A masterclass on speaker measurements Amir. Kudos! The knowledge just flows out so naturally from your mouth that it shows how well you understand the subject. Thank you for sharing that knowledge and passion.

Great tutorial! Very important. Difficult to measure, glad you do that for the community. Even more difficult to implement at home 😬

I knew all this already because I actually have read Tool's book but I still immensely enjoy listening to Amir explaining this stuff as comprehensively as he does.

Wow, this was everything a person could want to learn from speaker measurements. I see myself that omnidirectionality is usually explained incorrectly. We learn everyday ! This is excellent Amir, thank you! 👌🤓

You know someone knows by the clarity of thought (mentally seeing clearly the concepts) and holistic grasp of the subject. Roads traveled which aren't worth taking, etc. This was f Beautiful! You tied scattered concepts (for me) into a coherent picture. Thank you for not being stingy Amir!

The waterfall explanation, and actual worth of it, was a great eye-opener as many reviewers use this as some sort of bible. Again a very meaningful, understandable and entertaining course with a touch of humor. Appreciated!

Very thorough explanation of direct vs early, vs effective power "in room" response in a room. Excellent discussion of the challenges getting test gear to reveal real aberrations of the speaker, vs mic location(s), or room contribution. I envy your test platform!

Engaging with this resource provides a rich and enlightening learning experience, significantly outshining the often vague and subjective insights offered by a multitude of audiophiles. While thousands of audiophile opinions may swirl in a realm of subjectivity, often lacking empirical grounding, the knowledge acquired here is rooted in objective analysis and factual evidence. This stark contrast in learning value is palpable. Here, each piece of information is a stepping stone towards a deeper understanding of audio quality, offering a solid foundation for making informed decisions. On the other hand, navigating through the sea of subjective audiophile opinions can feel like wading through a quagmire of personal biases, often leading to a cul-de-sac of confusion rather than a pathway to clarity. The objective lens provided here cuts through the fog of subjectivity, offering a clear, well-lit path to genuine understanding and appreciation of audio excellence.

I never thought I would watch it for an hour. So fascinating. At the same time, I have a better understanding of reading this chart. thanks.

This is excellent information, Amir. Especially your explanation of the sound dispersion related to matching the drivers. Thank you. One minor disagreement is my experience with ports in the front vs. back. If a speaker is designed properly the port being in the front can be a significant advantage when the speakers are backed up close to a wall.

In every single way - an excellent presentation - to call it educational would be putting it mildly - thank you Amir.

You and Ethan Winer are the dynamic duo. Thanks for your expert no non-sense insights.

Tanks for this video Amir. Please make more videos. More videos can mean more participation... Can mean more views and could mean the possibility of monetizing the channel. ASR could benefit from this. ASR and the work you do is (IMHO) to important to go away. 😉

I took a leap of faith and blind bought some used Revel 106’s at a great price to replace my B&W CM5’s. The B&W measure to have that happy FR showroom sound (measured by Stereophile, and confirmed by Dirac Live to behave as such in my listening space) that wowed me when I bought them from Best But Magnolia 12 years ago. The research on preferences did not lie to my ears, and I do very much prefer the neutral and well-behaving speaker. It sounds great at all volumes and with all genres of music, which I couldn’t say the same about the B&W. Thanks so much for the video.

Amir's speaker measurements (more than a dozen and counting) have lined up with my listening impressions. Accurate results; and he is doing these measurements properly. Even using the best high-end amplifiers and source components will not correct a bad pair of speakers. Instead, top-notch gear will only spotlight the shortcomings.

Very nice! I've never struggled to read the graphs, but the explanation of the physical causes of various deviations from ideal is the sort of thing that takes many years of experience to develop an intuition.

Thank you for this demonstration, in particular on the interest of well controlling the dispersion pattern of each driver under different listening angles, I learned some things important for my future 4-way DIY speaker project ! My listening room is not very big but it opens on both sides to other rooms, which lengthens the path of the reflected waves. I use a professional DSP based on the SHARC ADSP21489 (not a MiniDSP) 4 inputs and 8 outputs on XLR on my Magnepan 1.7i active, Purifi amplification and Viawave supertweeters to make up for the lack of air.

