Dyazdani was kind enough to send me a SounBlaster soundcard that he was no longer using. My previous FR measurements of my sub were done with the WinISD tone generator, an integrated sound card that came stock in my Compaq, manually reading what my RS meter said for each tone, then plugging it into Microsoft Excel. Now with this sound card I was able to start using RoomEQ. Slowly followed all the directions and setup tasks, and finally got to do measurements. At first, I thought something had to be wrong, because I was seeing a big dropoff below ~32hz, and experimenting with higher frequencies, they were much louder. Then it hit me, turn on the sub amp you jackass! I was measuring the response of my mains with the crossover in play......guess I was too engrossed and forgot ops: Ok, turned on the Carvin, here are my results!!
Frequency response at my normal seat on the couch:
To be sure that wasn't a fluke, I repeated the measurement three times and got virtually identical results. To be even extra sure, I put the meter on the floor and did the sweep again - this time I had a big dip at ~40hz and response wasn't as smooth, so this reading is legit. Hell yeah!!! :B No BFD for me thanks :lol:
Frequency response on the other end of my couch, roughly 2' away:
Almost identical, but the upper bass is a tiny bit smoother.
Now I wanted to find out what my real tuning was, as I am in the process of building a second sub as was planning on the port being about 4" longer to lower the tune even more.
Close mic FR:
Looks like a lower tuning won't be necessary, I'm already at ~13.5hz! Perfect!
Now I wanted to see what the difference was with the port blocked, to get a sealed FR with a Q of .565. Sealed response at my seat:
Gradual dropoff at around 28hz, as was to be expected. Have a bump in there below 20hz that was probably caused by the port block not sealing the port 100%, so I took a close mic FR of the sub with the port sealed. Sealed FR close mic:
Just as common logic and WinISD predicted!
All this time I knew I couldn't have possibly have had a dropoff below ~25hz, as that wouldn't make any sense and wouldn't reflect what I have been experiencing for the past nine months. The step in which I calibrate the sound card shows that even this Soundblaster started dropping off below 30hz, so I can only imagine what my old cheapo integrated card was doing. This also confirms that the digital RS meter will output the correct data through the RCA jack, while it won't be showing the correct readings on the meter. I also think my high vaulted ceiling helps out greatly in keeping the overall FR so smooth - since my sub is 7' tall, a typical 8' ceiling that is flat would probably be giving me big peaks and nulls.
I'm pretty happy, finally a true sense of what my sub is actually doing, and I prevented myself from accidentally tuning my next sub too low. I will continue to support large, low tuned ported subs, probably now more than ever :T
Will the RoomEQ and RS meter give me somewhat accurate results if I start trying to measure the response of my mains?
Frequency response at my normal seat on the couch:
To be sure that wasn't a fluke, I repeated the measurement three times and got virtually identical results. To be even extra sure, I put the meter on the floor and did the sweep again - this time I had a big dip at ~40hz and response wasn't as smooth, so this reading is legit. Hell yeah!!! :B No BFD for me thanks :lol:
Frequency response on the other end of my couch, roughly 2' away:
Almost identical, but the upper bass is a tiny bit smoother.
Now I wanted to find out what my real tuning was, as I am in the process of building a second sub as was planning on the port being about 4" longer to lower the tune even more.
Close mic FR:
Looks like a lower tuning won't be necessary, I'm already at ~13.5hz! Perfect!
Now I wanted to see what the difference was with the port blocked, to get a sealed FR with a Q of .565. Sealed response at my seat:
Gradual dropoff at around 28hz, as was to be expected. Have a bump in there below 20hz that was probably caused by the port block not sealing the port 100%, so I took a close mic FR of the sub with the port sealed. Sealed FR close mic:
Just as common logic and WinISD predicted!
All this time I knew I couldn't have possibly have had a dropoff below ~25hz, as that wouldn't make any sense and wouldn't reflect what I have been experiencing for the past nine months. The step in which I calibrate the sound card shows that even this Soundblaster started dropping off below 30hz, so I can only imagine what my old cheapo integrated card was doing. This also confirms that the digital RS meter will output the correct data through the RCA jack, while it won't be showing the correct readings on the meter. I also think my high vaulted ceiling helps out greatly in keeping the overall FR so smooth - since my sub is 7' tall, a typical 8' ceiling that is flat would probably be giving me big peaks and nulls.
I'm pretty happy, finally a true sense of what my sub is actually doing, and I prevented myself from accidentally tuning my next sub too low. I will continue to support large, low tuned ported subs, probably now more than ever :T
Will the RoomEQ and RS meter give me somewhat accurate results if I start trying to measure the response of my mains?
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