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measuring ability for amatuers [message #25186] Wed, 05 January 2005 10:15 Go to next message
Manualblock is currently offline  Manualblock
Messages: 4973
Registered: May 2009
Illuminati (13th Degree)
Say Wayne; are there some reasonable methods the average hobbyist can use to place their pet projects into the," could be successful" vs. "no-way", catagories? Or even to approximate the possibility of decent results with enough certainty that tthey could proceed fairly confidently in a project?
What would you say to someone who wished to produce some kind of empirical result with minimal measurement techniques available to them? Yet they wish to be a little more confident of a positive outcome than just utilising the stated specs.
As an example, to match driver impedance numbers can you not use a DMM? That kind of thing is what I mean.


Re: measuring ability for amatuers [message #25187 is a reply to message #25186] Wed, 05 January 2005 23:52 Go to previous messageGo to next message
Wayne Parham is currently offline  Wayne Parham
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Registered: January 2001
Illuminati (33rd Degree)
I've found that most hobbyists can do some things, like checking DC resistance, making most electrical measurements and sometimes obtaining T/S specs. Other types of measurements become more difficult or complicated for the average hobbyist, and cutting corners leads to too much ambiguity for the data obtained to really be useful.

Up until a few years ago, I cautioned the average hobbyist against trusting their own acoustic measurements. Using a test record and a hand-held SPL meter offers limited benefit. The data is coarse and tolerance is high. Built-in displays on graphic equalizers and the like aren't usually much better. Readings with instruments such as those are really too ambiguous to be useful.

But these days, there are some pretty good options. Measurement systems aren't really cost prohibitive anymore. They use a PC and digital I/O, often times the built-in sound card. So this makes measurement systems pretty affordable.

Check out products like Smaart, Praxis, Clio, and LMS. Some programs are even free or nearly free and they do a pretty good job too, provided you spend some time to study them and learn how to set them up and use them properly. That's the biggest challenge, that and dealing with the environment. Check out LSPCad and Speaker Workshop.

Re: measuring ability for amatuers [message #25188 is a reply to message #25187] Thu, 06 January 2005 07:18 Go to previous messageGo to next message
Manualblock is currently offline  Manualblock
Messages: 4973
Registered: May 2009
Illuminati (13th Degree)
Thanks Wayne; Sorry for the redundancy; I see you basically answered this question in your earlier post. I should have known.

FuzzMeasure [message #25198 is a reply to message #25186] Mon, 14 March 2005 11:01 Go to previous message
DRC is currently offline  DRC
Messages: 169
Registered: May 2009
Master
No, it's not a technique used by teenagers hoping to grow a mustache and or beard to impress their (frequently imaginary) girlfriends . . .

It's for those on the Mac side who want to measure their speakers. I'm looking into it, but since I have a PowerBook which lacks line out, I'll have to do a bit of adding on. It can take quite a fine sample and turns out great looking graphs from the looks of the web site.

Usual disclaimer: I have no connection to Fuzzmeasure; in fact I never heard of it till last week, and haven't actually used it yet, but the results from thos who have look pretty spiffy!


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