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Author Topic: Interesting woofer response  (Read 5231 times)

Frank Koenig

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Interesting woofer response
« on: October 18, 2018, 02:12:56 PM »

Here's the on-axis ground plane response of a BMS 15N630 15 in. woofer in  a 90 l, 47 Hz vented box. I built these 8 years ago -- time flies -- and am revisiting the settings using newer tools. What's odd to me is the step in the response at 200 Hz. The driver should be well within its piston range at that frequency. I'm pretty sure this is not a measurement artifact, as it also shows up (smoothed because of the shorter window) in pseudo free-field (up on a 12 ft. ladder) measurements, as well as some other measurements I did a few years ago. I tried different mic distances with no effect. The measurement rig passes loop-back.

My best guess is that it's due to cabinet standing waves or some other resonance, but would love to hear from more experienced practitioners if this fits some known pattern. Thanks.

--Frank




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Marc Sibilia

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Re: Interesting woofer response
« Reply #1 on: October 18, 2018, 03:02:02 PM »


My best guess is that it's due to cabinet standing waves or some other resonance, but would love to hear from more experienced practitioners if this fits some known pattern. Thanks.

I thought I knew what was going on until I tried to write something explaining it, and now I realize I don't understand either.  But I have seen the exact same thing.  I will wait for an answer from someone who knows acoustics better than me.

I built some subs, 27" internally from the baffle to the rear panel.  It is clearly a resonance.  I have SPL plot both undamped and with some internal foam damping, so you can see in the undamped that the notches are deep, and that there is attenuation below resonance and reinforcement above resonance.

Marc
 
« Last Edit: October 18, 2018, 03:05:23 PM by Marc Sibilia »
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Mark Wilkinson

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Re: Interesting woofer response
« Reply #2 on: October 18, 2018, 03:42:39 PM »

Hi Frank, Maybe the step is just part of the driver's natural response....??

Here's BMS's measurement of the 15n630 in a similarly sized box 
(albeit it's a closed box, which shouldn't matter much for the frequencies of interest.)
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Art Welter

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Re: Interesting woofer response
« Reply #3 on: October 18, 2018, 05:22:10 PM »

My best guess is that it's due to cabinet standing waves or some other resonance, but would love to hear from more experienced practitioners if this fits some known pattern. Thanks.
Frank,

Looks like a natural response step, not a resonance problem, which would be more narrow band.

Also looks like the 15N630 has at least two quite different measured responses under what are stated to be the same conditions. The one Mark W. posted looks more similar to your driver's response than the 1/14/2005 version I found online.

Art
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Mark Wilkinson

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Re: Interesting woofer response
« Reply #4 on: October 18, 2018, 05:39:05 PM »

Frank,

Looks like a natural response step, not a resonance problem, which would be more narrow band.

Also looks like the 15N630 has at least two quite different measured responses under what are stated to be the same conditions. The one Mark W. posted looks more similar to your driver's response than the 1/14/2005 version I found online.

Art

Hi Art, 

What's your take on why we see such different curves/specs from the same manufacturer on their same product?   
(All too often I might add....)

I don't mean to be questioning their integrity....I just don't get it.
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Art Welter

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Re: Interesting woofer response
« Reply #5 on: October 18, 2018, 09:56:31 PM »

Hi Art, 

What's your take on why we see such different curves/specs from the same manufacturer on their same product?   
(All too often I might add....)

I don't mean to be questioning their integrity....I just don't get it.
Differences between half space and whole space measurements can account for large changes.
Sometimes the product is changed, yet the model number remains the same.
Sometimes a trace is mis-labled, and goes to the wrong spec sheet entirely.

The differences seen between the two "anechoic chamber" 15NC30 charts are pretty gross, whatever the cause.

