Three interviews with Kevin Voecks

[KaiserSoze]

Three interviews with Kevin Voecks. The first one was from 1990, when he was at Snell Acoustics. As I read this interview I was struck by how our present understanding of what makes a good loudspeakers isn't different from what it was three decades ago. I also get the strong sense that Revel is the inheritor of Snell.

https://www.stereophile.com/interviews/390voecks/index.html

The second interview is from 2004, a few years after he had left Snell to join Harman Specialty Group.

https://hometheaterhifi.com/volume_11_2/feature-interview-kevin-voecks-4-2004.html

The third interview is from 2008.

https://www.stereophile.com/interviews/608kev/index.html

 

[LightninBoy]

I met Mr. Voecks at CES several years back. Revel was just rolling out the Performa3 series. I walked into the Revel room and there he was, so I introduced myself. He was gracious and spoke with me for several minutes. I tried hard not to fanboy. Nice guy.

 

[cavedriver]

Bumping this thread because I've realized that Kevin Voecks is active on the internet audio community and since this site has a lot of positive information on Revel speakers I'm wondering if maybe Kevin checks in here periodically, or maybe even has an ASR profile?

 

[JasonH]

Love mine. Don’t mind the background.

 

[cavedriver]

what the hey, figured I'd go back and look at these and found this paragraph in the third interview. Question is, what specific resonances is he talking about and at what measurable levels are they occurring? I assume he's talking about cabinet resonances and resonances where sound is being reflected inside the cabinet and heard back through the drivers?

"Another listening preference that is reliably reproduced [is the effect of] speaker resonances. Research shows that resonances are audible and influence listener preferences. Speakers with resonances are not preferred by our listening panel. The best way to detect a resonance is to compare a single-point measure with an averaged on-axis response processed with Spin-o-rama. If a peak that is found with a single measurement goes down when you look at the averaged and processed multiple measures, then the peak was due to microphone placement. If the level of the peak does not drop when many on-axis measurements are averaged, then the peak is one coming from the speaker and due to a true resonance."

 

[Ron Texas]

1990 is almost half a lifetime ago.

 

[cavedriver]

1990 is almost half a lifetime ago.

third interview was from 2008, and he describes the release of the Salon 2, Amir's main listening speaker, but it shouldn't be surprising that concepts are the same - it's just physics and human anatomy.

 

[Ron Texas]

third interview was from 2008, and he describes the release of the Salon 2, Amir's main listening speaker, but it shouldn't be surprising that concepts are the same - it's just physics and human anatomy.

Physics and human anatomy don't change. Our understanding of how they work together does change over time. As important as the research is, there is still much to be done.

 

[mhardy6647]

Unfortunately -- at this late date,1990 falls into the realm of the other day to me...

 

[cavedriver]

what the hey, figured I'd go back and look at these and found this paragraph in the third interview. Question is, what specific resonances is he talking about and at what measurable levels are they occurring? I assume he's talking about cabinet resonances and resonances where sound is being reflected inside the cabinet and heard back through the drivers?

"Another listening preference that is reliably reproduced [is the effect of] speaker resonances. Research shows that resonances are audible and influence listener preferences. Speakers with resonances are not preferred by our listening panel. The best way to detect a resonance is to compare a single-point measure with an averaged on-axis response processed with Spin-o-rama. If a peak that is found with a single measurement goes down when you look at the averaged and processed multiple measures, then the peak was due to microphone placement. If the level of the peak does not drop when many on-axis measurements are averaged, then the peak is one coming from the speaker and due to a true resonance

Anyone have more info on the specific resonance sources Mr. Voecks might be referring to and at what sound levels Harman has found them to be observable in blind testing?