This is a review and detailed measurements of the Airmotiv B1+ two-way bookshelf speaker. It was kindly sent in for testing by a member and costs US $229 a pair. Currently Emotiva shows it as unavailable though so don't know if it is discontinued or what.
The B1+ looks like other Emotiva products which is to say somewhat industrial and bland:
Back panel is as expected in a budget speaker:
Measurements that you are about to see were performed using the Klippel Near-field Scanner (NFS). This is a robotic measurement system that analyzes the speaker all around and is able (using advanced mathematics and dual scan) to subtract room reflections (so where I measure it doesn't matter). It also measures the speaker at close distance ("near-field") which sharply reduces the impact of room noise. Both of these factors enable testing in ordinary rooms yet results that can be more accurate than an anechoic chamber. In a nutshell, the measurements show the actual sound coming out of the speaker independent of the room.
I performed over 1000 measurement which resulted in error rate of roughly 1%.
Testing temperature was around 60 degrees F.
Reference axis for measurements was the center of the tweeter (by eye). Grill was not used in either measurements or listening tests.
Measurements are compliant with latest speaker research into what can predict the speaker preference and is standardized in CEA/CTA-2034 ANSI specifications. Likewise listening tests are performed per research that shows mono listening is much more revealing of differences between speakers than stereo or multichannel.
Emotiva Airmotiv B1+ Measurements
Acoustic measurements can be grouped in a way that can be perceptually analyzed to determine how good a speaker is and how it can be used in a room. This so called spinorama shows us just about everything we need to know about the speaker with respect to tonality and some flaws:
This is not bad! On-axis response is very good if one ignores a few bumps. Directivity is very good although flatter than one would want in a hi-fi speaker (could sound a bit bright). We can see the cause of the three bumps easily in near-field measurements:
The most obvious is the port resonance which interferes with woofer response. The high frequency one is caused by the unevenness of the tweeter.
Early window reflections are similar to on-axis due to good directivity:
Predicted in-room response is as we would expect:
Impedance dips to 4.5 ohm which is typical of these bookshelf speakers:
I was impressed with the low distortion of B1+:
Horizontal beamwidth is smooth and even as predicted from spin data:
You have a bit of freedom relative to how you align you ear to reference axis (center of the tweeter):
Emotiva Airmotiv B1+ Listening Tests
General performance and tonality here was good. As was the ability to play loud and I mean really loud. There is hardly any deep bass which helps with the small driver not bottoming out or getting overly distorted. Occasionally I would think the sound was a hair bright. And in general, a bit muddy. So I pulled out the EQ tool to knock down the resonant peaks:
Ah, now I had the clarity that I wanted to hear! Then again, could be imagination given the small corrections.
If you have this speaker, try these and report back.
Conclusions
Looks like the money was put toward good engineering with Emotiva Airmotiv B1+. A port resonance is the main thing that is missed but otherwise, this is a good design that should sound good in many spaces due to nice directivity.
Overall I am happy to put Emotiva Airmotiv B1+ on my recommended list. With equalization, its score could even bump higher that what is awarded here.
------------
As always, questions, comments, recommendations, etc. are welcome.
Any donations are much appreciated using: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/how-to-support-audio-science-review.8150/
The B1+ looks like other Emotiva products which is to say somewhat industrial and bland:
Back panel is as expected in a budget speaker:
Measurements that you are about to see were performed using the Klippel Near-field Scanner (NFS). This is a robotic measurement system that analyzes the speaker all around and is able (using advanced mathematics and dual scan) to subtract room reflections (so where I measure it doesn't matter). It also measures the speaker at close distance ("near-field") which sharply reduces the impact of room noise. Both of these factors enable testing in ordinary rooms yet results that can be more accurate than an anechoic chamber. In a nutshell, the measurements show the actual sound coming out of the speaker independent of the room.
I performed over 1000 measurement which resulted in error rate of roughly 1%.
Testing temperature was around 60 degrees F.
Reference axis for measurements was the center of the tweeter (by eye). Grill was not used in either measurements or listening tests.
Measurements are compliant with latest speaker research into what can predict the speaker preference and is standardized in CEA/CTA-2034 ANSI specifications. Likewise listening tests are performed per research that shows mono listening is much more revealing of differences between speakers than stereo or multichannel.
Emotiva Airmotiv B1+ Measurements
Acoustic measurements can be grouped in a way that can be perceptually analyzed to determine how good a speaker is and how it can be used in a room. This so called spinorama shows us just about everything we need to know about the speaker with respect to tonality and some flaws:
This is not bad! On-axis response is very good if one ignores a few bumps. Directivity is very good although flatter than one would want in a hi-fi speaker (could sound a bit bright). We can see the cause of the three bumps easily in near-field measurements:
The most obvious is the port resonance which interferes with woofer response. The high frequency one is caused by the unevenness of the tweeter.
Early window reflections are similar to on-axis due to good directivity:
Predicted in-room response is as we would expect:
Impedance dips to 4.5 ohm which is typical of these bookshelf speakers:
I was impressed with the low distortion of B1+:
Horizontal beamwidth is smooth and even as predicted from spin data:
You have a bit of freedom relative to how you align you ear to reference axis (center of the tweeter):
Emotiva Airmotiv B1+ Listening Tests
General performance and tonality here was good. As was the ability to play loud and I mean really loud. There is hardly any deep bass which helps with the small driver not bottoming out or getting overly distorted. Occasionally I would think the sound was a hair bright. And in general, a bit muddy. So I pulled out the EQ tool to knock down the resonant peaks:
Ah, now I had the clarity that I wanted to hear! Then again, could be imagination given the small corrections.
If you have this speaker, try these and report back.Conclusions
Looks like the money was put toward good engineering with Emotiva Airmotiv B1+. A port resonance is the main thing that is missed but otherwise, this is a good design that should sound good in many spaces due to nice directivity.
Overall I am happy to put Emotiva Airmotiv B1+ on my recommended list. With equalization, its score could even bump higher that what is awarded here.
------------
As always, questions, comments, recommendations, etc. are welcome.
Any donations are much appreciated using: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/how-to-support-audio-science-review.8150/
