Topics of interest.

Mark Seaton

WBF Technical Expert (Speaker & Acoustics)
May 21, 2010
381
141
390
47
Chicago, IL
www.seatonsound.net
Hi all,

Business and life have been a bit hectic the past few months, and I haven't had time to put complete thoughts to screen here worthy of some new topics or expanding further on past ones.

Having just returned from calibrating a system using a Dolby Lake Processor controlling 2 of my SubMersive HPs, 4 of my powered Sparks as surrounds, with TAD Reference Ones for L/R and a TAD-CR1 for center, I am thinking a thread on "How to optimize a multi-channel speaker system" makes a lot of sense. I'm going to start with the process, goals and concepts so all can read it clearly, and then we can go on and on regarding the different methods and tools to get there.

My own product designs were very much born from my experiences while optimizing so many varied systems and attacking some of the most commonly encountered limitations which I didn't feel were well served. I'd like to get a few other discussions gestating, and I much prefer interaction with all of you rather than one way publishing, as the clarification and Q/A process tends to create better explanations and more clarity to all, not to mention being much more interesting to read than me just rambling on for pages.

What other topics and what questions are of interest to the membership here? I'm open to all suggestions and will pick those I feel I can contribute to. I do see many debates on the forum that relate to blanket descriptions of design types and how they integrate with others. These could make for some fun discussions as well, where it could be very useful to examine some popular assertions and break down some of the root causes rather than the assumption that say "large woofers are sloppy." ;)

Thoughts?
 

Nyal Mellor

Industry Expert
Jul 14, 2010
590
4
330
SF Bay Area, CA, USA
Off the top of my head:

- How do you correctly time align subwoofers with mains? It is not just a case of measuring distances now is it; how do subwoofer crossovers, type factor into this? What measurements do you need to take and how do you know when you've got it right?
- Do you need to time align subwoofers and if yes what kind of improvements do you get subjectively? There is definitely some debate about this, Earl Geddes being on one side, and the guys time aligning each sub on the other side, with people using subwoofer time delay to even out bass response (Harman) being somewhere in the middle.
- What is group delay and what subjective effect do subs with different group delay have? Sealed box vs ported vs ?
- Cardiod vs monopole vs dipole subs. How they interact with room acoustics and the pros and cons of each.
 

RBFC

WBF Founding Member
Apr 20, 2010
5,158
46
1,225
Albuquerque, NM
www.fightingconcepts.com
Off the top of my head:

- How do you correctly time align subwoofers with mains? It is not just a case of measuring distances now is it; how do subwoofer crossovers, type factor into this? What measurements do you need to take and how do you know when you've got it right?
- Do you need to time align subwoofers and if yes what kind of improvements do you get subjectively? There is definitely some debate about this, Earl Geddes being on one side, and the guys time aligning each sub on the other side, with people using subwoofer time delay to even out bass response (Harman) being somewhere in the middle.
- What is group delay and what subjective effect do subs with different group delay have? Sealed box vs ported vs ?
- Cardiod vs monopole vs dipole subs. How they interact with room acoustics and the pros and cons of each.

Discussion of these topics will be very interesting indeed!

Lee
 

FrantzM

Member Sponsor & WBF Founding Member
Apr 20, 2010
6,455
29
405
Off the top of my head:

- How do you correctly time align subwoofers with mains? It is not just a case of measuring distances now is it; how do subwoofer crossovers, type factor into this? What measurements do you need to take and how do you know when you've got it right?
- Do you need to time align subwoofers and if yes what kind of improvements do you get subjectively? There is definitely some debate about this, Earl Geddes being on one side, and the guys time aligning each sub on the other side, with people using subwoofer time delay to even out bass response (Harman) being somewhere in the middle.
- What is group delay and what subjective effect do subs with different group delay have? Sealed box vs ported vs ?
- Cardiod vs monopole vs dipole subs. How they interact with room acoustics and the pros and cons of each.

Indeed
 

Mark Seaton

WBF Technical Expert (Speaker & Acoustics)
May 21, 2010
381
141
390
47
Chicago, IL
www.seatonsound.net
Off the top of my head:

- How do you correctly time align subwoofers with mains? It is not just a case of measuring distances now is it; how do subwoofer crossovers, type factor into this? What measurements do you need to take and how do you know when you've got it right?
- Do you need to time align subwoofers and if yes what kind of improvements do you get subjectively? There is definitely some debate about this, Earl Geddes being on one side, and the guys time aligning each sub on the other side, with people using subwoofer time delay to even out bass response (Harman) being somewhere in the middle.
- What is group delay and what subjective effect do subs with different group delay have? Sealed box vs ported vs ?
- Cardiod vs monopole vs dipole subs. How they interact with room acoustics and the pros and cons of each.

Thank you for the input Nyal,

I think these are some good points of interest that I'll flesh out, probably separately and following posting the basic concepts I recommend following in optimizing/calibrating a system. One of the biggest problems I see with many such discussions is a lack of perspective or context to the whole system. As is taught with vigor in Syn-Aud-Con training and workshops, the only answer that is always correct in audio is "It depends..." ;)

I also think as a larger topic related to your group delay question would be "Why do subwoofers sound different?"
 

treitz3

Super Moderator
Staff member
Dec 25, 2011
5,459
961
1,290
The tube lair in beautiful Rock Hill, SC
*clears throat* ;)

Tom
 

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