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Teaching & Academics Science Acoustics

Acoustics 201 : Loudspeaker measurements

Learn how to make frequency response and impedance measurements and set up the foundation for designing crossovers.
Rating: 4.6 out of 54.6 (389 ratings)
1,774 students
Created by Marius Tanasescu
Last updated 1/2020
English
English
30-Day Money-Back Guarantee

What you'll learn

  • Measure frequency response of a speaker or sound system.
  • Make distortion measurements.
  • Measure impedance and create impedance plots.
  • Measure the Thiele / Small parameters of a speaker driver.
  • Create FRD and ZMA files for crossover design applications.
  • How to make anechoic frequency response measurements in your own room.

Requirements

  • Basics on acoustics and enclosure design.
  • Microphone designed for measuring.
  • Device for impedance and other electrical measurements.

Description

Learn how to measure frequency response

The first thing you will learn from this course is to measure the frequency response of a certain speaker driver, loudspeaker or sound system. The difficult part is to get an anechoic response without an anechoic chamber. Using different measuring techniques and with the help of intuitive software, you will learn how to measure the full frequency bandwidth anechoically in your own living room. This will help you set up your audio system using measured data, or it can be used to design crossovers for your particular DIY loudspeaker.

A little bit of electrical engineering

A sound system is a combination of both acoustical and electrical parts. You will also learn how to measure impedance and create impedance plots. Measure different electrical components like capacitors, inductors and resistors. Also, if you have an unknown speaker driver you will learn how to measure the Thiele / Small parameters without much fuss.

Dip your feet into crossover design

While this course will not teach you how to design a crossover, it will show you how to create FRD and ZMA files. These are frequency response and impedance files which are used in crossover design apps. At the end of the course I will show you how to load these files into such program, and tryout different circuits and see how adding crossover components behave. A comprehensive course about crossovers will be released in the near future.

Do I need certain equipment?

Yes, you will need 2 core pieces of gear :

  • A measurement microphone (like miniDSP UMIK-1).

  • A device for measuring impedance (like Dayton Audio DATS v2 (recently released v3 as of 2020).

These are roughly 100$ each, but you will get a more comprehensive list of the equipment needed inside the course. With alternatives that you can buy, or more cheaper options. Also, some accessories that will make your life easier are included in the list.

Software option

For the different acoustical measurements we are going to use Room EQ Wizard (or REW). This is a free to use software. Usually, acoustics software are quite expensive and difficult to follow. However, REW is free and quite intuitive to use. Pretty much a complete package. It only misses one function, which I consider important. Don't worry, we're are not going to step up to those complicated application. I devised an Excel spreadsheet which handles this shortcoming. You will find the spreadsheet inside the course.


Nov 2018 Update - Added English subtitles.

June 2019 Update - Corrected a measurement error for the 3-way speaker and added more info to that section

Jan 2020 Update - Update the equipment list

Who this course is for:

  • Audiophiles who want to learn more about sound and speaker systems.
  • DIY-ers who want to build their own loudspeakers.
  • People who want to set up their audio gear using measurements.
  • People who want to set the foundation for learning how to design a crossover.

Featured review

Greg Newberry
Greg Newberry
27 courses
9 reviews
Rating: 5.0 out of 5a year ago
A very enjoyable and informational course. I learned a lot about not just capturing the signal, but how to 'add' and 'merge' in REW to form a complete frequency response chart for a speaker. Then of course, to save them to a .FRD file for xover design. Highly recommended!

Course content

8 sections • 39 lectures • 3h 30m total length

  • Preview03:20
  • Preview06:34
  • Preview03:56
  • Preview03:36

  • UMIK-1 wiring diagram
    02:08
  • Dayton Audio microphone wiring diagram
    02:33
  • Calibration file
    05:33
  • UMIK-1 - Room EQ Wizard setup
    05:09
  • Dayton Audio microphone - Room EQ Wizard setup
    02:52

  • Measurement techniques and Far field explained
    07:42
  • Near field
    04:19
  • Half space and Ground plane
    02:12

  • Presenting the setup
    04:27
  • Measuring distances
    01:48
  • REW Interface 2020 Update
    01:37
  • Far field mid-bass
    07:27
  • Far field tweeter
    02:48
  • Near field mid-bass
    03:29
  • Near field port
    02:00
  • Error, heads-up!
    02:34
  • Combine mid-bass + port
    03:07
  • Box diffraction for near field measurement
    05:12
  • Splice near field with far field
    04:04
  • Create FRD files
    01:57

  • Presenting the 3-way speaker
    02:24
  • Presenting the 3-way measurement process
    07:12
  • Raw measurements
    09:39
  • Processing of the measurements
    18:07

  • Speaker full frequency response - anechoic
    11:47
  • Speaker full frequency response - at listening position
    11:37
  • Distortion measurements
    10:47

  • Presenting DATS v2
    02:48
  • How to measure the Thiele / Small parameters
    13:00
  • How to create ZMA files
    05:17
  • Measure electrical components
    04:33

  • XSim presentation
    07:33
  • Acoustical offset - measurements
    08:36
  • Acoustical offset - processing of data
    03:52
  • XSim - finishing touches
    03:02

Instructor

Marius Tanasescu
Owner of audiojudgement.com
Marius Tanasescu
  • 4.7 Instructor Rating
  • 1,870 Reviews
  • 3,799 Students
  • 5 Courses

Hi! My name is Marius and I'm from Romania. I majored in economics and computer science, and have a college and masters degree in this field. Regarding the audiophile part of me, I started to intensely study this area since several years ago. It’s difficult to get a college degree in this field, since there are only a few universities around the world which have this specialization (from what I know, In Europe, there is a famous one in Denmark, and another in UK). The closest specialization would be electrical engineering, but I wanted something a bit more specific. So instead of going abroad for studies, I decided to study at home in my free time. The things I find important or interesting I write them down on my blog. Here is a list of books I have read, some of them even twice or three times :

1.       Master Handbook of Acoustics by F. Alton Everest, Ken Pohlmann (McGraw Hill Professional, 2009)

2.       Introduction to Sound System Design and Electro-Acoustics by Peter Swarte (DHvV Interactive Lab, 2014)

3.       Audio Engineering Explained by Douglas Self (Taylor & Francis, 2012)

4.       Electroacoustics by Mendel Kleiner (CRC Press, 2013)

5.       The Audio Expert: Everything You Need to Know About Audio by Ethan Winer (Focal Press, 2012)

6.       Electroacoustic Devices: Microphones and Loudspeakers 1st Edition by Glen Ballou (Focal Press, 2009)

7.       The Complete Guide to High-End Audio 5th Edition by Robert Harley  (Acapella Publishing, 2015)

8.       Introduction to Loudspeaker Design: Second Edition by John L. Murphy (True Audio, 2014)

9.       Sound Reproduction: The Acoustics and Psychoacoustics of Loudspeakers and Rooms 1st Edition by Floyd Toole, (Focal Press, 2008)

10.   Basic Electricity (Dover Books on Electrical Engineering) 2nd Edition by Bureau of Naval Personnel (Dover Publications, 1970)

11.   Distortion: The Cause Of Harmonics And The Lie Of THD by Dan P. Bullard (CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, 2015)

12.   Audio Engineer's Reference Book 2nd Edition by Michael Talbot-Smith (Focal Press, 2001)

13.   Loudspeaker and Headphone Handbook 3rd Edition by John Borwick (Focal Press, 2001)

14.   Loudspeaker Design Cookbook 7th Edition by Vance Dickason (Audio Amateur Pubns, 2005)

15.   How to Build Speaker Enclosures by Alexis Badmaieff and Don Davis (Howard W. Sams  & Co, 1966)

16.   Making Sense of Sound by Alvis J. Evans (Prompt Publications, 1992)

17.   Designing, Building, and Testing Your Own Speaker System with Projects 4th Edition by David Weems (McGraw-Hill Education TAB, 1996)

18.   Testing Loudspeakers by Joseph D'Appolito (Audio Amateur Pubns,1998)

19.   Speaker Building 201: A Comprehensive Course in Speaker Design by Ray Alden (Audio Amateur Pubns, 2004)

20.   Loudspeaker Recipes: Book 1 : Four Two-Way Systems by Vance Dickason (Audio Amateur Pubns, 1994)

21.   The Sound Reinforcement Handbook 2nd Edition by Gary Davis and Ralph Jones (Yamaha, 1988)

The difficult part Is making sense of all the information from a text book, since there is no mentor to guide you. There is a lot of study to be done, when you have a question that needs answering. Hopefully, the courses I’m about to publish, will save you from this ordeal and give you concentrated and easy to digest information.

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