Thanks for the honesty about the CNC machine. I wondered how useful it could be, but will leave it for much later. The tech will likely improve significantly, too. And great tip on the mustard bottle! Genius😀
Glue in the mustard bottle. I've used every gadget glue bottle known to man. Nothing beats the mustard bottle. Easy, accurate glue application. Easy to clean. Durable. Cheap, even if you just toss the mustard.
Thanks for showing us round and breaking down to what you really need - I find a lot of the Diy speaker gurus have a sense of snobbery and forget that a lot of people do this stuff on a tight budget your channel really talk to us and breaks down to us simpletons that it’s not all rocket science and it can be achieved with good help and simple explanation/tuition through your videos. Ps will you ever cover floorstanders using isobaric loading?
MARK BRISLEN thanks for the comment! I like floor standing speakers but have never felt desire for isobaric. I don’t see much advantage to doing it. Common in car audio I believe because there is some space that can be saved.
Earthworks has lower distortions compare to Behringer and also can handle higher SPL before distortions of the capsule kick in. ECM works ok till 100 or so dB and M30 will work well in to 123db or so. Unless you looking to get in to near field distortion testing, getting Earthworks isn't necessary. For just FR testing and moderate SPL, calibrated ECM is good enough. Linkwitz has a mic mode published on his website. It lowers 2nd order dist of the capsule. There's never enough space and never enough clamps! LOL
Nice shop you have there . These darn tools add up and my 22’x28’ shop is overly busy . Hoping to purchase a 4x4 pro router table from cncrouterparts next year . I know it’s not necessary,but it would help on occasion. Especially in my case where I want to cut several layers of 1” mdf to build a curved cabinet . I’m buying it regardless ,as I want to do wood carvings , so it’s a win I win . Love the mustard container idea for glue. Will try it with my tightbond .
Thank you for this tour, was totally fascinating and learnt much. Wish I had the woodworking equipment and your mastery skills, I try my best with a jig saw, lots of sand paper and elbow grease lol! I noted you mentioned that your software was getting a little old in the tooth, and as a nuub coming into this field it would be really educational to hear your views on the more modern measuring and simulation software. For example Vituix, DATs v2 & OmniMic v2 measurement suites by Dayton. In terms of mics, I've heard to avoid USB versions and choose dual channel, how do you feel about this? Again so many thanks for your channel and effort to help others, really appreciated.
MrFrobbo hi again. I’ll start with mics. I see no problem with USB mics. No need for dual channel. As for software I recommend HolmImpulse or REW (room eq wizard) or omnimic. I like Xsim for XO design, it’s so simple no fluff. For impedance the DATS is probably a good way to go. The rest is free so it doesn’t cost that much really. The mic and dats will set you back about $100.
I'm going for the Scarlett 2i2 & sonarworks XREF20 with REW, we shall see how things work out. Keep the great videos coming mate, think I've watched them all now lol.
Awesome video! Do you not like to use CNC because of the quality of the x-carve? Or the whole process needed to use CNC? Thanks for continuing to make videos!
Kirby Meets Audio thanks! Its sorta both. I've come to believe that unless you buy a really nice $10000 machine it is not going to cut well. That is part of the problem. And that is not an issue specific to xcarve rather all cncs that are inexpensive and try to offer more than they should for the money. The other side of it is the time to CAD, generate tool paths, mount the material on thr waste board, and run the cut is excessive. Most of the time I can cut what I need much faster using a table saw and router. I havent touched my cnc for several months now. I use to look for reasons to use it. Which doesnt make sense. Then it would break down and require upgrade etc. Ive learned the limits and they are very very low.
For me CNC is great for mass production, that might be multiple items all at once or regular one offs of the same item. Also good for weird shapes and accuracy. But if your doing one offs all the time you will spend more time designing on cad and then hoping it's good first time. I think the other issue would be the material size it could cut. Ideally you want to be able to get a 2.4m x 1.2m sheet of mdf or ply cut all at once into cab panels. Probably could smash out 10 small cabs from one full sheet! Anyways CNC's are cool and I think most males would love to own one. Thanks for sharing mate!
Fear Wolf Brewery for impedance testing I use an old WT3 from Dayton. The new version of this is called DATS. Is that what you were asking or do you mean for frequency response measurements? Thanks.
Oh I see. The software generates the signal, whether that's REW, HolmImpulse, SoundEasy, etc. and then I use a simple 1/8" to RCA cable to go from the line out on the laptop to my amplifier. Then just regular speaker cable from the amplifier to the device under test (DUT). The microphone then receives the signal and sends it to the computer either by USB (I use a USB microphone because it's so simple) or in the case of an XLR mic you use an external sound card with phantom power and usually USB hookup to the computer. It's actually really simple, no tricks to it. Especially if you use a USB mic.
This comment is very helpful to me, but could you elaborate? I'm just getting started and have never used a microphone before. When I look online at the ECM8000 it seems that it requires a mixer as well as a phantom power supply? Or, alternately as you suggest, what calibrated USB microphone could I buy ? I would only use the mic for speaker testing. Thanks if you can help, and your videos are very informative.
Ryan, why do you prefer Holm Impulse over REW? I use REW mostly because it's available for Mac and I don't have a Windows computer (my iMac doesn't like Windows), I do have a Windows tablet (Thinkpad8) that with Holm Impulse and ARTA as well that I have used it to do outside measurements a few times but doing this kind of job on such a small screen isn't fun so I haven't spent much time on it.
Corrado VRz yes I actually do. REW is more powerful, but I find HolmImpulse to be very intuitive and do exactly what I want. Sometimes simpler is better. It's hair splitting though. If you use REW, don't change.
Thanks for sharing, great video. Do you think that Impact driver is a must for speaker building? I just start to get into this and my Bosch drill died last months. I wonder if to buy Drill+Impact or just Drill
itoosh if your focus is pretty much just speaker building plus some chores around the house, the drill is all you need. Often you can get the impact driver in a combo set for cheap though. But if it saves some money for other useful parts or tools you only need the drill.
