Speaker building contest form

Mike Lavigne

Member Sponsor & WBF Founding Member
Apr 25, 2010
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11,367
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yesterday I was again a judge in our local audio club speaker building contest.

the Pacific Northwest Audio Club (Seattle area + Western Washington) combined with the local DIY club conduct a speaker building contest every other year. I've been a judge in 10 or 11 of these contests since 1998 or 1999 (can't recall the first year exactly). typically some people from Vancouver B.C. also participate. yesterday there were 9 entries; the three judges share a demo disc and we switch seating positions and run thru various tracks and then fill out a judging sheet (see below). in years past people have asked for a copy of the sheet we use, so this year I made sure to grab one, as it is a helpful check list of things to consider.

the speakers all use the same amplifier, and are fed by an Oppo disc player the club owns. there is an acoustically transparent drapery across the room, so the judges do not see which speaker is which. first thing the club Genesis 7 speakers are used as a control to get our ears oriented to the room sound; then the contestant speakers are set up one by one. the hardest part for me is trying to get a proper scoring context for the first few candidates as it's a numerical score (1-10) and once scored you cannot go back and change the relative score. as a judge I might start in the middle when maybe I should have scored it higher or lower as I hear more speakers relatively. and, of course, the better speakers mostly sound similar......as they should.

yesterday we started at about 9:45am and finished about 1:30pm. so a fairly intense 3-4 hours of focused 'blind' listening.

SBC Form.jpg
 

Mike Lavigne

Member Sponsor & WBF Founding Member
Apr 25, 2010
12,471
11,367
4,410
so who won and can you share a photo of the designed speaker

no idea, and only saw the speakers as I walked to and from the rest room. the judges were segregated from the area where the speakers were staged. I had to leave to get to work once we completed judging the last speaker. we never even knew which number speaker we were judging, the moderator would write the speaker # on our judging sheet we had handed to him after we left the room after we completed each session.

i'm sure there will be a report posted on the Pacific Northwest Audio Club website.
 

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