Affordable Accuracy Monitor Review

[Severian]

So I take it you've heard this beast? The major red flag (and red woofer) I see is the horn tweeter. There was a lot of buzz about a BIC center channel for use with my speakers, and when I checked it out it was a real screamer. Typical horn sound, and that often can't be fixed with a better crossover. I agree it would be an interesting mod since so many high-sensitivity designs in that price range are highly colored. I very much like the sound of giant woofers, so it might be an attractive choice for a mod if the tweeter could be tamed.

Yeah, I own a pair and use them in my living room. I think they sound bright out of the box, but if you use EQ to adjust the tonal balance slightly by either rolling off the treble or boosting the bass they are shockingly good. I choose the latter approach, since I am using them full-range in a 5.0 home theater setup where they (very convincingly) take the place of subwoofers. The tweeter is far from the last word in detail, but it sounds reasonably smooth to me once the tonal balance is adjusted to warm them up. An L-pad could be all it really needs.

I think there is some magic in having a single 15 inch woofer that produces solid sub-bass playing all the way up to 300Hz (or wherever these cross to the midrange - I have no idea). Bass guitar in particular sounds exceptional.

 

[Dennis Murphy]

PIR stands for "Predicted In-room Response", sometimes also called "estimated in-room response", as calculated by CEA-2034 standard and showed by Amir with his Klippel measurements.

I made a fitler myself but I can't test it as I don't have that speakers.

Room/speaker EQ can linearize LW and PIR. With speakers with smooth directivity it can linearize both. These Pioneers have quite decent directivity hence prediceted response of both curves looks nice. EQ can't help with bass drivers that can't produce sufficient SPL nor ith can help with distortions, for that you need better drivers. EQ also can't help with directivity issues caused by crossover, but this speaker looks quite decent in that respect. My guess is that with these Pioneers the EQ filter I posted would improve sound very noticeably.

But I'll bet my Chihuahua that it won't sound as good as it would with a tweeter transplant, a crossover tweak, and no EQ. Still, if you have the speakers and EQ capability already, I'm sure an appropriate EQ would help.

 

[mt196]

The AA+ speaker is on my archived pages showing previously available models in case anyone sees a used one for sale and wants to know more details. I designed it and very much wish I could still make it available, albeit with a nicer cabinet that befits the price of the tweeter. As for finding a substitute woofer for the proprietary woofer in the original AA mini monitor, there's almost always some kind of Gotcha when searching in for drop-in substitutes. The 4" Reference woof you list is 4 ohms, and even if its frequency response was identical to the Pioneer woof, the lower impedance would require a crossover redesign, and it might not be possible to keep the system impedance high enough. There is an 8 ohm version, but its sensitivity is below 85 dB, which means the resulting system sensitivity after building in baffle step compensation would be 82 dB at the highest, and also would need a crossover redo. I'm not sure either of them would fit the cabinet routing's thru-hole. The last woofer you cite is 16 ohms, which would require huge inductor values to implement, and I doubt that it's as good as the Pioneer original. Finally, there's no reason to think the port tuning AJ used would work on any of these woofers.

Ok so maybe it will be a safer bet to go with the mod you did with the Dayton Kit, using the Dayton 6-1/2" woofer. Can the Dayton DC28F-8 tweeter be used without major problems in place of the Morel you used? It will be much cheaper to get here in EU...

Second and hopefully for you last question : the new AAM Plus uses a crossover 12 element 4th Order Acoustic Linkwitz-Riley, 1900 Hz Crossover Frequency ; what crossover uses instead the original AAM? I don't want to do the calculation from your electrical scheme ahahah

 

[mt196]

Im really sorry, I’ve never checked the EU prices. In the US, you can find these for very cheap on Craigslist or eBay. I saw a local pair for $60 and he probably would have taken less. I’ve even heard from people who paid as low as $25 for a used pair at goodwill. I think I paid $50 on amazon during a sale.

If you can’t find a pair cheap, you might be better off pairing those tweeters with a better woofer anyway. I’ve seen some commercial DIY designs using it but you will have to do some digging. Good luck!

Yeah I saw something used in US, but 140$ shipping...

