Speaker design is an art. Even with 6-digit-buck speaker people may have complaints. Is it normal? I have built a speaker that I expect to be “the best in the world” at it’s size class (it is imo the smallest size that is still possible to give natural soundstage size, and the natural sound of common musical instruments at room around 12m square).
What I’m trying to do here is to make and gather a list of possible complaints so I can find out what could be the weakness of my current speaker. Currently the following complaints do not apply to me and my speaker. It is not a published design, and the drivers are commercially inavailable. It is not an expensive design (less than $700 for parts) but a no-compromise design soundwise.
Please add yours, and suggest me if possible a free MP3 download consisting of music that doesn't sound nice without low frequency capability.
What I’m trying to do here is to make and gather a list of possible complaints so I can find out what could be the weakness of my current speaker. Currently the following complaints do not apply to me and my speaker. It is not a published design, and the drivers are commercially inavailable. It is not an expensive design (less than $700 for parts) but a no-compromise design soundwise.
- I cannot listen for it for more than 2 hours. I either get tired or bored.
- I want to go to sleep and I feel the urge to turn off the system
- I wake up in the middle of my sleep having terrible experience related to the sound of my system
- My wife more than often ask me to turn off the system.
- The sibilance from female vocal is sometimes annoying
- My speaker is good with high quality audiophile recordings or class-A amplifiers, but I cannot stand listening to “average” recordings or electronics.
- My favorite music collection contains low frequency to make them sound musical. They sound terrible with my small speaker.
- Sometimes I feel it is better to turn off the system.
- Sometimes I don’t like the boomy bass from my speaker.
- Sometimes I feel I need more bass from my system
- Sometimes I feel my speaker lacks sparkle at high end
- Sometimes I feel I need to pad down the tweeter a bit
- I want to have the grill on but the speaker sounds worse with the grill on
- Piano does not sound like piano.
- I don’t like it when some high frequency instruments sound like white noise.
Please add yours, and suggest me if possible a free MP3 download consisting of music that doesn't sound nice without low frequency capability.
16. Sometimes I feel I need to ask on internet forums what might be wrong with my speakers.
Hehe yeah I need to hear complaints. The more the happier I am
I actually have 2 complaints but not yet do a thorough research about it:
1. I don't understand why Adele voice sounds harsh in my system. I think she is a new comer that has got excellent exposure and there must be a reason for that. But my speaker doesn't have the capability to show me that she GOT that quality. Luckily, my speaker is transparent enough to recognize vocal quality of other singers.
2. Rarely happen, but when there is low frequency content in the music, I feel that the sound is "smeared". Not annoying at all (no bookshelf of this driver size can even produce the sound) but I have heard better definition of low frequency. My enclosure is very damped. So this is the reason for my "negativity" with transmission line enclosure. It could be just "current" issue with my amplifier, but I think it is because of the time delay of the TL enclosure. I have a plan to solve the problem by modifying the enclosure into MLTL but it is difficult/expensive as the enclosure is really heavy/damped/thick.
ever since i've hooked up my F5.. no complaints at all. none.
there was a problem with a bump around 125Hz in our new room, but a sock fixed that completely.
ok.. maybe one.
17. i'm afraid someday the ribbon tweeters will die and i won't be able to find replacements.
recordings by Adele are terrible: clipped and compressed to death. it's not your systems fault.
there was a problem with a bump around 125Hz in our new room, but a sock fixed that completely.
ok.. maybe one.
17. i'm afraid someday the ribbon tweeters will die and i won't be able to find replacements.
Hehe yeah I need to hear complaints. The more the happier I am
1. I don't understand why Adele voice sounds harsh in my system. I think she is a new comer that has got excellent exposure and there must be a reason for that. But my speaker doesn't have the capability to show me that she GOT that quality. Luckily, my speaker is transparent enough to recognize vocal quality of other singers.
recordings by Adele are terrible: clipped and compressed to death. it's not your systems fault.
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The instruments are fine. The "soundstage" of the hall is great. The grand piano is great. Why the voice??? Does she really control her voice at all?