Masterpiece as usual ! My proposal for your next video is to explain the Olive's preference score

Thank you so much for making the world of audio equipment better :)

FANTASTIC!!!!! Thank you very much! Best audiophile video and most informative audiophile video I’ve ever seen.

Excellent job making a clear tutorial from A to B , I was able to follow along and grasp as well as you explained what the waterfall graph actually measures as for some reason, I was unable to quite get in the past lol .

Thank you very much for making this video! I'm no stranger to this info (I work in the industry) but watching this filled in quite a few gaps in my knowledge. I hope you'll make more. Also: I now know why my Genelec 8331s sound so damn good no matter where I place them.

Not a bad video for explaining the basics. In your next video it would be interesting if you explained how multiple subwoofers can be used to fix room modes.

I learned many things from you and Erin's audio corner. Thanks a lot for all the great content Amir!!!

I am so happy your video popped up on my feed. I learned SO MUCH.

I'm writing this in the first 5 minutes of the video, so I don't know yet whether you'll address this later : Some of the most compelling and exhilarating experiences I've had listening to reproduced music, was done via dipole speakers. I have owned all kinds of high-end speakers, from very technically-accurate Genelecs to massive units from Wilson Audio. All of these speakers were enjoyable and impressive. But I've experienced things with dipoles that are just peerless. From large Magnepans to the absolutely stunning Linkwitz 521, I feel like there's something in dipoles we ought to talk about. The Linkwitz are very demanding to amplify, and the units I listened to used six Purify core mono amps to drive them with an external crossover. Not a setup for people who don't want to fiddle around, and to whom I'd recommend a good pair of active/integrated Gennies, KEF or similar. The sound of a properly set up Linkwitz in my experience beats the experience of a pair of Kii Threes. Have you had similar experiences ? Do you have a theory about this ? Are dipoles driving the whole room and by that token, making the sound seem more naturally occurring ?

This was so informative, thank you! Would love to see matching videos for headphones, as well as amplifiers and DACs!

Thanks Amir! Perfect timing. I just received my JBL708P which you highly recommended some time ago. After watching this video and looking at your measurements I understand your graphs much better. Thanks.

Most valuable video on speakers

Great explanation to understanding measurement. A tutorial for all, whom like to see what the sound measure from our speakers. Hope the big speaker manufacturers see this, so you get more consulting work for their products.

What a really good tutorial and it does open up a whole set of other questions. Hopefully there are more explanations where these came from. Look forward to when they come along.

Your explanations are very easy to understand, thank you!

Great video, depth and concise. Thank you very much indeed

Hello Amir: Thanks for the content. I truly appreciate it. Cheers

Thank you for another MasterClass

Thank you Amir, for your very informative videos, I wish this had been about when I was looking for new speakers, it would have saved me a lot of travelling about aimlessly listening to different speakers at various dealer. Long may science prevail

M-Audio BX8 the best monitor you can get for the money. the output from them is amazing. i got mine in 2008 (BX8a) and had 2 friends go out and get a pair behind me. i had another friend looking for some monitors a while back and the bx8's were hard to find because of the pandemic and ended up going with some Rockit's and they can't even compare

I have Genelec 8341 x2 with a 7370 sub, very happy with my setup

In my opinion this is such great information. Finding a speaker with a good on and off axis response is so much easier to deal with when actually set up in home. Awesome video with lots of valuable information and great explanation of what's going on. Very cool 👍😎

Very useful info as always.

Fabulous presentation.

Thank you so much. This is the video I was looking for. Very informative.

Great video, very insightful - thank you for posting this. Explains why I didn't like the sound after I used the Audyssey calibration on my Denon receiver - it would seem that by flattening the in room response it undid the natural downward slope that I preferred.

Excellent, a must for anyone who reads the speaker reviews on ASR, makes the review all the more informative. Another video with a different speaker would be great. Out of interest has there ever been a speaker that you tested on the NFS with eq that you have applied after the 1st testing? If would be very cool if a relavtively cheap speaker could measure as good as one say 5-10X more expenisve after simple eq.

