ErinsAudioCorner

[hardisj]

** Amir/Thomas, I wasn't sure where I should put this so if you guys think it belongs in another sub-forum I understand you moving it. **


Some of you may know me from my old website: medleysmusings (now defunct but available via the wayback machine). If you have no idea what that is, it’s a site I used to post objective data to and share with the community. It was focused on providing Klippel data, frequency response (on and off-axis) as well as THD and a few other things along with analysis for various speaker drive units. A few years ago, due to my daughter's health issues, I stopped testing. She's in a much better place now and I need to start filling my empty time with my hobby. So, I'm getting back to testing again.

After wavering a bit on what to use, I have decided to go back to using Klippel products. I plan to do what I did before which was provide standard data such as impedance, FR, Distortion, Compression, linear xmax, etc. The sweet thing is... this time I'll be using a laser to more accurately measure T/S parameters and notably linear excursion; something too many manufacturers spec incorrectly. I am currently awaiting the final quote from Klippel, though I fear seeing the bill. LOL. I have toiled over creating a gofundme and as much as I hate to appear needy, in order to do what I want to do I may need to do so. But we shall see what the final bill is.

In the meantime I have created a new website at ErinsAudioCorner.com. Warning: if you visit there understand it is bare-bones right now. I'm slowly working on bring over my old data but it's a slow go because I lost ALL the old data and I'm having to copy/paste it over from the old site. In addition, I'm venturing away from WordPress so it's a slow-go, learning a new format of web design. You're free to check the site out but give me some time to get all the old data ported over and the kinks ironed out. I have also started writing up scripts in Matlab using some of the data available here that I will use to create graphs in the way that I deem most useful (some of the Klippel default outputs in the past were not up to my standard).

To change things up a bit I'll also be venturing in the YouTube format for some reviews. I'm using it as a chance to get my 9yo daughter involved. She's big in to the YouTube stuff and I figure that would be a good way to get her to help me and maybe learn a bit about physics, thinking through problems, and getting some hands on experience. Daddy/daughter time is precious.

Some of the fun things I'll be doing is: I'll also be doing some binaural recordings of speakers in my room (I won't get in to the details here; but I'll be as scientific as I can, trust me), and various videos of topics I feel might be useful (i.e., using a DSP to tune, understanding audio aspects, etc). I have some ideas... just not enough hours in the day.

I have created a Facebook Group page for those who want to follow along. This page will be a way for me to update everyone on progress I make toward completing reviews. If I get a new piece of hardware to test I’ll share it. Links will be posted to reviews. That sort of stuff. It’ll be an extension of my YouTube review page because, frankly, it’s easier to support conversation here than it is on YouTube. Here’s the link: Log into Facebook | Facebook

Here’s a link to my YouTube page:
YouTube


And that’s it… I just ask you to bear with me while I get back started again. I'm pretty excited about this all and just wanted to share the news. I'll have some follow up posts shortly asking for some opinions. Ultimately, I know this will help fill the void I and Zaph/Mark K left when we all stopped testing drivers. And with any other testing I do, it should be a good way to add to Amir's testing of speakers here.

Thanks,
Erin

 

[617]

Hey Erin, big fan of the old website. Loved seeing the rs225 go head to head with seas and sb acoustics. Glad to hear things are going well for you.

 

[hardisj]

Hey Erin, big fan of the old website. Loved seeing the rs225 go head to head with seas and sb acoustics. Glad to hear things are going well for you.

I appreciate that! Glad you found the information useful. Just out of curiosity, how did you find my old site? Were you a forum member on diya, TT, diyma? I used to post the links there. Just curious if I know you from another forum.

 

[hardisj]

One thing I'd like some community feedback on is how I present my FR data results. Using some data Amir posted I have created a couple scripts and would appreciate feedback on the style you guys prefer I present them in.

All of the below are the same exact data. The only difference is the thickness of the lines. I would like your feedback on which line thickness you prefer: 1st, 2nd or 3rd picture.

 

[pozz]

One thing I'd like some community feedback on is how I present my FR data results. Using some data Amir posted I have created a couple scripts and would appreciate feedback on the style you guys prefer I present them in.

