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Erin's Audio Corner gets a Klippel NFS!

MZKM

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Congratulations! Will you be using it for subwoofer measurements? You are already the pioneer for subwoofer measurements with the CEA-2010 spreadsheet.
Note that Brent Butterworth also has a 2010 Google sheet with a good amount of entries.

In the podcast Erin linked to, he mentioned how he would likely not use the NFS for subwoofers, in that they only need an on-axis measurement and his ground-plane can do that easily, plus he won’t have to lift them onto the platform; he did note that if weather wasn’t permitting then he’d likely use the NFS.
 

MZKM

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I remain a bit sceptical on the NFS’s ability to truly measure below 100hz
I don’t doubt it’s accuracy for “simple” speakers. However, add in multiple drivers at the same frequency, rear-facing drivers, ports, etc. and the math become really complex; we already have seen Amir make improvements in the reported bass response of a tower speaker by making adjustments to the fixture (such as a wider measurement diameter). And you can see that Amir commented that it’d be “baptism by fire” for Erin to measure the 8C.
I could just imagine the difficultly in the NFS handling something like Tekton’s Ulfberht & 1812.
 
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thewas

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Which makes me wonder how Tekton measures it.
Probably with windowed measurements or in an anechoic chamber plus nearfield bass like almost everyone for decades?
NFS is easier and faster to use but doesn't necessarily have only advantages, especially in such complex mid/high driver arrays.
 

Chrise36

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Congratulations! Have you considered measuring car speakers since you are in to car audio also?It is a huge market and it will bring a couple of views that might help a bit.
 

richard12511

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Probably with windowed measurements or in an anechoic chamber plus nearfield bass like almost everyone for decades?
NFS is easier and faster to use but doesn't necessarily have only advantages, especially in such complex mid/high driver arrays.

Wasn't meant as a knock against Tekton, but rather a genuine curiosity. Do those other methods not suffer the same issues as the NFS when it comes to measuring a speaker like this? I guess because they're not super nearfield?
 
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hardisj

hardisj

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Congratulations! Have you considered measuring car speakers since you are in to car audio also?It is a huge market and it will bring a couple of views that might help a bit.

Yep. Been doing that since day one, actually. That's how I got my start; measuring car audio and DIY drive units. You can find a bunch of examples on my site and YT channel. :)
 

thewas

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Wasn't meant as a knock against Tekton, but rather a genuine curiosity. Do those other methods not suffer the same issues as the NFS when it comes to measuring a speaker like this? I guess because they're not super nearfield?
Yes, those classic measurement methods don't suffer as much as they just measure the acoustic addition of the drivers at the different angles while the NFS tries to model it from nearfield measurements and various assumptions.
This is also the reason why Klippel also offers extra the Multi Source Superposition add-on for loudspeakers with multiple transducers (line sources, sound bars etc).
 
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hardisj

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FWIW, I am trying to work out a way to have a cool little "debut" video once I get the NFS setup. And I may do a livestream after I "premiere" the video. So, if you guys are in to YouTube stuff like that, let me know by giving me a "like" here. If no one is interested in something like that then I may not waste my time on the livestream part.
 
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hardisj

hardisj

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I've mentioned before that I am a beta tester for KLIPPEL. You've seen that the KLIPPEL data provides the frequency scale in exponential format (10^2, 10^3, 10^4) which is not ideal when you are providing the results as a review. When I started reviewing speakers this drove me nuts so I resorted to creating my own MATLAB scripts to generate the graphics with the frequency scale in a way that I wanted. KLIPPEL took notice and asked why I didn't use their graphics, so I explained why and they said they would address it in a future update. Well, the latest beta release has this update. Small change but big win! :D

They also provided me with an NFS sample file of an unknown bookshelf speaker to check out the beta software and provide some additional feedback. Using the directivity index result graphic, I determined the crossover of this speaker is somewhere in the 2-3kHz region. I then took the liberty to play around with the balloon plot just to see what it looked like. I then generated the GIF below. I am considering generating a GIF like the one below in each of my reviews; one that will be a balloon plot of the SPL at/near the crossover region. Note the spl scale changes slightly; this is out of my control for now but if I normalize then it is not an issue. But don't worry about that (I know how some of you are; you will fixate on this... DON'T! lol). I swear, if one of you says "I'd do it this way" and takes this post in to a total trainwreck I will ban your IP from my website (some of you may like it). Kidding, kidding. ;) ;):D


Anyway...
Long story short, I've got some files to play with and I did just that. So, if you didn't think I was seriously getting the NFS and this was some crazy ploy to fool you all... well, now you can rest a little bit easier. Still no shipping date yet but I will definitely keep you all posted. Thanks again for all your donations and support! It's really happening!!!!!!!!!! OMG, OMG, OMG!!!!!


example_balloon.gif
 

amirm

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I've mentioned before that I am a beta tester for KLIPPEL. You've seen that the KLIPPEL data provides the frequency scale in exponential format (10^2, 10^3, 10^4) which is not ideal when you are providing the results as a review. When I started reviewing speakers this drove me nuts so I resorted to creating my own MATLAB scripts to generate the graphics with the frequency scale in a way that I wanted. KLIPPEL took notice and asked why I didn't use their graphics, so I explained why and they said they would address it in a future update. Well, the latest beta release has this update. Small change but big win! :D
That was the first thing I complained about when I got my system back in January of last year.
 
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hardisj

hardisj

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That was the first thing I complained about when I got my system back in January of last year.

Yea, I've been unhappy with it since I started using it way back when (back when I was using the one owned by another forum around 2010). But it didn't bother me nearly as much until I started testing loudspeakers. Literally, that is one of the primary reasons I went the route of writing my own scripts to make the axes show what I wanted. But, now they're fixing it. Rejoice! Not sure when the beta will be a final release. I sent over some comments about an hour ago. But I will tell you, I know I am happy and I think you will be, too.
 
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hardisj

hardisj

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Here's an example of a car audio speaker I measured yesterday with the new beta software. You can see the x-axis frequency bins are now more manageable than with the previous Klippel software. I also like how they have the gray/white y-axis.

1611589939758.png
 
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Koeitje

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My golden retriever will handle that task. She will thwart any would-be attacker with her love and desire for belly rubs.
Or she will chase the microphone while it goes around :D.
 

Matias

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