 

[Dennis Murphy]

Yeah, I own a pair and use them in my living room. I think they sound bright out of the box, but if you use EQ to adjust the tonal balance slightly by either rolling off the treble or boosting the bass they are shockingly good. I choose the latter approach, since I am using them full-range in a 5.0 home theater setup where they (very convincingly) take the place of subwoofers. The tweeter is far from the last word in detail, but it sounds reasonably smooth to me once the tonal balance is adjusted to warm them up. An L-pad could be all it really needs.

I think there is some magic in having a single 15 inch woofer that produces solid sub-bass playing all the way up to 300Hz (or wherever these cross to the midrange - I have no idea). Bass guitar in particular sounds exceptional.

Interesting. I've had the same experience with big woofers that play on up into the power range. Guitars were terrific even if I didn't like the overall speaker sound higher up. I'm a little confused about the pricing. Sometimes it looks like a vendor is quoting a single-speaker price, and other times a price per pair. Where did you buy yours from?

 

[Dennis Murphy]

Ok so maybe it will be a safer bet to go with the mod you did with the Dayton Kit, using the Dayton 6-1/2" woofer. Can the Dayton DC28F-8 tweeter be used without major problems in place of the Morel you used? It will be much cheaper to get here in EU...

Second and hopefully for you last question : the new AAM Plus uses a crossover 12 element 4th Order Acoustic Linkwitz-Riley, 1900 Hz Crossover Frequency ; what crossover uses instead the original AAM? I don't want to do the calculation from your electrical scheme ahahah

I'm getting cornfused again. Maybe I'm not clear on what you're trying to do. The regular version of my mod of the PE BR-1 kit uses the very tweeter you're citing. So if you wanted to replicate that speaker, you would just use the crossover I used for the Dayton Silky tweeter. The crossover I designed for the Morel tweeter wouldn't work. In any event, neither design is in the public domain, so I would have to send you the schematics.

 

[Severian]

Interesting. I've had the same experience with big woofers that play on up into the power range. Guitars were terrific even if I didn't like the overall speaker sound higher up. I'm a little confused about the pricing. Sometimes it looks like a vendor is quoting a single-speaker price, and other times a price per pair. Where did you buy yours from?

Most places seem to list them individually for some reason. I bought mine from the Home Depot website for I think about $440 for the pair. Funny place to order speakers, but that way I could take them back to the store if I hated them...

 

[mt196]

I'm getting cornfused again. Maybe I'm not clear on what you're trying to do. The regular version of my mod of the PE BR-1 kit uses the very tweeter you're citing. So if you wanted to replicate that speaker, you would just use the crossover I used for the Dayton Silky tweeter. The crossover I designed for the Morel tweeter wouldn't work. In any event, neither design is in the public domain, so I would have to send you the schematics.

I was asking because I see that in the philarmonicaudio website the tweeter used is the Morel and not the Dayton one. Anyway if you can share privately the two crossover designs the one for the Morel and the one for the Dayton I will choose on what DIY project to do

What made you switch to the Morel tweeter by the way? Better quality control?

 

[tjf]

Hey Dennis, great to see ya back and posting! I'm a fan of your old "Murphy Blaster" site and loved the "Plop-in-the-Box" design with the GR Research woofer and BG planar tweet!
Am wondering if you'd consider offering the DIY crowd (for a $$ cost -- you'd be selling your IP after all, so some coin for this should be thrown your way) the x-over designs + DIY instructions for some of your more recent designs (AA+, etc.) as there seems to be a resurgence in DIY speakers on this site thanks to Amir's Klippel work and donated speakers to test!

 

[Dennis Murphy]

I was asking because I see that in the philarmonicaudio website the tweeter used is the Morel and not the Dayton one. Anyway if you can share privately the two crossover designs the one for the Morel and the one for the Dayton I will choose on what DIY project to do

What made you switch to the Morel tweeter by the way? Better quality control?

I'm not sure why I only posted the AA+ on my site. I should have put the regular AA up there too. They were just different versions of the same speaker. The + version was an upgrade and I charged more (but not enough more) for the Morel version. I can send you the schematics for both of them if you'll send an email to my info@philharmonicaudio address.

 

[Dennis Murphy]

Hey Dennis, great to see ya back and posting! I'm a fan of your old "Murphy Blaster" site and loved the "Plop-in-the-Box" design with the GR Research woofer and BG planar tweet!
Am wondering if you'd consider offering the DIY crowd (for a $$ cost -- you'd be selling your IP after all, so some coin for this should be thrown your way) the x-over designs + DIY instructions for some of your more recent designs (AA+, etc.) as there seems to be a resurgence in DIY speakers on this site thanks to Amir's Klippel work and donated speakers to test!

