OB one and Hello everybody!

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gamgee

Re: OB one and Hello everybody!
« Reply #40 on: 11 Feb 2012, 07:20 pm »
Ahh progress!

Ok, a few things about your measurement setup. Off the floor like you've got is good! But 5 cm from the driver isn't showing a large enough distance for the dipole behavior to develop, which is why the measurements are rather flat. With no eq applied, a driver in dipole operation like that will measure anything but flat! You will have a peak roughly corresponding to the width of the driver (or baffle), and a 6db rolloff below that. I go about 1.5 meters to see what sort of dipole compensation I will need.

Your setup in Holm isn't quite right.  What you've got with the complex frequency smoothing is a smoothed in-room response, and you want to see how the drivers behave without the influence of the room (at least for the mid and tweeter, I measure the woofers in-room from the listening position).  You want to change the "distance" display on the x-axis of the impulse to "time".  To do this go to Options at the top, and go to where it says 'Impulse Axis' in bold.  Click on 'Impulse as time (millisec)'. Now click 'Options' next to your measurement, and click the 'Impulse time-window (gating)' spot.   At this point, look at your impulse measurement again (this is what Holm is actually measuring, not the FR. The FR is derived from the impulse). See that dotted line that crosses over the x-axis? That sets the gate, which cuts out the room reflections, depending on where you have it set.  For me, with the same basic setup conditions as you, I use 4ms.  Now you should have a workable frequency response!

For some more basics, JohnR has a good guide here: http://www.hifizine.com/2011/03/refining-a-4-way-open-baffle-speaker-minidsp-2x4/

He uses a miniDSP, REW, and fuzzmeasure here, but the basics apply.  You might also want to check out the free (demo, but fully usable) version of ARTA. I use both ARTA and Holm to make sure I'm on the right track.

Thanks Nate. I played with impulse and fr and also tried ARTA (local product :) ), but arta seems like overkill for my limited knowledge of measurements, holm is much less intimidating...
I'll do as per your advice and read JohnR guide...
I thought "distance" is same as "time" gating, just option to choose which one is more practical for measuring so I choose distance...
So I should try 1.5m for everything then and use gating...(actually, I have some 1 m measurements, made earlier - not sure about amplifier level consistency though, and it was on the narrow U baffle...I'll go fresh tomorow, now that I have better idea what I need to do).
Maybe I could calibrate amp voltage first? Not sure if I understood corectly, amp should measure 2.83 V when measuring? So should I disconect loudspeakers, play sinus or something similar, and measure voltage at amp output? Or is it only important that all measurements are made with same amp level?
I'll report back tomorow, had to put drivers back onto baffle, friends are coming today... :D

Nate Hansen

Re: OB one and Hello everybody!
« Reply #41 on: 11 Feb 2012, 07:51 pm »
Yeah, distance and time and far as I know are just two different ways of looking at the same thing.  You can figure out the distance of your closest reflection, and then calculate out the time equivalent.  You can also see this reflection in the impulse.  Personally looking at the time rather than the distance on the graph makes more sense to me, but whatever works.

Don't worry about setting the voltage at the amp for your measurements, that's just for measuring sensitivity and calibrating the decibel levels.  For determining eq and designing crossovers it's not necessary, but you do want to leave the level where it's at obviously, when measuring for your crossovers.

gamgee

Re: OB one and Hello everybody!
« Reply #42 on: 11 Feb 2012, 09:08 pm »
Friends I was talking about are here, and I'm having private koncert! It's really interesting to hear live music through my speakers (albeit only in freakshow state they are right now). Female vocal and acoustic guitar, just as I like it... :D

gamgee

Re: OB one and Hello everybody!
« Reply #43 on: 29 Feb 2012, 04:40 pm »
Finally, some progress...managed (after a lot of frustration) to do DAC/ADC calibration loop and make some new measurements. After spending whole afternoon trying to to do this calibration loop and measure again as per Nates advice, I'm now certain that mic preamp is mandatory - mic input on my laptop is just not good...
Anyway, new measurement of Beston RT002A dipol was made suspended at 134 cm height (precisely in the middle of my 268 cm high room, walls at similar or greater distance), mic on axis (at 134 cm also), impulse response (gating 4 ms), log syne sweep signal highpassed from 1500 Hz (to protect the driver which is connected directly to amp). 





this impulse response looks inverted - is that normal? I checked, and connections are ok. Maybe my DIY mic is to blame?




And what about that FR? Looks weird, if anything, I would expect fallof at lower frequencies, not a hump...