That's not a "complaint". It's a compliment. I feel the same thing, so I stick with low power chip amp because from my experience they are reliable. I turn my system on at any time I'm at home so I don't want something wrong happen during midnight like power blackout and then there is that "pop" sound with my speaker.
It is also my opinion that when the speaker can sound good regardless of amplifier quality, then it is that good.
One reason I don't use ribbon is because imo it doesn't have the capability to produce natural sound of high frequency instruments which mostly made from metal. Dispersion is another issue.
That's what I'm afraid of. I haven't read people opinion about it (only Frank's from this forum) but I think he related the issue with instruments. As far as I know, not many speakers can handle such instrumental music. When I bought the CD and the music played by the seller, the sound was really horrible, but I knew that my speaker wont have that problem.
Wow! I always start with room size. Mine is around 12m square. 2x200W is for concert
. Are you sure your speaker can handle the power?It is true that at practice "bigger sounds better". But with everything done properly and carefully, it is not true.
ADD: Oh, I think you use Dynaudio? Ha! yes they need power
For a majority of speakers with the moderate 84/85dB sensitivity rating, the amplifier should be rated at approximately 250W to avoid clipping of the amplifier during musical transients that cause a crest factor of 30dB or so, at a moderate listening level- say 90dB. It's not power required for enough output, and it's not power that will be delivered constantly into a speaker. This power level is to have adequate headroom to keep the signal intact as injected from the source without the amplifier distorting the output. The more sensitive your speakers are, the less power on tap is required. If you have 95dB speakers, you only need about 17W of power to avoid clipping.
Now- source music can be badly produced, compressed, distorted, and such all due to the "loudness wars" that record labels are currently producing. Most of these have squashed the dynamic range to where there is no room for it, and recordings will sound chesty, muffled, and uninvolving. Adele is a case in point...
Later,
Wolf
Now- source music can be badly produced, compressed, distorted, and such all due to the "loudness wars" that record labels are currently producing. Most of these have squashed the dynamic range to where there is no room for it, and recordings will sound chesty, muffled, and uninvolving. Adele is a case in point...
Later,
Wolf
Wow! I always start with room size. Mine is around 12m square. 2x200W is for concert
Hi J
200w x 2 it is enough J
but i always turn the pre until 2 o'clock
for maximum satisfaction
i always turn until 10 or 11 o'clock for others speaker
sometimes im afraid, cause power become heater
in some amplifier test several years before
my friend like to make a joke to his friend
use my power to play EIN STRAUSSFEST CD
after great "BUMP" he changed the tweeter
looks like the power push out his ability
but the speaker still said come on, come on
I hope it is that clipping that I heard from my speaker when producing low frequency content. I'm not ready to use my own amplifier design yet. Too risky for the speaker
Even 50W is scary.
Hi Wolf
all become from not known anything
7 years ago i didnt understand anything about audio
i only have minicompo with radio, cd player & cassetes
but i like to listen some music like the 60 - 70s
theres my father song, he liked to be act like a singer
one time, my friend ask me to the audio showroom
he knew everything bout audio system
and that time he said this speaker not the best one
but more than enough ... so i buy it
if i buy it now, im sure to get a better db
For me it is a sign of inferior (low impedance) speaker design. It seems as if the minimum requirement for sonic and dynamic transient is fulfilled with/at high SPL, but I don't believe it is that simple. It is probably never fulfilled at all (not until the voice coil burnt).
hi chris
looks like all the driver have their own regulation
please look for some respectable speaker design
so you can make it perfect your box
regards
How did you do that without complaints from neighbors? Sometimes I think that the better the sound quality, the less the complaint. So the complaint is probably more about sound quality, not sound pressure
In my country, many people use big speakers (15"/18") for home use. Such woofers are so common because Sinar Baja Electric (the one who produce SBAcoustics) was a local company, and "dangdut" concert is a local traditional culture that you can find every weekend.
And I have often experienced people think that they need 1KW amp because they feel they cannot drive the speaker with their 500-600W amps. Often I show them a less than 200W amp and they have to change their opinion about WATTS.
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