Hey, I've seen a lot of discussion in the Rythmik l12 thread among others, on which measurements are useful to perform on subwoofers vs other types of speakers.
I had some thoughts from my recent attempts to compare smaller subs, and thought a discussion could prove useful.
Most of this I've moved from my other thread, because it wasn't relevant there.
My motivation was that I'm trying to compare the svs sb12-nsd, the RSL speedwoofer 10s, and the rythmik L12.
I'm pretty sure that they're all great, small subs, given the wide acclaim for them. But I don't have a great way to compare them.
While I have an electrical engineering background, I'll be the first to admit that I am not an expert in this area, so I welcome feedback and suggestions.
There are fundamentally two(three?) questions I'd want to answer:
1. Lets assume I want to listen to full range source audio, at "reference" - x db. Ignoring room gain for now, which choice will give me the broadest "flat" range, at that listening level? Depending on EQ, DSP, etc, it could be perfectly flat, but much lower than I want to use it. Especially due to the equal loudness curves in the bass region, Amir had a great explanation here.
Something like the long term compression chart from the sb12 review, below, would be great.
2. Does the distortion, or other negative effects, stay below the threshold of perception across that range?
3? One more could be: Do group delay or other timing effects behave "nicely", or do other factors (non omni bass, cardioid, open baffle, etc) change room effects or integration with other speakers in a meaningful way
Existing Reviews
The F12G review at erinsaudiocorner has almost the exact chart I was looking for under the "Frequency Response and associated Harmonic Distortion" section.
The SB12-NSD review at audioholics has a good output compression chart.
My issue with the L12 review here is that it seemed hard to compare the results with other measurements without knowing the absolute or normalized SPL along with the distortion, or having a similar compression chart to show the "feasible" operating points.
CEA2010?
As far as I know, and I could be incorrect here, the CEA2010 measurements look like a shorthand way to approximate 1 and 2 above. It's giving conditions for measurement, then asking for max SPL below some distortion threshold, at each frequency.
I was able to find CEA2010 measurements for the sb12-nsd and rsl speedwoofer, but nothing for the Rythmik L12.
Over on wirecutter.com, Brent Butterworth mentioned that he hadn't been able to get any review samples from Rythmik, unlike the other brands.
Audioholics had reviews of both, with the rsl measurements also being by Brent.
sb12-nsd: https://www.audioholics.com/subwoofer-reviews/sb12-nsd-subwoofer/sb12-nsd-measurements
rsl speedwoofer 10s: https://www.audioholics.com/subwoofer-reviews/rsl-speedwoofer-10s
Any thoughts?
Thanks!
I had some thoughts from my recent attempts to compare smaller subs, and thought a discussion could prove useful.
Most of this I've moved from my other thread, because it wasn't relevant there.
My motivation was that I'm trying to compare the svs sb12-nsd, the RSL speedwoofer 10s, and the rythmik L12.
I'm pretty sure that they're all great, small subs, given the wide acclaim for them. But I don't have a great way to compare them.
While I have an electrical engineering background, I'll be the first to admit that I am not an expert in this area, so I welcome feedback and suggestions.
There are fundamentally two(three?) questions I'd want to answer:
1. Lets assume I want to listen to full range source audio, at "reference" - x db. Ignoring room gain for now, which choice will give me the broadest "flat" range, at that listening level? Depending on EQ, DSP, etc, it could be perfectly flat, but much lower than I want to use it. Especially due to the equal loudness curves in the bass region, Amir had a great explanation here.
Something like the long term compression chart from the sb12 review, below, would be great.
2. Does the distortion, or other negative effects, stay below the threshold of perception across that range?
3? One more could be: Do group delay or other timing effects behave "nicely", or do other factors (non omni bass, cardioid, open baffle, etc) change room effects or integration with other speakers in a meaningful way
Existing Reviews
The F12G review at erinsaudiocorner has almost the exact chart I was looking for under the "Frequency Response and associated Harmonic Distortion" section.
The SB12-NSD review at audioholics has a good output compression chart.
My issue with the L12 review here is that it seemed hard to compare the results with other measurements without knowing the absolute or normalized SPL along with the distortion, or having a similar compression chart to show the "feasible" operating points.
CEA2010?
As far as I know, and I could be incorrect here, the CEA2010 measurements look like a shorthand way to approximate 1 and 2 above. It's giving conditions for measurement, then asking for max SPL below some distortion threshold, at each frequency.
I was able to find CEA2010 measurements for the sb12-nsd and rsl speedwoofer, but nothing for the Rythmik L12.
Over on wirecutter.com, Brent Butterworth mentioned that he hadn't been able to get any review samples from Rythmik, unlike the other brands.
Audioholics had reviews of both, with the rsl measurements also being by Brent.
sb12-nsd: https://www.audioholics.com/subwoofer-reviews/sb12-nsd-subwoofer/sb12-nsd-measurements
rsl speedwoofer 10s: https://www.audioholics.com/subwoofer-reviews/rsl-speedwoofer-10s
Any thoughts?
Thanks!