Rudolf

Re: OB one and Hello everybody!
« Reply #44 on: 29 Feb 2012, 06:03 pm »
And what about that FR? Looks weird, if anything, I would expect fallof at lower frequencies, not a hump...

Give us some data of the Beston driver geometry (baffle height, width and depth, ribbon/membrane geometry and location on driver baffle etc.) and we could see in EDGE where the dipole peaks and notches are to be expected.

Rudolf

gamgee

Re: OB one and Hello everybody!
« Reply #45 on: 29 Feb 2012, 07:08 pm »
Give us some data of the Beston driver geometry (baffle height, width and depth, ribbon/membrane geometry and location on driver baffle etc.) and we could see in EDGE where the dipole peaks and notches are to be expected.

Rudolf

http://www.ribbonspeaker.com.tw/RT002A-980514.htm

104x104 mm, opening in the waveguide is 50x10 mm (I can't see how large membrane itself is).
Depth of the waveguide is approximately 15 mm.

Haven't thought of modeling driver itself in Edge, great idea! Waveguide as small baffle, and opening in the waveguide as small driver...nice.

Rudolf

Re: OB one and Hello everybody!
« Reply #46 on: 29 Feb 2012, 09:30 pm »
Haven't thought of modeling driver itself in Edge, great idea! Waveguide as small baffle, and opening in the waveguide as small driver...nice.

As suspected:


Dipole tweeters typically develop their first dipole peak around 2 kHz. It comes in handy as a 6 dB efficiency boost at the low end. But don't force such tweeters to perform well below that peak!

Cheers
Rudolf

gamgee

Re: OB one and Hello everybody!
« Reply #47 on: 1 Mar 2012, 06:06 am »
Yes, and it correlates precisely with Beston recomended 2500 Hz crossover point...
How would you comment this simulated response in comparison with what I'm measuring?
I'm having trust issues with my measurements...

Rudolf

Re: OB one and Hello everybody!
« Reply #48 on: 2 Mar 2012, 02:26 pm »
gamgee,

some comments on your measuring methods:

1. Always measure from as near as the situation and the measurement target allows.
If you measure a single driver in its baffle, three times the baffle width should be sufficient as measuring distance. Even for a dipole, five times the width would be fully ok. If you measure your Beston from 134 cm, you either have to play it unreasonably loud or you are prone to fetching noise from outside.

2. Keep the measured object as far from room boundaries or other obstacles as possible.
You have done that already with your Beston measurement. While it is correct to gate your measurement to 130 cm, those 4 ms do limit your low end exactitude somewhat. By moving the mike nearer to the driver, the driver signal will become much louder in relation to the reflections or to noise, and you could safely open the gate to a longer window.

3. Don't see more in simulations than the simulation method allows  :wink:
Edge is safe for finding the frequency of the first dipole peak. Its simulated peak height is already questionable. Edge gives a faint idea of the following dipole notch - position only. Everything above that (in frequency as well as dB) is pure math with no relation to reality.

Rudolf

gamgee

Re: OB one and Hello everybody!
« Reply #49 on: 2 Mar 2012, 03:49 pm »
gamgee,

some comments on your measuring methods:

1. Always measure from as near as the situation and the measurement target allows.
If you measure a single driver in its baffle, three times the baffle width should be sufficient as measuring distance. Even for a dipole, five times the width would be fully ok. If you measure your Beston from 134 cm, you either have to play it unreasonably loud or you are prone to fetching noise from outside.

2. Keep the measured object as far from room boundaries or other obstacles as possible.
You have done that already with your Beston measurement. While it is correct to gate your measurement to 130 cm, those 4 ms do limit your low end exactitude somewhat. By moving the mike nearer to the driver, the driver signal will become much louder in relation to the reflections or to noise, and you could safely open the gate to a longer window.

3. Don't see more in simulations than the simulation method allows  :wink:
Edge is safe for finding the frequency of the first dipole peak. Its simulated peak height is already questionable. Edge gives a faint idea of the following dipole notch - position only. Everything above that (in frequency as well as dB) is pure math with no relation to reality.