Good to hear from you, and I'm glad you liked the old Plop in the Box. Talk about a blast from the past. My MurphyBlaster site is still up, and I am planning on at least schematics for the newer designs (except the BMR). Time. Just need time.

 

[tjf]

ok that's great, I'd love to get the x-over schematic for the Pioneer 22 center mod, and would pay for it too! Make sure you setup a Patreon link/site for donations for schematics, instructions, DIY speaker builder support group 12 step program overhead costs, etc.--- at the very least....

 

[KEW]

That's the theory, but it really isn't borne out in practice - at least not with the SB drivers. The SB26CAC doesn't actually change the breakup frequency much if at all - it's still right around 27kHz. What it seems to do is push that energy off-axis presumably via different phase shield design (at least according to the datasheet. If you look at 'augerpro's waveguide measurements, the ADC and CDC are almost identical since the phase shield is removed). Similarly, the specific details of the peaks/dips in the SB15CAC vs SB15NBAC do change very slighly, but don't really move in frequency (the main innovation in those drivers is the ribs which help moderate the break-up compared to conventional flat cones.

Now, a different dome material like in the corundum dome DA25Tx does manage to push the break-up higher. About 35-37kHz in that case, and the big selling point of Beryllium is that it not only pushes it higher but also damps it somewhat. You pay for that, though.

Thanks for the response and you have a point!
The "best" speakers I have heard with audible break-up were the Paradigm Studio 20 and the Energy RC-10. Both have aluminum tweeters. I was not too bothered by either until I heard Paradigm's Be tweeter and realized that the cymbal crash sounded more like bacon frying than like the clear sound of the Be tweeter.
Since then, I have listened to aluminum tweeters as executed by the SVS Ultra and the KEF LS50 and I really can't say I heard audible breakup on either. At 61, I am reluctant to make declarations about high frequencies because I'm sure I don't hear much over 15kHz!

So you are probably right -
It is reasonable that methods to resolve aluminum breakup have been refined and the real benefit of the ceramic coating is as an inexpensive way for manufactures to dodge being categorized as having "those aluminum tweeters that are fatiguing due to breakup modes"!

 

[thefsb]

Regular readers of ASR know that per research, I listen to speaker in mono, placed to the left. Mono listening let's one judge the tonality of the speaker and its distortions much easier (a lot less perceptual masking). The performance of Affordable Accuracy Monitor in a word of superb! I could not believe how well it played through track after track in my reference list. Anyone who thinks mono listening can't sound good, should try listening to a well designed speaker. Alternatively, I suggest turning off one of the channels in your system and see how much you like the sound!

I wish I had a mono switch but I thought I was alone. I'm so glad you said that.

But wouldn't it usually be better to sum the two channels than turn one off?

When I am in position to hear the stereo pair properly, I often find the stereo mix distracts from listening to the music. I suppose a stereophile is someone who loves to listen to stereo equipment and recordings. I think it's useful for TV and movies. But for music it's usually an artificial effect added in mixdown. It's just annoying when the drummer is over here and the guitar over there. Or even worse, the drum kit is spread out. Galileo Galileo. pifft. Purist stereo recordings of acoustic events are about the only justification I can think of but the results will always be wrong and I'd rather not have to concentrate on ignoring it while trying to enjoy music.

 

[Sonny1]

Yeah I saw something used in US, but 140$ shipping...

These are a good modding platform for the money they sell for in the US but that price puts it in a whole different category. I didn’t realize you were in the EU. Good luck.

 

[GelbeMusik]

As for smaller speakers naturally scoring high, I'm not sure that I understand given my very limited knowledge.

The "best" speakers I have heard with audible break-up ... resolve aluminum breakup ..."those aluminum tweeters that are fatiguing due to breakup modes"!

Most often aluminium of predictable, consistent shape provides the possibility to widen the dispersion e/g by a phase plate. In comparison that might appear as piercing sharpness, depending on the room. Remove the phase plate and it would be duller than a silk dome, despite the then even more pronounced resonance beyond human hearing capabilities.

