On 19/02/2020 12:28 pm, ~misfit~ wrote:
On 19/02/2020 8:41 am, Trevor Wilson wrote:
On 18/02/2020 3:28 pm, ~misfit~ wrote:
On 15/02/2020 7:32 am, Peter Wieck wrote:
I think you are missing the point. If too much energy is being
dissipated by the speakers in the high range, then too much energy
is being dissipated in the high range. And, the brute fact of the
matter is that there is not a whole lot going on above 15 kHz
anyway. So if the OP perceives that his speakers are overly bright,
we should start there.
A lot of the material I listen to is 'full range' and does have a
reasonable amount of high frequency content.
(I was listening to the Lindsey Buckingham Christine McVie album the
other day and there were 'tinkling' noises in one track that I could
hear but not clearly. It made me wonder why two 70 y/o plus musicians
were using sounds that they likely couldn't hear!)
**Those "tinkling noises" you hear are somewhere around 3kHz. You need
to employ some room treatments to deal with the problem.
They sure don't seem to be and I don't have an analyser.
**They will, almost certainly, be below 5kHz.
I agree that attenuating the high range is not the answer. But
neither is tweaking room acoustics. We need to work with the Human
Ear and how we perceive sound at various volumes.
Which is why balancing the speaker output does seem to be an answer,
especially given that one does not normally blast music in an
office. At low volumes, in general, not enough energy gets to the
bass driver(s) to balance the treble, especially as speaker
efficiency drops. These are 88 dB speakers, not horrible, but not
great either.
I do generally listen to music with a wide dynamic range so the
volume is set higher than it would be if I were listening to
compressed pop or rock music. I sometimes listen to music while
computer gaming and it can be louder than you'd expect in an 'office'.
**Is the amplifier being allowed to enter Voltage limiting (aka:
Clipping)? If so, then all bets are off. You may need an amplifier
with more output Voltage capability.
It's not clipping.
**How do you know?
I've tried different power amps and the problem is
with the speakers.
**Again: How do you know? How do you know that the room is not the problem?
I use the term 'office' loosely to mean the area of the house where
my computer and desk are. It's a habit I picked up when I owned a
small business and did my stocktaking and accounts etc. from a home
office.
Eschew needless complexity. If the electronics have a "Loudness"
function, start there. If they have tone-controls try *BOOSTING* the
bass - again that nasty issue of low-volume weak bass is more
at-issue than excess treble (at low volume). Failing both these
things, is it possible to relocate the speakers, moving them more
towards room corners, or closer to the floor, or similar so as to
help 'boost' the bass response. However, this might sacrifice
sound-stage.
The bass is good. I'm using a small kitset pre-amp with no tone
controls which goes through a crossover in a second-hand kitset
subwoofer amplifier. (Playmaster 300W Subwoofer Amplifier.) The
crossover takes away all of signal below a certain point, sums it and
feeds it to the 300W MOSFET amp. It has three selectable crossover
points and a level control.
**You're an Aussie then?
I live in South Auckland.
**Ah. We Aussies always forget about our Eastern state. :-)
I've got it set to the lowest of the crossover points (which are 70,
90 and 120Hz) as I want to preserve as much directional information
from low frequencies as possible. The Sony SS-K30EDs seem to handle
frequencies down to 70Hz just fine with minimal drop-off.
The subwoofer is a very inefficient thing that I built braced 25mm
MDF a couple of decades ago. It's a 10" driver in a ~40l
internally-braced sealed box and as such is very 'musical' when
compared to ported subwoofers that I've heard. It's response tails
off below about 26Hz but I'm fine with that.
Only after the obvious fixes have failed should we push towards more
heroic measures.
**Room damping treatments and ensuring your amp is not clipping should
go a long way to solving your problems. Give me a call. I'm in the book.
Thanks for the input Trevor. I live in rental accommodation and am
'under the sword' - the property could be sold to developers at any time
and I'll need to find somewhere else to live. (It's been that way since
the landlord warned me a year ago and there's a housing shortage here.)
So I'm not that keen on spending too much effort on room treatments.
More pressing is selling the surplus-to-requirements speakers and old
Thinkpads etc. that are filling the back bedroom!
**Room treatments can be VERY, VERY cheap and easy to apply
(temporarily). Old rugs, mattresses, etc work just fine. In fact, back
in the 1990s, I took part in a couple of hi fi shows in Las Vegas. At
one show, some other Aussies (Krix Loudspeakers) had their room near to
mine. Their room possessed extremely poor acoustics and the guys set
about to rectify the situation as quickly and inexpensively as possible.
They used some old cardboard boxes, duct tape, a Doona„¢ cover and some
Dacron„¢. They constructed a false 'wall' from the cardboard and duct
tape, measuring around 3.5 Metres X 2.5 Metres X 400mm. They filled it
with the Dacron„¢ and covered the whole thing with the Doona„¢ cover (for
appropriate cosmetic effect). Problem solved at the cost of some Dacron„¢
and a roll of duct tape.
I would encourage you to try room treatments, before you spend too much
time, money and effort on other things.
--
Trevor Wilson
www.rageaudio.com.au