Hello, I'm new at this forum, but I'm a proponent of the scientific approach in audio, and I hope some of you can help me with my issue.
I'm in the process of building my DIY loudspeakers. That is a 3-way (10-inch woofer, 5-inch midrange, and 1-inch dome tweeter) with cut-off frequencies around 400 and 2800 Hz made by 2nd order crossover. The on-axis frequency response I got is more or less linear, within +/- 3 dB, but the midrange and vocals sound very harsh. I would say the region around 2-4 kHz, where both midrange and tweeter are loud enough. I also feel a lack of high bass and low midrange. The responses were measured twice in different non-anechoic environments with CLIO and matched well.
I compared the speakers to the industrial models, for example, Dali Oberon 3. Despite both speakers being pretty linear on-axis, the sound difference is so dramatic, which, in my opinion, is hard to explain by just a couple dB deviations. I also tried to simulate this effect using a parametric equalizer. And it was hard to achieve similar results. The most similar sound I get is by reversing the polarity of one Dali speaker and putting one on another to simulate sound from a single loudspeaker. The midrange became highlighted, but it was also a bit noisy and distorted. Of course, the bass disappeared, which my speakers have. But I would describe my speakers as a 2.1 system with the reversed polarity of satellites and a low-setting subwoofer.
During listening tests, I also found another industrial loudspeaker with identical problems and sound character. It was a 3-way loudspeaker with two 6.5-inch woofers, a 5-inch midrange, and a 1-inch tweeter from Wavecor. Opposite to my wide classic speakers, these speakers are modern tall towers, but there is one common thing. They also require the same polarity for tweeter and midrange not to have null at the cut-off region, despite 2nd order. So woofers connected with +, but midrange and tweeter with -.
I tried to change the polarity of my tweeter, and it made the sound better, but probably because of the cancellation in this annoying region. Anyway, the phase characteristics matched well with the original polarity.
I thought about the midrange driver beaming, but it's just 5 inches, and the cut-off frequency around 2.8 kHz doesn't seem critical. I also made several off-axis measurements and didn't find significant deeps. Unfortunately, making anechoic polar response measurements is quite problematic for me. I thought about the geometry of the cabinet, but again, those towers are different speakers by shape. The only similar thing is the distance between the centers of the midrange and the tweeter, in my case - 135 mm.
Can anyone recognize the problem from my description? What are the most common and possible reasons, and what to start from? Thank you.
I'm in the process of building my DIY loudspeakers. That is a 3-way (10-inch woofer, 5-inch midrange, and 1-inch dome tweeter) with cut-off frequencies around 400 and 2800 Hz made by 2nd order crossover. The on-axis frequency response I got is more or less linear, within +/- 3 dB, but the midrange and vocals sound very harsh. I would say the region around 2-4 kHz, where both midrange and tweeter are loud enough. I also feel a lack of high bass and low midrange. The responses were measured twice in different non-anechoic environments with CLIO and matched well.
I compared the speakers to the industrial models, for example, Dali Oberon 3. Despite both speakers being pretty linear on-axis, the sound difference is so dramatic, which, in my opinion, is hard to explain by just a couple dB deviations. I also tried to simulate this effect using a parametric equalizer. And it was hard to achieve similar results. The most similar sound I get is by reversing the polarity of one Dali speaker and putting one on another to simulate sound from a single loudspeaker. The midrange became highlighted, but it was also a bit noisy and distorted. Of course, the bass disappeared, which my speakers have. But I would describe my speakers as a 2.1 system with the reversed polarity of satellites and a low-setting subwoofer.
During listening tests, I also found another industrial loudspeaker with identical problems and sound character. It was a 3-way loudspeaker with two 6.5-inch woofers, a 5-inch midrange, and a 1-inch tweeter from Wavecor. Opposite to my wide classic speakers, these speakers are modern tall towers, but there is one common thing. They also require the same polarity for tweeter and midrange not to have null at the cut-off region, despite 2nd order. So woofers connected with +, but midrange and tweeter with -.
I tried to change the polarity of my tweeter, and it made the sound better, but probably because of the cancellation in this annoying region. Anyway, the phase characteristics matched well with the original polarity.
I thought about the midrange driver beaming, but it's just 5 inches, and the cut-off frequency around 2.8 kHz doesn't seem critical. I also made several off-axis measurements and didn't find significant deeps. Unfortunately, making anechoic polar response measurements is quite problematic for me. I thought about the geometry of the cabinet, but again, those towers are different speakers by shape. The only similar thing is the distance between the centers of the midrange and the tweeter, in my case - 135 mm.
Can anyone recognize the problem from my description? What are the most common and possible reasons, and what to start from? Thank you.