I wonder what would happen to these resonances with (subs and) a typical high pass at 80Hz.
Has it been measured?
Same for distortion measurements.
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Emotiva Airmotiv B1+ Review (Bookshelf Speaker)
- Thread starter amirm
- Start date
Has it been measured?
Same for distortion measurements.
EQ Corrections of 2-3 dB are quite audible and often quite beneficial, actually that's the perfect use for EQ, that's when You are trying to solve stuff with 6-7-8 dB or more EQing that it gets difficult, it shows more problems with your room or your speakers that maybe should be adressed first, the phase shift becomes audible, things start to sound less natural. 3dB is a good ballpark for EQing
Preference Rating
SCORE: 4.7
SCORE w/ sub: 7.1
Sensitivity: 85.8dB (300Hz-3kHz ; spec: 86dB)
Frequency response: +/-6.7dB 48Hz-20kHz ; +/-2.6dB 80Hz-20kHz
SCORE: 4.7
SCORE w/ sub: 7.1
Sensitivity: 85.8dB (300Hz-3kHz ; spec: 86dB)
Frequency response: +/-6.7dB 48Hz-20kHz ; +/-2.6dB 80Hz-20kHz
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Standard is taking impedance at or above tuning, multiply by 1.25 (divide by .8), round up to 4/6/8. So, at 4.7ohm, that multiplies to 5.75, making this a 6ohm rated speaker.
The issue with this standard is that it could be 4ohm throughout the entire band (say an electrostatic/planar), but that would still mean it would be rated as 6ohm.
The spec is industry standard 2.83V, not 1w. I calculate 85.7dB from 300Hz-3000Hz, so only 0.3dB down. Heck, if they use 1kHz like KEF does, then it would be 88dB (though for linearity this isn’t great).
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Thanks Amir. Considering the price, I am impressed. They definitely need a sub to shine. Agree they would be great in a budget HT.
For those considering home theater use, the Emotiva has a matching 3-way center ($225), the JBL only has a 2-way.
Can someone explain to me why many speakers have this transition in dispersion from ~800Hz to 1500Hz? Though this Emotiva is more harsh than usual.
Like here are the recent Kanto YU:
Triangle Borea:
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Lorenzo74
Senior Member
Good insight!
Maybe cabinet edge diffractions? From 800Hz the baffle should control directivity. Can you add Adam T5 or T7 since they have variable baffle width? It seems their directivity index is fairly smooth.
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T5V:
T8V:
The 8V was before I standardized on the scaling, so this was a quick change from the wide ones I used to post.
Hmm, it could also partially be rear port noise, as Erin pointed out in the Kanto YU review:
ou can clearly see the port resonance in the globe plot (circled in black, below):
Wonder how the towers perform.
The T0+ is $400/pair and adds another woofer. Sensitivity is rated 1dB higher. Port is much larger so hopefully it isn’t as noisy.
The T1+ is $700/pair and is a 3-way with a 5.25” midrange with phase plug and dual 6” woofers. Directivity is great on this B1+ without a phase plug, but the T1+ crosses it over 300Hz higher at 2700Hz and midrange plays down to 275Hz. Sensitivity is rated 2dB higher than B1+ and FR spec is 11Hz lower. 1 giant port on the back.
The T2+ is $1000/pair and swaps the dual 6” for dual 8”. The tweeter crossover is bumped up to 3200Hz (probably the real reason for the phase plug on the midrange) and midrange plays down to 350Hz, Stereophile measured the original T2 and directivity was good. Sensitivity is rated 5dB higher than the B1+ and FR spec is 13Hz lower. Oddly, still a singular port and it looks the same size as the T1+.
__________
I may put money on the T1+ being a better performer in terms of directivity, with the T2+ of course winning in bass and probably overall distortion.
The T0+ is $400/pair and adds another woofer. Sensitivity is rated 1dB higher. Port is much larger so hopefully it isn’t as noisy.
The T1+ is $700/pair and is a 3-way with a 5.25” midrange with phase plug and dual 6” woofers. Directivity is great on this B1+ without a phase plug, but the T1+ crosses it over 300Hz higher at 2700Hz and midrange plays down to 275Hz. Sensitivity is rated 2dB higher than B1+ and FR spec is 11Hz lower. 1 giant port on the back.
The T2+ is $1000/pair and swaps the dual 6” for dual 8”. The tweeter crossover is bumped up to 3200Hz (probably the real reason for the phase plug on the midrange) and midrange plays down to 350Hz, Stereophile measured the original T2 and directivity was good. Sensitivity is rated 5dB higher than the B1+ and FR spec is 13Hz lower. Oddly, still a singular port and it looks the same size as the T1+.
__________
I may put money on the T1+ being a better performer in terms of directivity, with the T2+ of course winning in bass and probably overall distortion.
When it's on the front, you get cancellation, but that might be for the best, since dips are more benign than peaks. What you also get is way more audible leaks, and a big limitation in port placement (for the designer), and that's the main reason front ports should never be on nearfield 2-way speakers.
Also, you’d need a taller cabinet, rear-ports reduce the cabinetry costs a bit.
That might not be bad thing to have in a review (or once in a while to see the effect), because it would indicate suitability of the speaker when combined with a subwoofer......perhaps distortion levels would massively drop in the measured speaker, which means you could get away with "cheaper" speakers when pairing with a sub, if their only major defect was distortion introduced into the whole of the frequency response when the speaker was being stressed by bass. For testing, you wouldn't need to combine it with a subwoofer, you'd just stick in a High Pass filter at the theoretical subwoofer crossover point and then measure distortion (and maybe frequency response). Although thinking about it I don't think a frequency sweep would capture the described positive or negative effects because low frequencies aren't played at the same time as other high frequencies (as it would be in music), so perhaps the distortion test would have to be different to show the benefit of a crossed over speaker with a sub....it would have to play low & high frequencies at the same time and not just a frequency sweep. I don't know if such tests exist?
You mean IMD testing? Amir used to do it, but got too tedious and tike consuming.
https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/svs-ultra-bookshelf-speaker-review.15055/
200Hz max SPL
THD at 5 SPL levels
32-tone IMD at 2 levels
85Hz & 655Hz IMD at varying levels
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I guess so, I don't really understand that 32 tone IMD graph though. But yes, some kind of distortion testing that describes the distortion of the speaker when stressed with different frequencies played at the same time......to simulate the idea of low bass frequencies creating distortion in higher frequencies that are being played at the same time. Which to me goes hand in hand with the idea of using subs, not just to clean up the low end, but to allow the speaker to play the rest of the frequency range with greater proficiency than it otherwise would if it had to play the low bass notes at the same time.....that's my thinking.
So running a similar test when theoretically crossed over with subs, so just a High Pass on the speaker. Then you'd compare the High Passed speaker vs the stock speaker....and perhaps you wouldn't need to even physically add a sub to see the difference, you'd just High Pass the speaker and measure it, then compare it against the speaker without High Pass, to see if there are improvements. I don't know if this is possible with this or other distortion tests though.
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Plays 32 frequencies at the same time and measure the distortion.
Yes, that would work I think. I don't really know how to read that graph though. But yes, perhaps that test with a stock speaker vs a High Passed speaker to see if there are improvements....thereby you could see the benefit of adding a sub beyond just cleaning up the bottom end.
??
IVX
Major Contributor
Just took a look KEF speakers 8ohm rated 3.5ohm impedance )) A lot of chaos in the audio industry but the loudspeaker sector of that is the weirdest to me. Nice to see that they stopped to call it db/m*W but db at 2.83V.
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