Rudolf

Does that mean I should measure naked drivers from different distances, according to their dimensions? For example, BG20 is 20 cm driver and RT002A is 10 cm - should I measure BG20 from 1m and RT002A from 50 cm distance? Nate told me to go for 1,5 m, I settled for 1,34 since 1,5 is a strech (not much space for manouvering) and is exactly half of room height so I figured I'll go with that. Maybe I'm obsessing with this measurement stuff too much - if you compare RT002A measurement from 5 cm and 134 cm distance, they are similar (even though the first measurement is FR and second is IR). Maybe I should do one more set - maybe half a meter away.
Anyway, I have those L=134 cm measurements, so I'll post those for the time being.



gamgee

Re: OB one and Hello everybody!
« Reply #50 on: 2 Mar 2012, 03:54 pm »
And these are two woofers (Tesla and SAL) on 60 cm baffle, measured from same distance, only the mic is lowered to be on axis with upper woofer.




Rudolf

Re: OB one and Hello everybody!
« Reply #51 on: 2 Mar 2012, 05:54 pm »
Does that mean I should measure naked drivers from different distances, according to their dimensions? For example, BG20 is 20 cm driver and RT002A is 10 cm - should I measure BG20 from 1m and RT002A from 50 cm distance? Nate told me to go for 1,5 m ...

Nate said: "I go about 1.5 meters to see what sort of dipole compensation I will need." He did not tell you to do exactly the same regardless of circumstances  :roll:

Best just try what happens when changing distances and angles. This will give you a feeling for what is enough and what not.

cheers
Rudolf

Nate Hansen

Re: OB one and Hello everybody!
« Reply #52 on: 3 Mar 2012, 04:26 am »
I go 1.5 because it's my understanding that its necessary for the dipole behavior to fully develope. My measurement conditions would certainly benefit from a closer mic position. I'm most definitelynot an authority on the subject and would follow Rudolf's advice before my own :bowdown:

Gonna have to play with different mic distances now, I've got much to learn as well! When I measure I'm measuring my whole speaker (top 3 of 4 ways anyway) as well as the individual drivers. I don't like to move the mic around a lot, and I tend to keep it on the design axis, which for me is between the tweeter and my upper mid.

gamgee

Re: OB one and Hello everybody!
« Reply #53 on: 4 Mar 2012, 12:39 pm »
I'll do another set from half a meter or so, but I don't think that will change things significantly.
It looks like there is no way I can get low response without second amplifier for the woofers, or extreme loss of sensitivity. Second amplifier means raising the overal cost of the project...
Something like this would be acceptable I think, even though larger amount of power would be prefered...
http://www.ebay.com/itm/4-Channel-100-Watt-Class-D-Audio-Amplifier-Board-TK2050-/230753368652?pt=Lautsprecher_Selbstbau&hash=item35b9f8fa4c
With 4 channels I could connect each woofer to dedicated channel and have separate crossover for each, thus avoiding potential problems with extremely low impendance of 4 ohm and 8 ohm woofer connected in parallel...
4 ohm woofer (SAL) would draw more power than Tesla (8 ohm), I could try and cuttof SAL lower than Tesla and try to get as much low extension as I can...
Maybe attenuating Tesla and other drivers and in the end try T-bass on the SAL for the lowest response?

Nate Hansen

Re: OB one and Hello everybody!
« Reply #54 on: 4 Mar 2012, 02:26 pm »
Looking back through the posts I see you want to try to do this passively, and IMO with no or minimal baffle this is a no go. As you said the response falls off below the dipole peak. This needs active eq to get flat response.

As far as the Sure boards go that's what I'm using. I've got the 4x100 tripath 2050 and the 2x100 in the same enclosure for my active setup, and I'm quite happy with them stock. It seems they're phasing these out so you should grab one (or two!) as the newer designs with a different chip haven't been proven.......but that's a topic for another board!

gamgee

Re: OB one and Hello everybody!
« Reply #55 on: 4 Mar 2012, 06:19 pm »
Thats great news Nate! What kind of power suply are you using with that amplifier? I wanted to get Sure electronics kit with amp and power suply but now I can't seem to find that offer anymore...

gamgee

Re: OB one and Hello everybody!
« Reply #56 on: 12 Jul 2012, 01:48 pm »
Let's see if we can revive this story...








this_is_vv

  • Full Member
  • Posts: 780
Re: OB one and Hello everybody!
« Reply #57 on: 12 Jul 2012, 07:01 pm »
where is it located...

gamgee

Re: OB one and Hello everybody!
« Reply #58 on: 12 Jul 2012, 08:24 pm »
In my apartment, of course  :)
Other two pictures are from Triode festival in Bjelovar, Croatia
http://www.triodefestival.com/
pictures...
http://diyaudio.com.hr/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=221&start=390
and here...
http://www.accosijek.com/forum4/index.php?topic=49.30

I had to give myself a deadline for actually making these loudspeakers, so I registered myself for participation...  :)