This thread is a spin-off from the 10F/8424 / RS225-8 FAST speaker thread here:
https://www.diyaudio.com/forums/ful...rs225-8-fast-waw-ref-monitor-post5893670.html
I had some extra baffles made up when I had the 10F/RS225 cabinets made. I had bought the SB23NRXS45-8's a long time ago, meaning to try them in the sealed box FAST with a 3.5in fullrange in a separate Dagger chamber. The RS225 setup with the 10F sounds so good, I never got around to trying the other woofer. Until today that is. I decided to just put it all together and listen it in the open as an OB to save time since I did not want to remove the baffle from the other speaker. Using the same passive 1st order transient perfect XO, I connected it all up. Added some aluminum MakerBeam supports held together with 3M Bluetape and plugged it into my amp and had a listen. Not expecting much, but instead - I was blown away by the sound quality. The dynamics, clarity and ease of presentation. The bass was less than a sealed speaker of course, but it wasn't bad. A subwoofer would handle the transition very nicely. This is a very narrow 10in wide baffle. Something a little bigger or even something with some fold back wings would improve bass a lot.
It sounded so good, I knew it was special and deserves its own thread as an OB. Although I am using a PS95-8 for the fullrange, any 8ohm 2.5in to 3.5in fullrange would work here: TC9FD, TG9FD, 10F/8424, B80, 3FE25, 3FE22, FF85WK, P839086, etc. I happen to be listening to it first with the PS95-8 and the sound is wonderful.
I think a lot of the quality comes from a good smooth shallow first order XO that allows a broad range of the wonderful SB23's qualities to come through. The SB23 is a papercone woofer vs the RS225's aluminum cone. They have a different sound. Both are great - but different.
I just wanted to bring attention to the fact that this speaker (or even the 10F/8424 and RS225) and its progenitor, can simply be stripped of the rear chamber and made into a compact OB. In some situations like an aprtment with close by neighbors, you may actually want less powerful bass. But the rest of the music can still sound superb.
XO being used is same as one for 10F/RS225:
https://www.diyaudio.com/forums/ful...rs225-8-fast-waw-ref-monitor-post5893670.html
I had some extra baffles made up when I had the 10F/RS225 cabinets made. I had bought the SB23NRXS45-8's a long time ago, meaning to try them in the sealed box FAST with a 3.5in fullrange in a separate Dagger chamber. The RS225 setup with the 10F sounds so good, I never got around to trying the other woofer. Until today that is. I decided to just put it all together and listen it in the open as an OB to save time since I did not want to remove the baffle from the other speaker. Using the same passive 1st order transient perfect XO, I connected it all up. Added some aluminum MakerBeam supports held together with 3M Bluetape and plugged it into my amp and had a listen. Not expecting much, but instead - I was blown away by the sound quality. The dynamics, clarity and ease of presentation. The bass was less than a sealed speaker of course, but it wasn't bad. A subwoofer would handle the transition very nicely. This is a very narrow 10in wide baffle. Something a little bigger or even something with some fold back wings would improve bass a lot.
It sounded so good, I knew it was special and deserves its own thread as an OB. Although I am using a PS95-8 for the fullrange, any 8ohm 2.5in to 3.5in fullrange would work here: TC9FD, TG9FD, 10F/8424, B80, 3FE25, 3FE22, FF85WK, P839086, etc. I happen to be listening to it first with the PS95-8 and the sound is wonderful.
I think a lot of the quality comes from a good smooth shallow first order XO that allows a broad range of the wonderful SB23's qualities to come through. The SB23 is a papercone woofer vs the RS225's aluminum cone. They have a different sound. Both are great - but different.
I just wanted to bring attention to the fact that this speaker (or even the 10F/8424 and RS225) and its progenitor, can simply be stripped of the rear chamber and made into a compact OB. In some situations like an aprtment with close by neighbors, you may actually want less powerful bass. But the rest of the music can still sound superb.
XO being used is same as one for 10F/RS225:
I added a second channel for stereo sound:
Then I measured the response with a calibrated UMIK-1 and REW. As expected, there is a 6dB/octave falloff of the bass starting at around 600Hz:
Using the REW EQ utility, I found that using a combination of a -6dB peak filter with Q=0.6 at 700Hz and a low shelf of +6dB at 250Hz gently flattened the response:
Applying these two simple parametric EQ's in Jriver's DSP utility, the sound is now very good. Here is a recording of some classical guitar in the attached mp3 file. Change the extension from .asc to .mp3 to listen.
I know there is a way to get Jriver to run a sound processor in the background even when you are using another program, but I don't know how to do that just yet. Once I figure that out, I can take another sweep with the DSP EQ in place.
Then I measured the response with a calibrated UMIK-1 and REW. As expected, there is a 6dB/octave falloff of the bass starting at around 600Hz:
Using the REW EQ utility, I found that using a combination of a -6dB peak filter with Q=0.6 at 700Hz and a low shelf of +6dB at 250Hz gently flattened the response:
Applying these two simple parametric EQ's in Jriver's DSP utility, the sound is now very good. Here is a recording of some classical guitar in the attached mp3 file. Change the extension from .asc to .mp3 to listen.
I know there is a way to get Jriver to run a sound processor in the background even when you are using another program, but I don't know how to do that just yet. Once I figure that out, I can take another sweep with the DSP EQ in place.
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Just as a "try it and see" you could turn the baffle up the other way and put the bottom edge on the floor. It should help the bass to a degree, but might compromise midrange clarity, or it might not.
I'd turn the baffle up the other way and put some triangular wings on the sides to act as feet, making a H baffle.
I just got some tips from Byrtt on how to use Jriver DSP as a pass through for all audio apps. I want to take another sweep with the EQ applied to see what it looks like. Tricky stuff though with the sample rates etc being different.
I could also try out my new DSP from AD - ADAU1452 eval board. It lets you do wire diagram filters with point and click - SigmaDSP Studio.
I could also try out my new DSP from AD - ADAU1452 eval board. It lets you do wire diagram filters with point and click - SigmaDSP Studio.
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F3 at about 40Hz. Quite decent.
The SBA woofers can handle extra low end EQ no problem, with negligible distortion.
Also, try spacing them a bit farther apart, and toe them in. Spatial cues should be improved.
How far are they from the wall behind them?
I had a quick look at that board. About $250. How does it compare to something like miniDSP 2x4 HD?
The SBA woofers can handle extra low end EQ no problem, with negligible distortion.
Also, try spacing them a bit farther apart, and toe them in. Spatial cues should be improved.
How far are they from the wall behind them?
I had a quick look at that board. About $250. How does it compare to something like miniDSP 2x4 HD?
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3.5ft from wall and I did toe them in. Imaging is very nice.
I am using the ADAU eval board to make a custom DSP. It has 8 channels out and the programming is very powerful - can do a lot of stuff like FIR etc and only limited by on board memory space. A custom designed one can be less expensive than eval unit of course and use the nicer DACs etc.
I am using the ADAU eval board to make a custom DSP. It has 8 channels out and the programming is very powerful - can do a lot of stuff like FIR etc and only limited by on board memory space. A custom designed one can be less expensive than eval unit of course and use the nicer DACs etc.
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