AsciLab F6B Bookshelf Speaker Review

[Bleib]

I have a pair of F6B in an 11x12 carpeted home office. Said speakers are located 1' from the wall (windows) and 2' from the corners. According to AsciLab they should be 1'-2' from the back wall. The link below about an SBIR post seems to contradict AsciLabs recommendation.

I really respect the wealth of knowledge here on ASR and would appreciate some advice/input. But please use layman's terms as I'm just a dumb IT guy that loves stereo gear. : >

Speaker Boundary Interference Response (SBIR)

Speaker Boundary Interference Response (SBIR) is one of the most important—and misunderstood—factors in room acoustics. For anyone setting up a home theater, listening room, or recording studio, knowing how speaker placement affects frequency response is critical to getting a clean, detailed...

www.gikacoustics.com

I've had speakers which are meant to be about 2 inches from the front wall, it all depends on the construction

 

[totti1965]

Here is my take on the EQ.
Please report your findings, positive or negative!

For the score rational your journey starts here
Explanation for the sub score

The following EQs are “anechoic” EQs to get the speaker right before room integration.
If you able to implement these EQs you must add EQ at LF for room integration, that is usually not optional… see hints there.

The raw data with corrected ER and PIR:

Score no EQ: 6.5
With Sub: 8.5

Spinorama with no EQ:

• Great effort and engineering.
• Slight bump in the 700Hz region
• Tuned a bit dark?
• Great directivity
• Easy to EQ
• Great all around especially at this price.
• Competes with active designs
• Probably does not need EQing

View attachment 455794

Directivity:
Commendably benign, easy to find a good spot

Better stay at tweeter height but a bit above or under is still ok.
Horizontally, better toe-in the speakers by 10/15deg and have the axis crossing in front of the listening location, might help dosing the upper range.
View attachment 455780
View attachment 455790
EQ design:
I have generated two EQs. The APO config files are attached.

• The first one, labelled, LW is targeted at making the LW flat
• The second, labelled Score, starts with the first one and adds the score as an optimization variable.
• The EQs are designed in the context of regular stereo use i.e. domestic environment, no warranty is provided for a near field use in a studio environment although the LW might be better suited for this purpose.
• Very little difference between the EQs.

Score EQ LW: 6.3
with sub: 8.3

Score EQ Score: 6.8
with sub: 8.7

AscLab F6B APO EQ LW 96000Hz
June062025-124902

Preamp: -3.00 dB

Filter 1: ON HPQ Fc 48.6 Hz Gain 0.00 dB Q 1.67
Filter 2: ON PK Fc 81.7 Hz Gain -3.74 dB Q 1.06
Filter 3: ON PK Fc 258.9 Hz Gain 0.54 dB Q 3.63
Filter 4: ON PK Fc 694.2 Hz Gain -1.60 dB Q 5.99
Filter 5: ON PK Fc 4637.9 Hz Gain -1.18 dB Q 1.22
Filter 6: ON PK Fc 11445.2 Hz Gain 2.94 dB Q 0.17

AscLab F6B APO EQ Score 96000Hz
June062025-124902

Preamp: -3.00 dB

Filter 1: ON HPQ Fc 48.6 Hz Gain 0.00 dB Q 1.77
Filter 2: ON PK Fc 81.7 Hz Gain -3.74 dB Q 0.81
Filter 3: ON PK Fc 249.0 Hz Gain 0.66 dB Q 3.21
Filter 4: ON PK Fc 696.2 Hz Gain -1.74 dB Q 5.99
Filter 5: ON PK Fc 4618.9 Hz Gain -0.89 dB Q 0.94
Filter 6: ON PK Fc 8537.9 Hz Gain 1.83 dB Q 0.15

View attachment 455800

Spinorama EQ LW
View attachment 455795

Spinorama EQ Score
View attachment 455796

Zoom PIR-LW-ON
View attachment 455799

Regression - Tonal
View attachment 455798

Radar no EQ vs EQ score
No improvements?
View attachment 455797

The rest of the plots is attached.

I am Sure I asked that some months before, but I just forget: please translate for me LW and PIR in normal words.
Also ER and LF (estimated Response and Low Frequency???)

And at Erins Site ERDI and PS (I am just guessing: "Estimated Room something" and PS is just "Predicted Score")?

Thank you!

 

[EJ3]

I am Sure I asked that some months before, but I just forget: please translate for me LW and PIR in normal words.
Also ER and LF (estimated Response and Low Frequency???)

And at Erins Site ERDI and PS (I am just guessing: "Estimated Room something" and PS is just "Predicted Score")?

Thank you!

German speaking, US concieved, Salzburg born, back in the USA at 2 months old, American English native language (mother's native language: Salzburger German, 2nd language London University English): and I have no clue what those abbreviations refer to.
So I am also lost on those, too! Until these speakers, I wasn't that worried about it. But now, it interests me.

 

[amirm]

LW is listening window. It is an average of a few degrees close to on axis to account some variation around where you might listen.