All of the below are the same exact data. The only difference is the thickness of the lines. I would like your feedback on which line thickness you prefer: 1st, 2nd or 3rd picture.

View attachment 48293

View attachment 48294

View attachment 48295

First looks neatest to my eye.

 

[restorer-john]

Second thickness looks best to me.

 

[SIY]

Second thickness looks best to me.

#metoo

 

[Koloth]

Second thickness looks best to me.

You realize thats one of the cognitive biases hifi-dealers are instructed in using to sell you on speakers, right?
Play the customer three speakers, of which you intend to sell the middle one. More often than not, that's what he'll pick. Picking the middle option seems the sensible, reasonable thing to do.

 

[Wombat]

I am looking forward to your tests.


Re Tangerine phase plug: Tangerine is an Altec Lansing trademark.



I am surprised to see KEF using the term for their own device: https://www.shop.us.kef.com/blog/the-sweet-sound-of-kef-s-tangerine-waveguide

 

[Wombat]

Second thickness looks best to me.

Me too.

 

[Doodski]

You realize thats one of the cognitive biases hifi-dealers are instructed in using to sell you on speakers, right?
Play the customer three speakers, of which you intend to sell the middle one. More often than not, that's what he'll pick. Picking the middle option seems the sensible, reasonable thing to do.

I was a audio salesperson for 9 years and I can honestly say I never ever heard of anything like this but then we had sound rooms with up to 30-40 pair of speakers in one room and in the other room maybe 6-8 pair of high end big speakers.

 

[q3cpma]

To be honest, I'm not a fan of any abom- website that can't be even a little bit useable without javascript. Still, good luck in restoring and augmenting your work.

 

[hardisj]

To be honest, I'm not a fan of any abom- website that can't be even a little bit useable without javascript. Still, good luck in restoring and augmenting your work.

Two reasons why I'm going this route:
1) A friend of mine who does this for a living (and does extremely well) suggested I go the way I am and is walking me through this process.
2) I'm trying to get out of my comfort zone. I didn't know anything about coding until a few years ago when I got a new job and we were having to go through GBs worth of data to show trends over tens of thousands of data sets per day. Excel wasn't gonna cut it no more. So I taught myself Matlab. It's helped me immensely. At some point I am going to have to start with development of a new modeling/simulation program and it's all coded in java. So this is a good way for me to get my feet wet and learn other coding languages.

 

[hardisj]

Finally got my first test review page up. Kef's Q100. This is a slow-going process, mainly because I didn't have a strict format back in the day. In my future tests I'll automate a report to build all this stuff and save me some headaches.

One down. Way too many more to go...

https://www.erinsaudiocorner.com/drive-units/kef-q100-drive-unit/

 

[restorer-john]

I was a audio salesperson for 9 years and I can honestly say I never ever heard of anything like this but then we had sound rooms with up to 30-40 pair of speakers in one room and in the other room maybe 6-8 pair of high end big speakers.

Same for my experience. That said, if you went to a store to listen to a particular pair of speakers in the range, the salesperson would generally show you the top model to spoil you and then step down to the buyer's budget.

But if you were auditioning the TOTL speaker in the store, there was no time wasting switching in lesser speakers.

 

[Koloth]

Same for my experience. That said, if you went to a store to listen to a particular pair of speakers in the range, the salesperson would generally show you the top model to spoil you and then step down to the buyer's budget.

But if you were auditioning the TOTL speaker in the store, there was no time wasting switching in lesser speakers.

We used to target three speakers in any common price segment of our store demographic. Our most commonly sold speakers were around 2'500/pair. We made sure to always have three speakers on display around that price point, one of which was clearly worse than the other two. This reinforced in customers the idea that the others were truly great value and the right fit for them. If you play someone three great options, that might not even sound all that different, you'll get a lot of anxiety and indecisiveness. In the end he'll go home to sleep it over - which means there's an excellent chance he'll visit other dealers now. Anxiety and indecisiveness are your enemies. You have to lead people on a path that makes them feel good and supplies them with a nice narrative, to justify their expensive purchase. "This speaker was so much better than the other pair, male voices had much more volume, i could hear all kinds of little details and the highs were never shrill. And it's even 200 less expensive!" is a much better narrative than "I spent three two-hour-sessions comparing three speakers, that all had little pro's and con's and finally figured out, that this one was slightly better.", which does not make you feel like you've just made an extraordinarily great purchase.

