Down the Rabbit Hole

[William Lemmerhirt]

You point sounds very plausible, but do you have the means to measure to confirm that your bookshelf speakers fall short for "dynamic" at the levels you listen?
As the "Devil's advocate" I might think you could just as likely be hearing some resonance from the longer panels of the tower's cabinet, resulting in a fuller bass sound - which, IME, is enjoyable in many places, but a problem when the balance between frequencies is critical.

I am, however, not sure what you mean by dynamic. Are you saying simple that they won't play as loud (which I agree with), or are you saying they are more responsive (like will produce a better impulse response)?

Hey Kurt! I’ve been trying to get to this response. I’m currently on a family trip with no WiFi, and my son has destroyed our data plan lol.
I personally do have means to measure. I have a umik and rew but don’t know how I’d measure the exact thing I’m talking about. My current/long time room has my mains 14.5’ away and I’m on concrete on grade with a 12’ vaulted ceiling. Can’t say I’m NOT hearing panel resonances but I don’t think that has been a factor. I have two other BS systems and have auditioned others in my main room. Basically When I refer to dynamics I mean when I listen to music, it does/doesn’t sound realistic in size and scale, and impact. To me a dynamic presentation would give me the impression that(for example) a Yamaha piano is actually in my room. This is definitely related to loudness, but also exciting as much airspace in the room as you can. Small drivers/cabinets can’t do it it the same way. I’ve been a musician my whole life so I understand what it’s like to “reproduce” vs produce music.
I also know you and the warrior have done several experiments with BS and towers trying to determine the feeling of size of speaker vs scale. I won’t try and dispel that but like myself, it’s anecdotal. Also, I know we’ve have differences in opinions on subs. I think that’s 100% related to our rooms construction types. In any case, to the point about “dynamics” I still find multi driver large towers to deliver extra midrange realistic impact and punch that BS speakers just can’t.
So, for now that’s all I’ve got to address your question. Back to camping. Glamping...

 

[9397SVTs]

The UMIK1 came yesterday, so now I can measure and tweak things with the miniDSP.

Let the games begin.

 

[9397SVTs]

I'm having a problem downloading Adobe Air. I keep getting the following error:

 

[9397SVTs]

Can anyone tell me what that error means and how to fix it?

 

[Pogre]

It's been a while since I installed REW. Don't remember Adobe Air tho... which os are you using?

 

[9397SVTs]

Windows Vista

It's a Sony Vaio I got 8 yrs ago.

 

[9397SVTs]

I'm dead in the water.

Well, while hooked up to the UMIK1 and AVR, the computer crashed and won't stay on no matter how long I wait and restart it.

So....looks like I'm spending more money. I'll be getting a new laptop in the next day or two. Need to research what's worth buying.

 

[mazersteven]

 

[Pogre]

Windows Vista

It's a Sony Vaio I got 8 yrs ago.

Hmm... I haven't used Vista in years. Long before I got back into audio and learned to use REW. This is gonna require some homework. Do you have anything newer?

 

[Trell]

Windows Vista

It's a Sony Vaio I got 8 yrs ago.

Microsoft Windows Vista Brings back bad suppressed memories of porting our applications to it and me convincing the management at that time to skip that OS version and stay with Windows XP as we where/are a small company. Windows 7 was a great OS, while I again propagated for skipping Windows 8, and Windows 10 turned out to be great as well (with a few bumps).

 

[9397SVTs]

So, I took the battery out for a while and it's kind of working.

I just ran 2 tests, but am unsure of the results. It is pretty flat.

This site sure has issues with files sizes. I'll try something else.

 

[9397SVTs]

I set the volume to have the speaker volume at 75db. The subs were a bit over 80db.

 

[9397SVTs]

Missed the bottom

 

[9397SVTs]

I haven't messed with the graph, so I don't know why it has the different spacing between the zHz on bottom.

 

[9397SVTs]

Hmm... I haven't used Vista in years. Long before I got back into audio and learned to use REW. This is gonna require some homework. Do you have anything newer?

Nope. This is it.

Still haven't been able to get the Adobe Air.

 

[Pogre]

You need to set the vertical scale between 90 and 45 dB. What your using now isn't a high enough resolution to show what's really going on.

 

[9397SVTs]

 

[Pogre]

View attachment 38291

There's a sweep! I usually set the horizontal scale between 10 and 200 hz for bass sweeps. There should be a couple of buttons you can click on the bottom right of the graph that switch between full range scale and 10-200 for bass sweeps.

 

[Pogre]

Now is that before or after room correction? Did you say you had Audyssey also? That is not the worst sweep I've seen. Looks like you have good extension down to 15 hz or so. Just need to flatten things out a little bit.

 

[9397SVTs]

Ok. This should do it.