Always a pleasure to follow along as teach us, Professor Amir. (I don't know if you are a professor, but I consider you t be one.)

@Amir , Thanks for sharing this valuable knowledge and for the amazing video. Please do the follow-up video as well, do Polar plots compliment the horizontal beamwidth?

Great stuff. Glad to finally understand more than the panther's pose.

It's a really, really excellent video!

I enjoyed this great and important lesson. Thank you Amir.

Welcome back 🙏

Great educational video! Excellent presentation. Congratulations!!!

Hi Amir, I'm new to the channel and I love it. This is an incredible body of work, I'm learning so much. I have ATL PMC speakers, I wonder how they would measure 🤷..maybe we'll find out one day. Thankyou for all your hard work, I'm hooked 🎣. Best regards, Rob UK.

Thank you very much for this video

Thank tou for making this videos. Easy to understand.

Thank you for very detailed explanation, Follow up wideo would be very appreciated as well.

Great video! Everything is well explained. I know now what too look for in a speaker for my room. Thank you!

I totally agree that the porch should be at the rear to minimise unwanted noise. You can experiment with having the port various distances from the wall. Having the port very close to the wall has a similar effect as having a longer port.

34:13 Yes, but an EQ will change the time response at that frequency, so you do have a drawback aswell! (DSP based Monitors like Neumanns do correct for that though if using MA1 for example)

One word “Brilliant”

You mentioned that strange resonant dip/peak in the 500-600Hz range. But did not mention that it seems to appear at reduced levels at it's harmonics, a dip about 1.2kHz and a dip and peak around 2.4Khz.

Nice video, although I do think it would have been worth discussing subwoofers and crossing them over with main speakers to get 20 Hz and below extension.

Cool, never watched this channel before, just heard the hate. Lots of really good info! There was some graph in there that you said we used to use but it turns out it was wrong. If you and your gripers can really understand that statement then there should be no problem with all of you i think. Anyway, good stuff.

Very interesting video. I just love the forum and the channel. One question: you said that the change in the way the drivers beam or widen the sound impact the off axis response. I get that. What i don't fully understand is why they are not equally important for the on axis response. Doesn't delivering more energy to the sides automatically mean less energy to the center? Is this just not a problem because you already assumed that the speaker measures flat on axis? Is it true then that i would have the same problems but reversed if i would tune a speaker off axis first to be flat off axis and then listened to it on axis? Another way to put this question: is the directivity problem aquestion of how a *fixed amount* of energy is spread out in space or is it a question about how much *additional* energy is put out to the sides. I assume it is the first. I am glad for anyone who knows something definitive.

So many ear based audiophiles will hate this...

damn it amir! im supposed to do homework its the last week of class 🤪

Fantastic video Amir. Thank you so much. You are providing an invaluable service to the hifi community. One question. Is it advantageous to purchase an equalizer? If so is there one you could recommend? Thanks again Amir.

Great job!!! DUDE!!!

is there a way to calculate the in-room response with a weaker celling reflection? and please make a video about room acoustics.

One thousand likes! Speaking about speakers the wait is Over…

As I've not much time to watch the full video, at least now, I'm wondering and asking you if Amir has ever made some measurement about FMD and/or AMD (frequency/amplitude modulation distorsion), in particular on coaxial based speakers. Thanks for let me know.

very good, thank you.

Thank you, Would measuring a bipolar speaker (Paradigm bp for example) be very different?

Good lecture. I have 2 questions: 1. Doesn't the waterfall plot prove that you cannot just EQ local peaks and troughs in a speaker frequency response? The resonant energy storage would still reduce transient response accuracy. So signal fidelity is reduced with any resonance, although it is useful for bass power handling. 2. Wouldn't a well designed full range driver use the cone flexural wave and waveguide flare to allow reasonable off axis dispersion? The problem is that bass drivers do not consider this approach. The full range challenge is meeting bandwith by minimising voice coil mass and maximising magnet BL for a given xmax.

You have brought a lot of truth to this area. The snake oil pushers are in trouble when faced with the reality of measurements.

