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Philharmonic BMR Monitor Semi-Objective Review - Road Show Stop 1

Selah Audio

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This isn't a question of settings. You load the supplied calibration file and you go with what you get. I've had 4 different Omnimics. All had the problem, although it's quite manageable in my current setup. You can see the issue in the Bobulator's plots. It's a very well-known problem that probably doesn't occur all the time. You and your friend lucked out, as did I after 4 tries.

That's a very strange plot. I can't think of any reason why you would get that scooped out response between 200 and 1200 Hz. That doesn't look like a normal room response. Is there anything weird about the dimensions of your room?
Yes, I know what a calibration file is. I'm asking about the measurement method because there can be a roll-off with the curve if the correct settings aren't used.
 

Bobulator

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Dennis, nothing particularly unusual in my room, other than it's pretty large. Description of it is in my original post, just above the graph. Another note, the speaker was located about 4' from an outside wall, which has glass paned French double doors in it, could this have caused aberrations in this frequency range? As mentioned, I wasn't concerned with, and said to ignore the actual FR chart, I was only interested in the relative differences in the 2x BMR versions.
 

amper42

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Dennis, I compared the BMR's to the Sierra Towers and I liked the sound of the BMR best in a small room at 9 feet but in a larger room the BMR sounded a little boxy compared to the Sierra Towers wider tower distribution of sound.

Have you ever tried using 4 BMR's in a stacked configuration for larger rooms? Or will the new BMR towers offer that bigger sound? If you have any interesting configurations you may have tried and liked I would love to hear about them. Thanks!
 

Dennis Murphy

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Yes, I know what a calibration file is. I'm asking about the measurement method because there can be a roll-off with the curve if the correct settings aren't used.
What settings are you referring to? It's not a windowing issue, since it's easy to choose an appropriate one.
 

Dennis Murphy

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Dennis, I compared the BMR's to the Sierra Towers and I liked the sound of the BMR best in a small room at 9 feet but in a larger room the BMR sounded a little boxy compared to the Sierra Towers wider tower distribution of sound.

Have you ever tried using 4 BMR's in a stacked configuration for larger rooms? Or will the new BMR towers offer that bigger sound? If you have any interesting configurations you may have tried and liked I would love to hear about them. Thanks!
You've got me stumped. The BMR's have substantially wider sound distribution than the Sierra towers, both in the midrange and treble. Both speakers are virtually omnidirectional in the bass. Stacking BMR's won't work if you wire them in parallel, since they're 4 Ohm speakers, and in series there won't be any increase in sensitivity. About all you could count on would be destructive interference between the widely spaced drivers. My room is pretty large--40 feet X 25 feet--and they fill that space with no trouble compared with my Phil 3's. I think you might just be hearing greater midbass output from the towers. The two speakers are tuned differently in that region.
 

Shazb0t

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Dennis, I compared the BMR's to the Sierra Towers and I liked the sound of the BMR best in a small room at 9 feet but in a larger room the BMR sounded a little boxy compared to the Sierra Towers wider tower distribution of sound.

Have you ever tried using 4 BMR's in a stacked configuration for larger rooms? Or will the new BMR towers offer that bigger sound? If you have any interesting configurations you may have tried and liked I would love to hear about them. Thanks!
Maybe the difference in sensitivity is what's causing you to feel this way?
 
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Steve Dallas

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Had some time to work on dialing in Dirac correction a little more. Very carefully took a new set of measurements with much precision this time. I think I am there now and should probably just stop.

This is all with my desk in place. Now to do it again with the desk rolled against the back wall and my listening chair in position...

Stereo uncorrected vs corrected to 1.25K:
BMR Stereo Uncorrected vs Dirac to 1250Hz.png


Stereo corrected to 1.25K:
BMR Stereo Dirac to 1250Hz.png


Stereo corrected to 14K:
BMR Stereo Dirac to 14KHz.png


This result required a bit of creativity with the target curve thanks to Dirac's idiosyncracies and my terrible room:
Dirac Settings.png
 
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Dennis Murphy

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Had some time to work on dialing in Dirac correction a little more. Very carefully took a new set of measurements with much precision this time. I think I am there now and should probably just stop.

This is all with my desk in place. Now to do it again with the desk rolled against the back wall and my listening chair in position...

Stereo uncorrected vs corrected to 1.25K:
View attachment 115035

Stereo corrected to 1.25K:
View attachment 115036

Stereo corrected to 14K:
View attachment 115037

This result required a bit of creativity with the target curve:
View attachment 115043
Well, it's certainly a prettier picture with Dirac spinning away up to 14 K. The question is--if I snuck into your listening room tonight and turned off the compensation above, say, 1K, and cunningly covered my tracks, would you hear a difference when you fired the BMR's up tomorrow?
 
