The problem at hand is matching an (presumably, that is on 99% of cases) active sub to active or passive satellites. In this case the efficiency of the sub does not matter at all as long as you can (a) set its volume pot such that the resulting frequency response is flat, and (b) that the sub does not start clipping earlier than the satellites.
AGAIN we are not talking about satellite speakers or surround systems. I'm talking 101 speaker building from a friggin' book you can buy at most bookstores or at
Parts Express.
I'm not saying you can't make mismatched drivers work, at all. I'm saying it's EASIER to start from a place that requires NO DSP intervention or manipulation
from PEQ which usually has the ability to boost the volume at a given frequency vs GEQ which normally (not always) has no gain. I don't have to use EITHER.
The OP clearly stated he can get it right at one position but not above or below it, without changing things.
That is the question he posed, I didn't. I just gave him a way that most people, I know in the business address the situation from a speaker-building perspective
not how people fix a problem after the fact.
You and I are NOT talking about the same thing. You have NOT given the OP a way other than stored setting for different volumes which is fine if that is how
you want to fix the problem the OP is talking about. I'm not suggesting you run out a buy new equipment or that your fix hasn't been used 1000s of times.
I'm saying there is a BETTER way FOR ME, that I found out about many many years ago. It's the way every speaker builder that I know, designs speakers for
the most part.
Even Danny at GR matches drivers in his OB/servo subs to his main speakers. Wilson, Infinity, VMPS (did), JBL, Polk, Klipsch, Jensen Imperial, Altec, WE, and
dozens of speakers I've never owned. I have owned and do own the speaker I mentioned and built over 100 SETS of speakers in the last 45 years that adhere
to those basic building blocks of good practice.
I'll give you two one thing for sure, you have a fix. If loading a preset bunch of settings is possible for people and they can access those settings from the
seated position bravo, it's just NOT the way I would do it IF I had a choice.
I'm going through a 4-way build right now that all the subs, bass columns, mids, and highs are closely matched and can gain match with the simple use of
L-Pads to turn DOWN the HF and mids for the customer. He has pretty serious hearing loss above 12KHz. I'm making sure he can preset his speakers and
set down and enjoy his speakers without jumping up and down adjusting stuff after were set up for the room and amps he will be using.
You have to set that parameter also with the weight (mass) on the passive radiators for his room and amps. It's not just a given, You have to TUNE every set
of speakers, I build for the room, amps/cables, and individual needs for "A" one remote fix,
a volume control. I use putty as the final adjustment for the
lowest octave, then remove putty a thumbnail at a time to remove BOOM. It's the lowest possible mechanical solution for a simple valve gear setup
with ZERO intervention from DSP or any other processor. It's a "set and forget" until there is a little wear on the drivers.
Then you just remove a small amount of putty to accommodate for that spider wear every 2 years or so.
I'll give you this, if the way you fix the problem makes you happy you would be an EASY customer to deal with. I guess I'm not so lucky. LOL I have a few
friends/customers that I've dealt with for 30+ years. I just happen to know what they expect. Horn nuts are even worse, one of the main reasons I stick
with small planar/ribbon builds. It's just my knitch. I did build my own planars for a while. It's just easier to use premade driver off the shelf just in case
I kick the bucket. I prefer to leave the old customers with a fix, not a problem like many custom speaker builders do, Wilson is one off the top of my head.
You pretty much have to use their
very expensive drivers if you lose one. I've fixed a few Wilsons, they are expensive to fix. The XOs are usually set in
an epoxy, even worse for the repairman. PITA is a better analogy.
In any case, I wish you the best, I have 36 planars/ribbons (matched) drivers to mount and wire, while I listen to the election results. BTW they were tested
and matched out of over 120 total. You would be surprised how much drivers vary. 6.2 to 8.4 ohms on Neo 10s alone.
Like I said I match drivers top to bottom and left to right for gain. .5% l/r spl match when testing. It's all part of tuning the finished speaker sets correctly.
Regards.
