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Friday, May 24, 2013Making It Meaningful: Practical Applications Of Loudspeaker Analysis
Ken DeLoria 05/24 11:20 AM,Over the years many have debated the relative merits of “looking at screen traces” on an analyzer versus using human hearing to determine how a loudspeaker, or an entire system, actually performs. While both practices are of course valid, it’s extremely difficult for the human ear to detect, characterize, and correct small deviations in frequency and phase response, and even harder to characterize driver distortion in a meaningful manner. Likewise, the ear is often stymied when attempting to typify transient… View this story
Filed in: AV • Feature • Blog • Study Hall • AV • Digital • Loudspeaker • Measurement • Signal • System -
Thursday, May 23, 2013Chat From The Past: System Designer Craig Janssen On Measurement, Loudspeaker Design & More
PSW Staff 05/23 06:31 PM,Enjoy this lively PSW live chat session with noted sound system designer Craig Janssen of Acoustic Dimensions. It provides an interesting look at what was happening in the world of system design a decade ago, and much of what Craig addresses is timeless, regardless of specific gear. Moderator: Greetings Craig! And welcome, everyone, to the chat. Let’s get started. Charles: What analysis packages do you use for designing and tuning systems and why? Craig: For designing we use a number… View this story
Filed in: AV • Feature • Blog • Study Hall • AV • Loudspeaker • Measurement • Sound Reinforcement • Subwoofer -
Thursday, May 16, 2013Square Waves And DC Content: Deconstructing Complex Waveforms
Charlie Hughes 05/16 05:56 PM,I’ve heard it argued by that square waves contain DC. How else could they have the flat top and bottom that make it square? Let’s look at a square wave and see what causes it to have its square shape. A complex waveform can be constructed from, or decomposed into, sine (and cosine) waves of various amplitude and phase relationships. This is the basis of Fourier analysis. A square wave consists of a fundamental sine wave (of the same frequency… View this story
Filed in: AV • Feature • Blog • Study Hall • AV • Measurement • Processor • Signal -
Tuesday, May 14, 2013The Bigger Picture On The Equalization Of Loudspeakers
Pat Brown 05/14 04:06 PM,The procedure often followed for equalizing a loudspeaker is to place the measurement microphone on-axis and adjust for the flattest frequency response. This often involves boosting some filters when the axial response over a range of frequencies is lower than the average. Those that are opposed to the use of boost filters may choose to arrive at the same resultant response by reducing (cutting) parts of the response to the lowest common denominator. This results in the same electrical curve,… View this story
Filed in: AV • Feature • Blog • Study Hall • AV • Loudspeaker • Measurement • Processor • Sound Reinforcement -
Monday, May 13, 2013The Relationship Between Amplifier Damping Factor, Impedance & Cable
Jerrold Stevens 05/13 03:21 PM,Ever have one of your friendly amplifier reps walk in your office to present their new mondo-gazillion-watt beast and point out the damping factor spec of greater than a bazillion? Why, gee-whiz! That’s like 10 times more than the other guy! It must be awesome! Right? Well, as we have seen before, it depends on how you are going to use it. Let’s start with defining damping factor and see what it means to us. Amplifier damping factor is defined… View this story
Filed in: AV • Feature • Blog • Study Hall • Amplifier • AV • Interconnect • Loudspeaker • Measurement • Signal • Subwoofer -
Wednesday, May 08, 2013Cable Anatomy Part 3: Everything You Wanted To Know About Instrument Cable
PSW Staff 05/08 05:41 PM,See Part 1, Microphone Cable here and Part 2, Loudspeaker Cable here. Are instrument cables used for high-impedance or low-impedance lines? Generally, the source impedance is the determining factor in cable selection. Instrument cables are used for a wide range of sources. Many keyboard instruments, mixers, and signal processors have very low (50 to 600 ohm) source impedances. On the other hand, typical electric guitar or bass pickups are very inductive, very high impedance (20,000 ohms and above) sources. Typical… View this story
Filed in: AV • Feature • Blog • Study Hall • AV • Interconnect • Signal -
Tuesday, May 07, 2013Tools of the Trade: How Boundaries Affect Loudspeakers
Pat Brown 05/07 05:16 PM,It’s nearly impossible to mount a loudspeaker in a room without placing it near a room boundary. Some logical questions arise: 1. Does this affect the response? 2. Is the effect good or bad? 3. Can I use the boundary to my advantage? 4. Will treatment help? And, can room boundaries be a “tool of the trade”? Space-Loading Space-loading loudspeakers means that the otherwise spherical radiation is limited by a boundary or boundaries. Some common scenarios are shown in Figure… View this story
Filed in: AV • Feature • Blog • Study Hall • AV • Line Array • Loudspeaker • Measurement • Signal • Sound Reinforcement • Subwoofer -
Thursday, May 02, 2013Keeping It Focused: A Showcase Of Recent Column Loudspeaker Applications
PSW Staff 05/02 01:14 PM,Although they’ve been around for decades, line source (“column”) loudspeakers have enjoyed increased popularity due to recent upgrades in technology. With a slim physical footprint that addresses aesthetic concerns, they’re an attractive option in many applications, particularly in highly reverberant acoustic environments, offering minimal vertical coverage above and below the enclosure and coherent sound (particularly in the vocal range). This can be achieved passively or in tandem with DSP that offers further tailoring of coverage. Let’s have a look at… View this story
Filed in: AV • Feature • Blog • Product • AV • Installation • Line Array • Loudspeaker • Processor • Sound Reinforcement -
Tuesday, April 23, 2013Understanding Crossovers, As Well As The Differences Of Passive & Active Designs
John Lenard Burnett 04/23 05:33 PM,This article is provided by Lenard Audio. Three octaves or 3.2 octaves (1 decade) is the optimum bandwidth for a loudspeaker (a topic which we’ll touch on later). The crossovers function is to decrease power at a given rate from either or both sides of a given bandwidth. The slopes rotate phase in opposite directions. In some passive crossovers this is adjusted for by reversing the polarity of adjacent loudspeakers. Electronic active crossovers can have extra compensating circuitry. Crossover… View this story
Filed in: AV • Feature • Blog • Study Hall • Analog • AV • Digital • Loudspeaker • Processor • Signal • System -
Tuesday, April 16, 2013Eliminating Potential Trouble & Getting The Noise Out Of A System
Bill Whitlock 04/16 06:01 PM,“A cable is a source of potential trouble connecting two other sources of potential trouble.” The humor in this statement may be lost on those who regularly assemble sound systems. But a reality of sound systems is that a signal accumulates noise as it flows through equipment and cables. And once noise contaminates a signal, it’s essentially impossible to remove it without altering or degrading the original signal. For this reason, no system can be quieter than its noisiest link.… View this story
Filed in: AV • Feature • Blog • Study Hall • AV • Digital • Installation • Interconnect • Power • Signal • Sound Reinforcement • System
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