I find the idea that there are hardly any “decent measurements” outside Amir, Erin, and perhaps Stereophile rather absurd.
It might be useful to distinguish between people who publish measurements today and the people and institutions that actually developed the measurement technology being used.
The Klippel NFS, whose measurements are so highly regarded at ASR and Erin’s Audio Corner, did not exactly appear out of thin air. It grew out of a decades-long tradition of electroacoustic research in Germany. Wolfgang Klippel has long been closely associated with TU Dresden, and the foundations of his loudspeaker diagnostics are the result of decades of research into linear and nonlinear loudspeaker behaviour.
And Klippel certainly did not work in isolation. Anselm Goertz was part of that same German electroacoustics community. Goertz, Dieter Leckschat and Wolfgang Klippel were already publishing work together on nonlinear loudspeaker equalisation in 1991. Goertz has published extensively for decades on subjects including loudspeaker measurement, listening tests, and the relationship between measurable parameters and perceived sound quality.
Nor has this expertise somehow disappeared. The Audio Communication Group at TU Berlin, for example, has been conducting research and educating students in electroacoustics, psychoacoustics and measurement technology for decades. Stefan Weinzierl and Anselm Goertz have, among other things, taught courses on acoustic measurement techniques for loudspeakers, covering linear and nonlinear measurement methods as well as practical measurements in an anechoic chamber.
ASR and Erin do provide something genuinely valuable: they make high-quality, standardised loudspeaker measurements accessible and comparable for a large audience. But they neither invented loudspeaker measurement technology nor are they the only competent people in the world capable of performing such measurements.
The fact that Amir, Erin and others can use a Klippel NFS today is actually a very good illustration of just how much scientific and engineering work has already been done before a reviewer can even press “Start Measurement.”
Examples and Publications
Publikationsliste Anselm Goertz Publikationen ab 2009 als PDF-Download: Tagungsbeiträge Goertz A, Leckschat D (1990) Entzerrung von Lautsprechern mit einem Signalprozessorsystem in Echtzeit. Fortschritte der Akustik, DAGA 1990 Goertz A, Leckschat D (1990) Digitale Lautsprecherentzerrung. 16...
ifaa-akustik.de