Art
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Uwe Riemer2

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Re: Interesting woofer response
« Reply #6 on: October 19, 2018, 02:25:03 AM »

Here's the on-axis ground plane response of a BMS 15N630 15 in. woofer in  a 90 l, 47 Hz vented box. I built these 8 years ago -- time flies -- and am revisiting the settings using newer tools. What's odd to me is the step in the response at 200 Hz. The driver should be well within its piston range at that frequency. I'm pretty sure this is not a measurement artifact, as it also shows up (smoothed because of the shorter window) in pseudo free-field (up on a 12 ft. ladder) measurements, as well as some other measurements I did a few years ago. I tried different mic distances with no effect. The measurement rig passes loop-back.

My best guess is that it's due to cabinet standing waves or some other resonance, but would love to hear from more experienced practitioners if this fits some known pattern. Thanks.

--Frank



Search the web for Baffle Step or Loudspeaker Enclosure Diffraction
e.g. https://www.trueaudio.com/st_diff1.htm
If it would be a resonance ( happens in "small" enclosures with long vents ), it would show up in an impedance curve and the  undampened enclosure would enhance the effect
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Frank Koenig

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Re: Interesting woofer response
« Reply #7 on: October 19, 2018, 01:16:10 PM »

Thank you all for the responses -- so to speak  ;) I agree that resonances usually show up as a peak or dip, not a clean step like this. When I built these boxes I spent a lot of time scrutinizing high-resolution impedance curves and did in fact hunt down a number of small box resonances that I fixed with the application of glass wool.

The baffle step theory is interesting (thanks, Uwe, for that link), indeed there is an upward  step of ~6dB,  but I see this with the speaker's tush firmly on the ground, which I would expect to behave as half-space at this frequency. Half-space and full-space frequency responses match quite well up to ~700 Hz. See attached. Green = half-space, 100 ms window. Gold = full-space, 13 ms window.

I hope to experiment some more when I get the time and energy and get to the bottom of this. For now I've EQ'd it out and will take them to a gig (mainly voice in a sucky, reverberant room) Saturday.

As for manufacturers' frequency response plots, I've pretty much given up looking at them. I rarely know all the conditions and what I measure never agrees anyway...

--Frank




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Len Zenith Jr

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Re: Interesting woofer response
« Reply #8 on: October 19, 2018, 01:56:04 PM »


The baffle step theory is interesting (thanks, Uwe, for that link), indeed there is an upward  step of ~6dB,  but I see this with the speaker's tush firmly on the ground, which I would expect to behave as half-space at this frequency. Half-space and full-space frequency responses match quite well up to ~700 Hz.


Your 1/2 space vs full space baffle step phenomena seen up on the ladder, now becomes 1/4 space vs 1/2 space on the ground. The baffle becomes a boundary for freq above ~(4560/shortest baffle dimension in inches). The graphs would look about the same with floor bounce adding in the nulls you see up high.
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Frank Koenig

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Re: Interesting woofer response
« Reply #9 on: October 19, 2018, 02:32:03 PM »

Your 1/2 space vs full space baffle step phenomena seen up on the ladder, now becomes 1/4 space vs 1/2 space on the ground. The baffle becomes a boundary for freq above ~(4560/shortest baffle dimension in inches). The graphs would look about the same with floor bounce adding in the nulls you see up high.

Len, yes, I see what you're saying. By your heuristic the critical dimension for a 200 Hz step would be 23 inches (lamda / 3), which is a good bit larger than the shortest baffle dimension, while it is on the order of the longest baffle dimension. I was assuming (perhaps incorrectly) that the 5.7 ft wavelength at 200 Hz would just "swallow" the whole enclosure when sitting on the ground. The wave equation finds its way - as some famous engineer (don't remember who) said.  I'm just not so good at picturing it. --Frank

Correction: The shortest baffle dimension is actually 21.5 in. Pretty close. I should try extending the baffle and see if the step moves.
« Last Edit: October 19, 2018, 02:38:11 PM by Frank Koenig »
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Re: Interesting woofer response
« Reply #9 on: October 19, 2018, 02:32:03 PM »


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