PIR I predicted in-room response. It uses a special average of the strongest reflections and stitches in the bass response. It assumes a perfect room in having no room modes. As a result bass response is not going to match your room. High frequency tends to be close.

 

[totti1965]

LW is listening window. It is an average of a few degrees close to on axis to account some variation around where you might listen.

PIR I predicted in-room response. It uses a special average of the strongest reflections and stitches in the bass response. It assumes a perfect room in having no room modes. As a result bass response is not going to match your room. High frequency tends to be close.

...... and what was always a mystery to me: EPDR



taken from Erin´s homepage (https://www.erinsaudiocorner.com/loudspeakers/audio_first_cadentia3/:

 

[RexrothPigeon]

...... and what was always a mystery to me: EPDR

ai is good for this. I searched "what is epdr in erin's audio reviews?" on google and out came the answer:

EPDR stands for Equivalent Peak Dissipation Resistance. In Erin's Audio Corner reviews, it is a measurement used to determine how difficult a speaker is to drive by calculating the resistive load that would cause the same peak power dissipation in an amplifier as the actual speaker load.

 

[Chiflágoras]

Apologies if this is a dumb question, but I have been comparing the measurements of both the F6B and the C6B on spinorama and they look really similar. What would be the main advantage of the C6B?

 

[EJ3]

ai is good for this. I searched "what is epdr in erin's audio reviews?" on google and out came the answer:

Some of us don't have a fully stable internet or cell phone connection, available to us, much less AI, where we live.
Thank you for pulling that up and presenting it.
There are other advantages though: not many visitors to host, not much traffic (and what there is of it is not land based):

We added a roof to the deck, the below picture is before that addition.

Naturally, we have pizza places out here, too (with delivery for larger parties [No WiFi, though]):

 

[staticV3]

What would be the main advantage of the C6B?

Different aesthetics, honestly.

AsciLab C6B Review

AsciLab C6B Review

www.erinsaudiocorner.com

AsciLab F6B Speaker Review

AsciLab F6B Speaker Review

www.erinsaudiocorner.com

The F6B is easier to drive and has lower bass distortion.

The C6B has lower THD around 500Hz and lower MD around 1kHz.

 

[RexrothPigeon]

Some of us don't have a fully stable internet or cell phone connection, available to us, much less AI, where we live.

Where do you live that allows you to access ASR but not Google? (Serious question—my mind is fully blown)

 

[EJ3]

Where do you live that allows you to access ASR but not Google? (Serious question—my mind is fully blown)

At home, I am the last place on the power grid, there is no power grid beyond me. And I get 2 15 amp breakers of service.
As you might by now suspect: I don't access it from where I live. When I do connect, I do not use google. I prefer Startpage, due to much better security.
I access it from elsewhere. (about 9 miles away).
I do get 36 channels of over the air HDTV signals, though. Kinda' weird. I guess that we are in-between where they are sending those signals to.
It's 40 miles to town. And, no, I don't want to live in town. But I can get a good Wi-Fi signal at a place 9 miles from here.
I like the population density here.
Now the government is complaining that alligators poop is causing the river to have bacteria that they thought was from leaking septic tanks.
They're mad because they were trying to blame humans. They can't fine alligators. And there is only one month a year that hunting they can hunt them.
So they can't solve their pollution problem that way.

Maybe some of the other polluter's are these critter's:

 

[totti1965]

Apologies if this is a dumb question, but I have been comparing the measurements of both the F6B and the C6B on spinorama and they look really similar. What would be the main advantage of the C6B?

I also can´t see the point why fiber as a material for speaker membranes should be so much worse compared to Ceramic that it is worth a 30% increase in selling price if you want to go for Ceramic (here in Europe EUR 1.000,-- for the F6B vs EUR 1.300,-- for the C6B!).
Every membrane material has its pros and cons.

AFAIK: The A6B with its purifi speaker chassis has much much lower distortions because of the big differences in CONSTRUCTION (not so much because of differences in material).

 

[Coltr@ne]

I honestly struggle to understand. Is the cabinet the same? Are the speakers the same? Are the crossover components the same? They don't matter, just look at the ceramic. Getting the cheapest one is the best deal. Well

 

[totti1965]

I honestly struggle to understand. Is the cabinet the same? Are the speakers the same? Are the crossover components the same? They don't matter, just look at the ceramic. Getting the cheapest one is the best deal. Well

AFAIK, the tweeter of the C6B is also slightly different compared to the tweeter of the F6B.
C6B Aluminum-Ceramic. F6B Aluminum.
But I can’t see much differences in performance. Neither distortions, nor max. out level without much compression:
Both can handle 96 dB with under 0.5% distortion and both can even handle 102 dB with under 2% distortion…..
Also same distortions in other frequency ranges……

I also hope, the crossover of the F6B has the same excellent coils and capacitors as the C6B crossover.

Are there pictures of the crossovers for comparison?

 

[MarkS]

C6B has somewhat smoother on-axis response in the crucial 200-1000 Hz range: