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My K-Horns are in a larger room now...


Greg Oshiro

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I did discover that the position of my head (inches!) makes a huge difference in imaging. This makes me more interested in measuring polars.

Yes - that's largely true for small-room corner horn imaging performance in my experience. In fact, it's been my experience for all speakers in small rooms - even worse for planar speakers which usually cannot be toed-in in small rooms.

The K-402s have a sweet spot of about +/- 1-2 feet laterally with the room's acoustic tiles in place. Without the acoustic tiles, there really isn't a sweet spot in my room.

Chris

That sweet spot is significantly wider than mine. My rig *might* have +/- 6 inches. My next audio accessory might be:

post-53989-13819688236954_thumb.jpg

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Is the Y-axis degrees, not dB? Yes

What was the measurement setup? These were supplied for us by Roy as far as setup details he would have to answere that.

The plots I posted were also supplied by Roy

mike tn

I don't suppose Roy provided a Directivity Index vs. frequency plot?

--Greg

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Measuring polars in my world means taking the device under test (DUT) and mounting it on a motorized turntable in the parking lot and making ground-plane measurements. The DUT polar behavior will depend on the size and shape of the baffle in which it's mounted. So an adapter has to be made that somewhat mimics the speaker system in question *and* readily adapts to my turntable.

I am sure that the plots that I referenced were taken from anechoic data gathered in the Hope, AR chamber, with the driver+horn either placed on a turntable or simply rotated between measurements by hand, thus eliminating effects from a turntable. I would guess that the driver used was the K-69-A or the K-69, which is a slightly better driver.

Chris

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That sweet spot is significantly wider than mine. My rig *might* have +/- 6 inches.

Let me not overstate: the range in which there is a clear "stereo effect" is what I stated; the range in which there is a centered phantom image directly on centerline is like +/-6 inches.

Without the acoustic tiles, the image sounds everywhere out-of-phase or monophonic from one speaker.

Chris[:D]

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I've been listening in the big room for a while now and it feels better. It might just be that I can get good imaging and be further from the front wall. One thing that I can't get over is that the equilateral triangle of speaker-listener-speaker doesn't seem to hold true with these K-horns. I'm hypothesizing that the off-axis response of the speakers at the equilateral triangle listening position falls off in the upper mids and highs, so imaging suffers.

I also discovered that the plant-ons (the picture-framey things) on the walls prevent a good seal with the woofer horn. Now I have to take some measurements and see what's up. It looks like I have k-horn backs in my future...

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Let me not overstate: the range in which there is a clear "stereo effect" is what I stated; the range in which there is a centered phantom image directly on centerline is like +/-6 inches. <snip>

ChrisBig Smile

That pretty much describes what I'm hearing.

<snip> Without the acoustic tiles, the image sounds everywhere out-of-phase or monophonic from one speaker.

ChrisBig Smile

I haven't started down the path of fuzzy stuff yet. What I want to do is get the speakers right from a measurement perspective first, then do room treatment. Unfortunately, I think the next step is a constant directivity top hat. I'll start with a tweeter, either a JBL 2404H or Beyma CP-25. After that we get into squawkers, which will be a big step. I've heard rumors of the K55's low distortion, so I'll have to start measuring that in addition to transfer function and polar behavior. It's going to be a long journey.

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I'm hypothesizing that the off-axis response of the speakers at the equilateral triangle listening position falls off in the upper mids and highs, so imaging suffers.

I would think you are right with that, it's the same thing I thought when in Hope seated off to the side a good bit from center trying different models. It really gives you a different picture of each design when seated really off axis a good ways. It was not intential where I sat, more of an accident really but in a good way in the long run.

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Now I have to take some measurements and see what's up. It looks like I have k-horn backs in my future...

It would probably be a huge help, you would still be more or less in the corner so I would guess you would keep that Khorn bass but greatly improve the overall sound, that room would sound completely different, i would think.

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