So: Customer comes in, talks to us about what he's interested in. We show him a very good but slightly expensive option. See how he reacts. If it's too expensive for him, in comes the ****** speaker. Customer is disappointed and becomes anxious. Maybe he has to pay up for the expensive model after all. In comes option nr. 3, the hero speaker: less expensive than nr. 1 (at times even less expensive than the ****** model) but almost as good. Boom, you got yourself a sale. The customer feels like he's just made a steal: He just bought a 2500$ speaker that's sooooo much better than the other 2500$ speaker, that its almost to the level of a 4000$ speaker!

That being said:
1.) We didnt take the ****** speaker in to stock with the intention of using it in the described fashion. It just worked out that way. And once we realized what was happening, we kept them around, even though we made almost no sales on them. (It helped that the distributor was a friend and didnt put any pressure on us to sell that specific brand either.)

2.) It someone came in looking to audition a specific model, of course that's just what would happen. The above procedure was employed for the majority of walk-in-customers, who hadnt done any prior research.

 

[restorer-john]

We used to target three speakers in any common price segment of our store demographic. Our most commonly sold speakers were around 2'500/pair. We made sure to always have three speakers on display around that price point, one of which was clearly worse than the other two. This reinforced in customers the idea that the others were truly great value and the right fit for them. If you play someone three great options, that might not even sound all that different, you'll get a lot of anxiety and indecisiveness. In the end he'll go home to sleep it over - whichmeans there's an excellent chance he'll visit other dealers now. Anxiety and indecisiveness are your enemies. You have to lead people on a path that makes them feel good and supplies them with anice narrative, to justify their expensive purchase. "This speaker was so much better than the other pair, male voices had much more volume, i could hear all kinds of little details and the highs were never shrill. And it's even 200 less expensive!" is a much better narrative than "I spent three two-hour-sessions comparing three speakers, that all had little pro's and con's and finally figured out, that this one was slightly better.", which does not make you feel like you've just made an extraordinarily grest purchase.

That being said:
1.) We didnt take on the ****** speaker with the plan in mind to use it in the described fashion. It just worked out that way. And once we realized what was happening, we kept them around, even though we made almost no sales on them. (It helped that the distributor was a friend and didnt put any pressure on us to sell that speficic brand either.)

2.) It someone came in looking to audition a specific model, of course that's just what would happen. The above procedure was employed for the majority of walk-in-customers, who hadnt done any prior research.

Before I worked in retail HiFi, I always operated the speaker comparator myself. When I was selling HiFi, it was my job to wire up the comparator. (this model Yamaha)

Now, I just have one in my loungeroom. But at the moment, it's gathering dust as it takes up too much horizontal space...

https://www.audiosciencereview.com/...to-have-fun-with-audio.3850/page-6#post-92097

 

[Doodski]

Before I worked in retail HiFi, I always operated the speaker comparator myself. When I was selling HiFi, it was my job to wire up the comparator. (this model Yamaha)
View attachment 48358

Now, I just have one in my loungeroom. But at the moment, it's gathering dust as it takes up too much horizontal space...

https://www.audiosciencereview.com/...to-have-fun-with-audio.3850/page-6#post-92097

That's a veryyy nice switcher and the nixie tube readout just makes it saweeeT

 

[Doodski]

Speaking of nixie tubes there's a guy making nixie tubes and he made a video showing most of it in process. Fascinating and relaxing.

 

[Juhazi]

Re Tangerine phase plug: Tangerine is an Altec Lansing trademark.

View attachment 48303

I am surprised to see KEF using the term for their own device: https://www.shop.us.kef.com/blog/the-sweet-sound-of-kef-s-tangerine-waveguide

Don't know about licence, but A-L plug is to be used in the throat of a compression driver. KEF's plug is in front of a normal dome driver in a coaxial system, so only common things are words "plug" and "tangerine"

"Tangerine" seems to be registered by many companies in USA, but only as a specific picture or typography

The fruit

Congratulations to Erin for resurrection of website!