What might be seen as critical is the resonance with midrange Al drivers. If too low in frequency it copies into the working band, energized by regular harmonic distortion e/g from the motor--not to be filtered out. The sound then has a single sharp tone added all the time somewhere around 4k to 10k, a swelling and decaying beeep. Very very bad in any possible respect. With some music it wouldn't even be masked by other content. No harmonic distortion should ever reach up high there. That is very hard to achieve, and at least quite costly due to a most pedantic motor design with additional compromises to begin with.

Early implementations didn't care, resulting in the bad reputation. Today still some woofers add upon that.

Since SB's 4 inch CAC driver shows a resonance not too high, as compared to the 6 inch of same brand, one might ask if the first could actually serve, say up to 2 kilo Hertz. Especially if it shall be driven hard, that poor little rascal. (It wouldn't show in the spinorama, and neither in common THD tests, though.)

 

[Matthew J Poes]

Oh go ahead. But don't confuse me with facts.

hah it’s fine. You and I have had this conversation. I shared my data. You suggested my listening levels (testing levels) were less than gentelmenly. We agree to disagree. I become your Arch-nemesis.

speaking of which, apparently we will possibly Be listening to and measuring some sort of new speaker with extreme vertical directivity control. I told James it’s all wrong. Crazy idea. Should have just used waveguides. The evil will continue im afraid.

I think you know I quite like and respect expanding arrays and “nested” MTM’s so of course I don’t really think it’s all wrong. I do think prettier spin graphs can be achieved, but I will keep my evil thoughts to myself.

 

[Matthew J Poes]

Why bother with all that when you can easilly EQ it the way it is to get this response (LW in blue, PIR in green):

View attachment 65797

while this is a great value speaker, Eqing it flat is risky business in the 1-3k range. The tweeter is stressed as it is and as such Has a pretty big rise in distortion. Amir shows it at modest levels. If you are a barbarian like me, listening at even louder levels simply makes it that much worse. Much like my problems with this Pioneer speaker, the infinity has a minor problem with distortion. I would make the same decisions they did if I were designing such a speaker so I get it.

the advantage of upgrading the speaker would be that you could potentially reduce or even fix the problem. It’s possible that a slightly steeper slope on the tweeter would reduce this issue. More likely a new tweeter is needed (which would not be so simple to do).

the bigger point is that you can’t use eq to fix acoustic and non-linear problems. Many speakers suffer from amplitude response problems that eq can address, but most cheaper speakers suffer from even worse acoustic and non-linear problems.

 

[QMuse]

while this is a great value speaker, Eqing it flat is risky business in the 1-3k range. The tweeter is stressed as it is and as such Has a pretty big rise in distortion. Amir shows it at modest levels. If you are a barbarian like me, listening at even louder levels simply makes it that much worse.

Look at the filter - in the 1-3k range the filter I created doesn't stress the tweeter, it actualy brings releif to it.

 

[GelbeMusik]

Look at the filter - in the 1-3k range the filter I created doesn't stress the tweeter, it actualy brings releif to it.

What is the use of using the spinorama data, once a microphone etc is at hand at home? Of course the EQ could be applied virtually, the calculations for some rating can be redone with EQ in charge. But, as far as I see, the alterations don't exceed 3dB anywhere, which is quite within a tolerance band that was once defined related to human hearing. Ja, the upper mids are a bit hot. But, how does it look like, if the reference axis changes, e/g by exaggerated toe-in?

The addressed potential customers of this little cheapy are expected to care a bit less about straight right correct sound, than we do. So they wouldn't listen fastened hemselves into the infamous critical listening ( ) stereo triangle.

This kind of broad deviation is *not* addressed by the Olive rating specifically, as far as I can derive from the formula. In that the Olive rating--please check yourselves--falls behind the standards for German monitor speakers. The latter doesn't allow for broad-band deviations. +/-3dB or so are only acceptable if it is a narrow band deviation, some wiggle. The spec gives only a hint on it, instead of defining it mathematically, though.

What You do? Throw these little marvels into Your listening room. See what Your individual not-predicted-but really-measured in-room power response looks like, EQ it to Your liking ( "preference" it was, right? ). Please report! (You might want to explore the effect of a thick curtain, or carpet too.)

Tweeter stress? Changed tweeter, changed damping, changed XO, somebody wants the "woofer" being changed? I personally do not like the visual design.