Sigberg Audio Saranna (fullrange, cardioid active floorstander) development thread

[sigbergaudio]

I know some are reacting to the coax looking a bit "unfinished", but this is a sample custom driver. On the finished item we will be removing the lead wire and coloring the voice coil (that can be seen around the compression horn) black instead of the reddish color that it is today. Will end up something like this probably:

 

[holdingpants01]

It would look totally fine and more in line with your other speakers if it were painted or anodized black. But I actually like the raw metal look even with the leads sticking out

 

[sigbergaudio]

It would look totally fine and more in line with your other speakers if it were painted or anodized black. But I actually like the raw metal look even with the leads sticking out

Yes, anodized black is under consideration as well. Need to see how much customization is possible without driving cost too much.

 

[sigbergaudio]

Moved the Saranna to a new room, this one is around 18-20m^2. The avg level of this measurement is around 75dB, so this is basically flat to 20hz in-room.

This measurement is a stereo measurement at the listening position with zero smoothing and only one manual EQ point (reduced a peak at ~45hz with 4dB).

 

[dualazmak]

Looks really nice. Can I ask the distance between the microphone and SP surface?

 

[sigbergaudio]

Looks really nice. Can I ask the distance between the microphone and SP surface?

Roughly 2.5 meters / 8 feet - so measured from the listening position.

 

[dualazmak]

Roughly 2.5 meters / 8 feet - so measured from the listening position.

Thank you, I believe you have amazingly nice (at least in 20 Hz - 90 Hz zone) LF reproduction by Saranna, and also you have new(?) listening/testing room with excellent room mode treatment(s), right?

Is the tiny dip at 75 Hz a kind of room mode?

 

[sigbergaudio]

Thank you, I believe you have amazingly nice (at least in 20 Hz - 90 Hz zone) LF reproduction by Saranna, and also you have new(?) listening/testing room with excellent room mode treatment(s), right?

Is the tiny dip at 75 Hz a kind of room mode?

This is an above average treated room yes. Decay is around 200-250ms. The previous room was around 400ms, so more typical.

The dip at 75hz is a room mode, and could probably be EQed up. I've just dumped them in the room for now, and I also want to be careful with EQing too much while tuning the speakers, as many(most?) consumers will likely just use them as is.

So I have to be careful to tune the speakers rather the room. Which is also why I am switching rooms now, to test how the tuning translates / works across different rooms.

 

[dualazmak]

Thank you for your quick reply. I fully agree and greatly respect your tuning policy and approach on Saranna.

 

[sigbergaudio]

A couple of pictures to get an impression of the size of the Saranna compared to the Manta (a prototype in this pic) and the SBS.1

 

[sigbergaudio]

Saranna has found a cardioid friend painted in white.

 

[sigbergaudio]

Today one of the Saranna prototypes has been on a field trip.

Had pretty bad conditions with enviromential noise, but at least got a few good groundplane measurements of the bass response. This is spliced with a rear measurement to get a somewhat more accurate measurement of the port contribution, not sure if it's still 100% accurate. Taken at 1.5m. Looks pretty even at least. The response also looks like something that should match room gain pretty well, and give a pretty flat in-room response in the lowest octaves.

Disclaimer: This will probably not be the final response, but a flat response like this is a good starting point for further tuning. Crossover to the coax is around 170hz here I think, as one can see, that is pretty seamless.

 

[Mnyb]

A couple of pictures to get an impression of the size of the Saranna compared to the Manta (a prototype in this pic) and the SBS.1

View attachment 357583

late reply it does actually occupy less floorspace than manta , but can both be the same closeness to the back wall ?

 

[sigbergaudio]

late reply it does actually occupy less floorspace than manta , but can both be the same closeness to the back wall ?

Yes, they follow the same philosophy as our other speakers, in assuming that most people have a family and most likely the speakers in the living room. So having the speakers way out on the floor isn't the most practical solution. So they will be tuned to be placed relatively close to the wall.

 

[sigbergaudio]

I've built a certainly-not-anechoic-but-still-reasonably-accurate corner in our workshop with quite a bit damping. Comparing it to measurements from Seas, it is probably around +/-2dB down to 100hz. From around 4-500hz and down to 100hz, it shows a level that is probably 1-2dB too low.

Here is the Saranna measured in that corner. The on-axis response is somewhat untidy, while at 15 degrees it is pretty okay.

On-axis:

15 degrees:

 

[sigbergaudio]

Getting a bit crowded.

 

[sigbergaudio]

Nearfield port response (measured with the microphone just at the mouth/edge of the port) including resonances.

The bump at 42hz as well as the dip at 137hz in the port measurement (purple) is measurement errors / room interatctions.

The response of the speaker (green) is not accurate below 100hz.

As can be seen, the port resonances does not show up in on-axis measurement of the speaker. Smoothing is 1/48 so not to hide anything.

 

[ryanosaur]

Getting a bit crowded.

View attachment 364648

You’re missing a pair!

 

[poopy]

Getting a bit crowded.

You get used too…. and once you have 50% of your tv screen masked by your speakers, you start putting them around you sofa and you end up with a 5.2 or 7.2 system doing multichannel audio

 

[ryanosaur]

You get used too…. and once you have 50% of your tv screen masked by your speakers, you start putting them around you sofa and you end up with a 5.2 or 7.2 system doing multichannel audio

Mantas at Surround and Rear?