barefoot
barefootsound.com
Yeah, that's right. I'm talkin' to you.
You may think you're a recording god, but you don't know shit about how loudspeakers work. So let me enlighten you.
Here are the two major problems with using two-way monitors with 8" woofers:
1. Distortion
It's impossible, at least at this point in time, to design an 8" driver which can reproduce high resolution, low distortion midrange. Due to internal cone resonances and external standing waves , 8" midbass drivers are ever increasingly cluttered with distortion as the frequency rises above 1kHz. And since most midbass drivers are still producing significant output up to about 7kHz or 8kHz, they are clouding the most critical and sensitive frequency band to the human ear.
This is true even for more exotic cone materials like carbon fiber, fiberglass and Kevlar. The common polypropylene 8" drivers have embarrassingly poor midrange performance. If you are trying to hear high resolution 24bit audio and you're using 8" monitors you're WRONG. 5" or at maximum 6" midbass drivers are what you need.
In some of my cheaper speaker designs I often use $35 polypropylene 5" midbass drivers which easily outperform the midrange accuracy of $250 graphite composite 8" midbass drivers.
2. Power Response
Once again the problem is in the critical midrange. Large diameter drivers begin to focus their acoustic energy like a flashlight at higher frequencies. The on axis Amplitude Response begins to naturally rise if the Power Response stays flat.
Amplitude Response, Power Response????
Amplitude Response is a measure of the amplitude of the signal at a given point in space. Those flat frequency response curves for your monitors are On Axis Amplitude Response measurements. Power Response is a measure of the total acoustic power emanating into the room as a function of frequency.
In order for an 8" driver to maintain a flat amplitude response beyond about 800Hz it's power output must be reduced above this frequency. 8" two-way systems, therefore, have a significant power output dip in the midrange. There's no getting around it regardless of cost. 5" drivers maintain fairly flat power response up to about 1500Hz. This is not ideal either, but it's much closer to the tweeter crossover frequency than for an 8".
"So what?" you say. "I'm mainly worried about translatability". Well, you're WRONG on this consideration as well. The large woofer two-way format (ala Advent, AR, Boston Acoustics) started loosing favor with consumers back in the early 80's. The most common home systems you see nowadays are small 4" or 5" satellites with a subwoofer. When you do see large speakers in someone's living room, they are most often either 3-way aTweeter-Mid-Woofer arrangement or a Tweeter-Small Midbass-Sub arrangement similar to the satellite systems, but put in a single box. Neither of these suffer from the same sort of midrange power dip as 8" monitors.
The car environment is too small and complicated to worry about single axis amplitude response, so car stereo designers primarily design for flat power response. Once again 8" monitors are the wrong choice for good translatability.
Advice from the Master
Uhh, yeah... I do mean ME. At least from all I read on this bbs, I proclaim that I am the undisputed loudspeaker guru.
Q: How do I get high accuracy, low distortion midrange?
A: Buy high quality monitors with dedicated midrange or small midbass drivers.
Q: How do I get good translatability to consumer audio?
A: Buy high quality monitors with dedicated midrange or small midbass drivers.
Q: How do I get deep accurate bass?
A: Buy high quality monitors with dedicated midrange or small midbass drivers and add one, preferably two, high quality, well integrated subwoofers.
Oh yeah, one more thing. Fix your damned control room acoustics, they suck!
Peace
barefoot
You may think you're a recording god, but you don't know shit about how loudspeakers work. So let me enlighten you.
Here are the two major problems with using two-way monitors with 8" woofers:
1. Distortion
It's impossible, at least at this point in time, to design an 8" driver which can reproduce high resolution, low distortion midrange. Due to internal cone resonances and external standing waves , 8" midbass drivers are ever increasingly cluttered with distortion as the frequency rises above 1kHz. And since most midbass drivers are still producing significant output up to about 7kHz or 8kHz, they are clouding the most critical and sensitive frequency band to the human ear.
This is true even for more exotic cone materials like carbon fiber, fiberglass and Kevlar. The common polypropylene 8" drivers have embarrassingly poor midrange performance. If you are trying to hear high resolution 24bit audio and you're using 8" monitors you're WRONG. 5" or at maximum 6" midbass drivers are what you need.
In some of my cheaper speaker designs I often use $35 polypropylene 5" midbass drivers which easily outperform the midrange accuracy of $250 graphite composite 8" midbass drivers.
2. Power Response
Once again the problem is in the critical midrange. Large diameter drivers begin to focus their acoustic energy like a flashlight at higher frequencies. The on axis Amplitude Response begins to naturally rise if the Power Response stays flat.
Amplitude Response, Power Response????
Amplitude Response is a measure of the amplitude of the signal at a given point in space. Those flat frequency response curves for your monitors are On Axis Amplitude Response measurements. Power Response is a measure of the total acoustic power emanating into the room as a function of frequency.
In order for an 8" driver to maintain a flat amplitude response beyond about 800Hz it's power output must be reduced above this frequency. 8" two-way systems, therefore, have a significant power output dip in the midrange. There's no getting around it regardless of cost. 5" drivers maintain fairly flat power response up to about 1500Hz. This is not ideal either, but it's much closer to the tweeter crossover frequency than for an 8".
"So what?" you say. "I'm mainly worried about translatability". Well, you're WRONG on this consideration as well. The large woofer two-way format (ala Advent, AR, Boston Acoustics) started loosing favor with consumers back in the early 80's. The most common home systems you see nowadays are small 4" or 5" satellites with a subwoofer. When you do see large speakers in someone's living room, they are most often either 3-way aTweeter-Mid-Woofer arrangement or a Tweeter-Small Midbass-Sub arrangement similar to the satellite systems, but put in a single box. Neither of these suffer from the same sort of midrange power dip as 8" monitors.
The car environment is too small and complicated to worry about single axis amplitude response, so car stereo designers primarily design for flat power response. Once again 8" monitors are the wrong choice for good translatability.
Advice from the Master
Uhh, yeah... I do mean ME. At least from all I read on this bbs, I proclaim that I am the undisputed loudspeaker guru.
Q: How do I get high accuracy, low distortion midrange?
A: Buy high quality monitors with dedicated midrange or small midbass drivers.
Q: How do I get good translatability to consumer audio?
A: Buy high quality monitors with dedicated midrange or small midbass drivers.
Q: How do I get deep accurate bass?
A: Buy high quality monitors with dedicated midrange or small midbass drivers and add one, preferably two, high quality, well integrated subwoofers.
Oh yeah, one more thing. Fix your damned control room acoustics, they suck!
Peace
barefoot