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Steve Dallas

Steve Dallas

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Well, it's certainly a prettier picture with Dirac spinning away up to 14 K. The question is--if I snuck into your listening room tonight and turned off the compensation above, say, 1K, and cunningly covered my tracks, would you hear a difference when you fired the BMR's up tomorrow?

False premise. My guard Husky would lick you to death, before you reached the office, and the only evidence you were ever there would be your freckles scattered about the floor.

The 1.25K preset is for all acoustic and other assorted well-produced music. The 14K preset is for edgy electric programs and overly bright / badly produced stuff. The difference is slight, but it serves a purpose.

Ninety % of my listening is done with the 1.25K preset, which is the default.

Fortunately, Dirac Live makes it a snap to switch presets:
1614371473074.png


All who would threaten my speakers beware!
20200505_204418.jpg


She loves speakers!
 
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Dennis Murphy

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False premise. My guard Husky would lick you to death, before you reached the office, and the only evidence you were ever there would be your freckles scattered about the floor.

The 1K preset is for all acoustic and other assorted well-produced music. The 14K preset is for edgy electric programs and overly bright / badly produced stuff. The difference is slight, but it serves a purpose.

Ninety % of my listening is done with the 1K preset, which is the default.

Fortunately, Dirac Live makes it a snap to switch presets:
View attachment 115051

All who would threaten my speakers beware!
View attachment 115050

She loves speakers!
You don't stand a chance.
Klippel.png
 
OP
Steve Dallas

Steve Dallas

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For a little context, here are the results of messing around with Dirac with the F206s in the media room. In comparison, the BMRs comport themselves quite well in their even worse room.

Stereo uncorrected:
F206 Stereo Uncorrected.png


Dirac correction to 600Hz (which looks almost exactly the same as correction to 1KHz):
F206 Stereo Dirac to 600Hz.png


Dirac correction to 10KHz:
F206 Stereo Dirac to 10KHz.png


Not perfect either. Dirac is weird about not wanting to be "aggressive" between 100Hz and 1KHz. Similar hacking of the target curve was done to achieve this response as well. It also really wants to pull down a low Q segment between 3 and 10K if allowed to correct that high. It seems any custom target curve is interpreted as a guideline rather than a direction.

Once again, I listen to the lower correction limit at least 90% of the time and only switch to the higher limit for certain material.

Also, Olive loves car stereo speakers too!
20200502_144329.jpg
 
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Dennis Murphy

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For a little context, here are the results of messing around with Dirac with the F206s in the media room. In comparison, the BMRs comport themselves quite well in their even worse room.

Stereo uncorrected:
View attachment 115129

Dirac correction to 600Hz (which looks almost exactly the same as correction to 1KHz):
View attachment 115130

Dirac correction to 10KHz:
View attachment 115132

Not perfect either. Dirac is weird about not wanting to be "aggressive" between 100Hz and 1KHz. Similar hacking of the target curve was done to achieve this response as well. It also really wants to pull down a low Q segment between 3 and 10K if allowed to correct that high. It seems any custom target curve is interpreted as a guideline rather than a direction.

Once again, I listen to the lower correction limit at least 90% of the time and only switch to the higher limit for certain material.

Also, Olive loves car stereo speakers too!
View attachment 115137
But can she drive a 1973 2002?


BimmerBen.png
 

swampbrain

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Dennis, I just noticed the BMR Ceramic (Woofer) kit has been added @ meniscus.
Now I'm starting to reconsider my pursuit of Revel F36 or demo/used F206's and seriously consider a BMR kit instead.

Why the price difference in the original vs the SB Woofer version. Great that it's even more affordable but does that price reduction come with any type of performance/sound penalty?
 

Dennis Murphy

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Dennis, I just noticed the BMR Ceramic (Woofer) kit has been added @ meniscus.
Now I'm starting to reconsider my pursuit of Revel F36 or demo/used F206's and seriously consider a BMR kit instead.

Why the price difference in the original vs the SB Woofer version. Great that it's even more affordable but does that price reduction come with any type of performance/sound penalty?
I'll check with Mark tomorrow. The difference in price is a smidge over $250, and the difference in the woofer cost is substantially below that. I don't think there's much difference in the crossover parts, and everything else is the same, so I dunno.
 

Ericglo

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I love the look of the new Mini Monitor. Any chance that Erin gets a pair to review?
 

Dennis Murphy

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I love the look of the new Mini Monitor. Any chance that Erin gets a pair to review?
I don't have any plans to send him a pair. They're very nice little monitors, but they're not really meant to rock out.
 
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