Dynaudio had some exotic diy speakers like 4 way and even 5way. The finale design is 4 way and sounds absolutely stunning

For dispersion which is not researched so much, is it better to have a even dispersion let’s say from 1000hz to 10000hz or a slight gradual narrowing of the dispersion ? I’ve seen the Perlisten S7t which has a very wide dispersion but narrows quite immediately around 4000hz which I assume is where it’s woofer hands off to its tweeter array. That’s my first question. Second question. Many say that super wide dispersion has a wider soundstage of course but has diffuse imaging. Is there a good sweet spot to have a nice wide soundstage but good imaging as well? Such as a 70deg even dispersion is a good sweet spot? Or would that be considered very wide dispersion? I wish there was more research on dispersion. Thanks so much!

Sorry if I missed it, but which measurement gives an indication of spatial qualities (soundstage width/depth)? I've heard some reviews say higher frequencies (but not mention which or how), for speakers some people say the directivity.

Loved this talk!!

What is the reason for not measuring impedance vs frequense vs phase?

Great video as always. Thankyou.🙂

Legend, thank you Amir!

Please do a review on Genelec 8020C

Thank you, that was very well explained. Do you ever take an RTA of the speakers in your listening position? I was interested in knowing what issues can and can't be fixed with regards to the room.

thank you

I guess it has been asked to you before that some speakers sound good with good measurements and some bad with also good measurements. Has it to do with the acoustics in the room they listen or is it a design of good crossover parts vs bad crossover parts in the signal of the speaker? Do better parts in the speaker make a difference. If it is so many speakers even high end are not good even expensive ones if they not have the quality parts.

I think videos on measuring and correcting room response would be really interesting.

excellent

If the speaker gets distorted playing sub bass then you need to chop out to sub bass. Either add a subwoofer or boost the midbass for balance and a bit of punch and slam

Hi this is Poolio from Belgium. You are a hero of mine. However I am having trouble getting people to believe my scatological audio information. I even start out by saying I am from some exotic location, and even throw in something obscure about the weather to lend credibility. Sadly they still don't believe my serpentine essence. What am I doing wrong? Am I too tranparent?

Another brilliantly informative video. I learnt about things I (thought) already knew! You'd have made a good teacher. Amir, let's suppose our stand mounts are above ear height and we use the vertical directivity heat map to angle them down towards the listening position. Should we be worried that we now don't know what the horizontal dispersion and reflections are like because the loudspeaker is tilted? Essentially how does changing the rake angle to improve vertical response effect the horizontal reflections? Hope the question makes sense. Thanks again

Amazing video! Interested to know what your background is,did you work as a audio engineer prior making the forum?

great vid bud thanks! have to see if i can get me a pair of them speakers ✌😁👍

Thanks to the infinite and beyond

great video Amir, I learn with each one of your videos. I was wondering whether somehow your measuring systems could automatically create a filter for Roon ? (like what Audyssey does with your AV receiver).

I assume the Klippel people designed their algorithm with comparing to an anechoic chamber?

hi Amir, but what about horn speakers they must reflect less sound to the sides ?

I would love to see measurements of the sourcepoint products from MoFi

I think I understand how these types of measurements establish a baseline of sorts for quality, i.e. these are common things that can adversely affect the quality of sound in a room. I guess what I'm wondering is, could two speakers have very similar measurements of this type, but one would sound good and another less? I'm thinking about attributes like the timbre of instruments and voices which - well, I guess it's unclear to me whether these are quantified in your measurements. If, for example due to materials or shape or what have you, speaker A just makes a violin sound more like a violin than speaker B, even though they measure similarly. Or, past timbre, is it possible that of two similarly measuring speakers one is better than the other at reproducing more complex sounds, e.g. an orchestral recording? Or are these things all considered to be measureable?

so, wouldn't it be better to make/use even smaller tweeters so they stay in the omnidirectional behavior over their frequency range (like the woofer), and probably use multiple of them to produce the same sound energy? because w/o all the on beam vs off beam side effects, the entire can of worms regarding reflections and resonances, effecting the frequency range plot by creating ripples and distortions, wouldn't be there.

Thank you Amir. Really appreciate your videos and all the work you put into them. By any chance have you ever measured Harbeth speakers? What are your thoughts about them?