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Parts-Express DA-Wave Speaker Review

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Kadent

Kadent

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cool. Nice write-up, nice data, and nice loudspeakers.
Thank you!
4 ohm nominal impedance & 86 dB sensitivity -- why won't PE make any even moderately sensitive loudspeaker kits?!?
Assuming that you aren't using a 5w tube amplifier--the sensitivity isn't a huge issue. Also, what do you expect out of a 5 inch woofer, can't defy physics...yet.

Neurochrome has an excellent scientific approach to justify how much power is actually necessary, towards the bottom of the page: https://neurochrome.com/pages/thermal-design
 

mhardy6647

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Assuming that you aren't using a 5w tube amplifier--the sensitivity isn't a huge issue. Also, what do you expect out of a 5 inch woofer, can't defy physics...yet.
Usin' a 3.5 watt vacuum tube amplifier here (much of the time) :)


DSC_4262 (2) by Mark Hardy, on Flickr

It's not so much all of physics as a special case that the speaker geeks like to call Hoffman's Iron Law.

Small size, deep bass, high sensitivity. Pick two.

I picked two. Well, mostly one. :)

DSC_0938 (3) by Mark Hardy, on Flickr
 
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Kadent

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Really cool projects you got. These definitely won’t compete in terms of sensitivity, and the likelihood of someone pairing some desktop speakers with a tube amp is pretty low, so I’m assuming that’s why it isn’t much of an issue from the designers standpoint.
 

LTig

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Nice Job!
One quick note, always post REW data with the y-axis in 5 db increments. Your y-axis, except for the one, is in 20db increments which makes anything look flat and near perfect. In other words it "lies" to us.
And you can save REW plots as png images, no need to take screen shots with a camera or smartphone.
 
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Kadent

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Here is the adjusted, non-compensated in any way, no EQ frequency responds as per you guys' recommendations:
1613754552705.png
 

Jdunk54nl

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Here is the adjusted, non-compensated in any way, no EQ frequency responds as per you guys' recommendations:
View attachment 113545
Ah, so that is going to have a muddy sound (too much in the 200-700hz range by about 5/6db average) and be bright as well (too much in the 10-20khz range)

Also not very much bass at all. Seems to have about a 24db/oct fall off at about 150hz. Like a Linkwitz Riley 4th order as it is 6db down at 150hz.

Overall not a good buy it seems, but because of your work, we get to see some of the issues!

How far away and how are you measuring this response? The distance could attenuate the high frequncies and could potentially give you a downward slope, albeit, that would be a steep downward slope at the beginning.
 
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Kadent

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As I said my listening area is not ideal, and positioning is temporary.

I'll update with more graphs as I get them dialed in. In a perfect environment, here is the frequency response with a much better mic:
1613754976996.png

and here is the impedance response if it matters:
1613755031253.png
 
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Kadent

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How far away and how are you measuring this response? The distance could attenuate the high frequncies and could potentially give you a downward slope, albeit, that would be a steep downward slope at the beginning.

They are toed in about 40 degrees and I am measuring them at 24 inches away
 

Jdunk54nl

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What calibrated microphone are you using? Honestly, most calibrated microphones are going to give really good results without much issue. The better microphones just can get to higher SPL levels and more bandwith, but at 85db spl and 20hz-20khz, you aren't going to do much better than a $50-$100 calibrated microphone.
 

Jdunk54nl

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I'm using a Dayton Audio IMM-6 with it's calibration file imported into REW
IIRC that uses the same capsule as the umm-6 and emm-6 just in a different connector interface. It is a perfectly fine microphone and the omnimic isn't going to give much better results (I have a emm-6, umm-6 and omnimic and there is no difference if calibration is loaded, even without calibration not much of a difference.)

This is without calibration files between the umm-6 and emm-6, the high frequency differences are more due to other things that I was attempting to do (device clock drift issues)
I don't have my omnimic at home or I would have compared it too. Also not much difference between earthwork m23 microphones (A friend has dual of those) and my emm-6. He originally tuned something for me with his and then we used mine and it was very similar.
Smaart .png
 

Jdunk54nl

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On a side note: I think you would really enjoy this and sigma studio.
DSP-k and DSP-ke
https://www.parts-express.com/Dayto...B-KE-Kernel-DSP-Expansion-2-In-3-Out-325-1300

USB Interface for the above so you can program via sigma studio:
https://www.parts-express.com/Dayton-Audio-DSPB-ICP1-In-Circuit-Programmer-USB-325-132

Sigma studio is basically the underlining for nearly all DSPs that use a adau chip. The user software is just adjusting things in an "easier" manner for most end users. But in reality it is just adjusting sigma studio parameters.
 
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Kadent

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If that's the case, perhaps my positioning is not correct, or my room has problems. I'm going to try and isolate the problem by setting them up in another room and measuring them a different way.

If the problem still persists (which I hope it wont) then we can agree that the speakers are bad and I just wasted a ton of long saved-up money :)
 

Jdunk54nl

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If that's the case, perhaps my positioning is not correct, or my room has problems. I'm going to try and isolate the problem by setting them up in another room and measuring them a different way.

If the problem still persists (which I hope it wont) then we can agree that the speakers are bad and I just wasted a ton of long saved-up money :)
You didn't waste anything. You learned a bunch of stuff about these speakers and future speakers. You learned how to assemble crossovers. You are now learning how to measure speakers.


Does this mean that the speakers may not be your ideal, sure. But I can bet they are still better than 99% of what other people are using, and you can say you made them!
 
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Kadent

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A buddy of mine actually has one of those Dayton DSP boards. I was thinking they hinder the performance in terms of distortion ect but that's just a guess.
 

Jdunk54nl

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Jdunk54nl

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Also don't think of that dsp board as something to increase/decrease fidelity. It won't make much of a difference. What it does is similar to these speakers. It lets you learn how to build whatever dsp stuff you want.

This could be a very powerful tool, especially if you continue to like this and go into some type of acoustic engineering. My good friend uses sigma studio to program some very cool things.

This is some of his work: https://www.harley-davidson.com/us/en/shop/c/motorcycle-audio
 
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Kadent

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Hey everyone, been a while since I've been online. What can I say...life's been busy. Anyways, I finally cracked down on measuring my DIY speakers, which I previously was not doing correctly, which explains the odd results. Anyways, due to a number of user and technical errors, I present the new graph. Granted this is in my living room, so there will still be anomalies.
 

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