.
The 2.1 system is far more efficient having the "job" split between the 2 amps. Plus , you can shut the sub off and really save on power bill.
OS
For example, the KEF LS-50 has several foam port plugs supplied with it.They say use the one you like in your room.
Actually it's pretty common to use port stuffing, for more of a quasi-aperiodic response.
Need I remind everyone that there's no such thing as an rms Watt. There are peak Watts and Average Watts. For AC power guys there are Volt Amps = (Voltage)(Current)(cosine of the angle between them).
If you multiply rms Voltage times rms Current, you get plain ol' Watts.
If you have THD, there are harmonics that may have different phases than the fundamentals. The best way to measure speaker linearity is to carry around a relatively pure 16 Hz source (better than 0.1% THD), turning up the amplifier gain and placing your ear near the speaker until you hear distortion, then back off a bit, until you don't. Watch out for SPLs above 85 dB, lest you become a victim of NIHL or Noise Induced Hearing Loss. Check the CDC, NIH, Bureau of Mines and MIL Standards.
If you hear any significant 16 Hz, its likely a harmonic. Keep your Digital Sound Meter handy to measure the undistorted SPL. I had some great luck measuring some accelerometer-linearized 15 inch Velodynes many years ago. I couldn't hear anything at an ~ 110 dB SPL, but the listening room windows were definitely vibrating.
I've done similar swept tests for home resonances, taping down teacups and pictures. Had a strange noise from the straps I'd used to hold the grandfather clock to the wall studs for earthquakes. A bit of fuzzy Velcro under the straps fixed the resonance.
My only home sub is a 30 year old original Bob Carver Sunfire True Subwoofer in a 1 ft cube. He patented his original Downconverter Class H at the same time I patented a 30 kW, 3 axis MRI Class G Gradient supply. Years later, he found and fixed his problem. My supply project was shitcanned, but I found a better way, 3 years later - a sinusoidal Class D MIL antenna rotator amp by Copley Controls. Saved our company's mobile MRI business.
There are actually THREE kinds of “watts” - peak power, average power, and Peak Envelope Power (PEP) Which is NEVER mentioned in audio circles but is the one that is the most applicable. It is equivalent to what most stereo manufacturers call their ”RMS watts”. Average power of a single tone, for a very short period of time. In the RF world, the maximum average power of the carrier alone. That is the limit of the amplifier, as far as distortion is concerned. Any higher PEAK output, and you get clipping. The actual average power with music, or a 4GLTE or 5G cell phone signal is A LOT LESS when clipping first appears. Which is why the amplifier doesn’t normally thermal and shut down, why the speakers don’t turn to charcoal, and why you only HEAR 100 dB when “calculations” say you will get 110 or 120.
MRI machines need much much higher average power levels compared to anything used in audio, and are more like subwoofer amps anyway. The biggest practical audio amps these days are about 14 kW, but will only sustain that PEP for a hundred or so milliseconds at a time. Maximum long term is some 2-3 kW. That’s about the LIMIT of a pair of the best pro subwoofer drivers on the market.
Even with the real demands of audio, a 40 watt amplifier is big enough for most sane music listening in the HOME. I’m stuck in a temporary living space, and using 40 WPC and a pair of 85dB/W 10” 3 ways. But for listening it is fine - even in the “big house” the volume will never exceed what this can do. No, it is not big enough to fully experience music. The question you have to ask yourself is if that is really necessary or practical. An orchestra is ***ing loud. Too loud to ”listen” to all the time, well beyond OSHA limits, and bring the police *every time unless you’re out on 20 acres somewhere or have a soundproof home.
MRI machines need much much higher average power levels compared to anything used in audio, and are more like subwoofer amps anyway. The biggest practical audio amps these days are about 14 kW, but will only sustain that PEP for a hundred or so milliseconds at a time. Maximum long term is some 2-3 kW. That’s about the LIMIT of a pair of the best pro subwoofer drivers on the market.
Even with the real demands of audio, a 40 watt amplifier is big enough for most sane music listening in the HOME. I’m stuck in a temporary living space, and using 40 WPC and a pair of 85dB/W 10” 3 ways. But for listening it is fine - even in the “big house” the volume will never exceed what this can do. No, it is not big enough to fully experience music. The question you have to ask yourself is if that is really necessary or practical. An orchestra is ***ing loud. Too loud to ”listen” to all the time, well beyond OSHA limits, and bring the police *every time unless you’re out on 20 acres somewhere or have a soundproof home.