Links
(Version of 11.10.2001)
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I visit the following web sites more or less regularly in order to keep me informed:
Link-overview:
Last link check: 11.10.2001
MANUFACTURER:
- AUDAX, France (English)
Only for the newer chassis waterfall decay plots are given! Alternatively you may visit the pages of the german distributor. H. Krömke and his guys have remeasured the complete German chassis program (incl. waterfall decay plots etc.! Well done!
- FOCAL, France (English/French)
No waterfall decay plots!
- MANGER Loudspeaker (English/German)
An extremely interesting "fullrange" speaker (unfortunately a bit expensive)!
- PEERLESS, Denmark (English)
No waterfall decay plots!
- VIFA-SCAN SPEAK, Denmark (English)
No waterfall decay plots!
- SEAS, Norway (English)
Very good PDF-data sheets (waterfall decay plots only for tweeters! But EXCEL-woofers come with distortion curves!)
- VISATON (English)
Beside datasheets for all VISATON-chassis (most of the newer ones with waterfall decay plots) there is a user forum (German) and some god basics
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SUPPLIER:
- HIFISOUND, Münster (German)
In the 80ies the loudspeaker data books of Michael Gaedke were the basic source of information for loudspeaker hobbyist.
Today HIFISOUND offers a very attractive online loudspeaker database including T/S parameters and simplified waterfall decay plots of hundreds of loudspeakers!. If you have a fast modem you may want to download their well made catalogue (WARNING: 13 MB -> nearly one hour with 33600 baud!).
- RCM akustik - acoustic arts and technics (German)
They supply very interesting loudspeakers (e.g. ALCONE) and measuring hardware (e.g. WinSweep, DLSA, CLIO, DAAS).
- Madisound Speaker Components (English)
Very good tables with T/S-parameters of loudspeakers of many manufacturers etc..
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MAGAZINES:
- Since fall 1999 the proven KLANG & TON magazine for loudspeaker hobbyists (unfortunately still no homepage) got some competition by the introduction of HOBBY-HIFI (less informative homepage of HOBBY-HIFI) founded by the former chief editor of KLANG & TON Bernd Timmermanns.
Both magazines provide interesting loudspeaker projects, fundamental theory, chassis tests with waterfall decay plots etc. Currently HOBBY-HIFI more concentrates on chassis test (results presented very orderly), (vibration) measurements on network components and slightly exotic speaker projects (extremely small subwoofers, small transmission lines and bass horns) and the new KLANG&TON-team grouped around Heinz Schmitt is more engaged in background articles, standard and loud speaker projects, active speakers and tuning of HiFi equipment.
Sometimes HOBBY-HIFI seems to promote VISATON-chassis but the data sheets of the tested chassis are nearly perfect: on 1 up to 2 pages without advertisement, the diagrams are simple and therefore well readable in general (except the colored distortion curves). Even my wish to replace the predicted SPL in an enlousure by distortion curves for bass loudspeakers was realized meanwhile (does Mr. Timmermanns read my homepage?). As a Hobby-HiFi-special they even include the power dependant distortion curve for one frequency .
The appearance of KLANG & TON has been massively improved over the last issues and is now prety good as well (except the cover layout). However, often they still have too much small diagrams on one page with a sometimes chaotic layout when a complete system is described .
Only the hope remains that competition improves the business and that the loudspeaker hobbyist takes advantage of this. I wish that both bimonthly launched magazines will have an offset of 1 month so that one looks forward more often to a new issue!
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MEASURING SOFTWARE:
- Audiot-Homepage of Ulrich W. Müller (English/German)
Universal measuring software (WINDOWS® 3.X + 9X) with signal generator etc. for full duplex soundcards. Now universal function generator (WaveGen) and oscilloscope (Osci) available as stand-alone modules!
- Small Analyzer Tool of Thomas Neumann (English/German)
Interesting program for studio and PA application. From the user for the user!
- HOBBYBOX-Homepage of Gerald Matz (German)
Very interesting measuring software (Version 1.0 and 2.0 for DOS® and Version 3.0 and 4.0 for WINDOWS® 95) using pulse excitation and providing waterfall decay plots. Version 4.0 now also offers MLS-excitation (good fullduplex soundcard recommended)!
- SIA Smaart® Acoustic Measurement Software (English)
Very well made measuring software with superb general instruction guideline (see "Download" and then category "Tech Notes")!
- Reliable Software's Tutorials & Freeware (English)
WINDOWS® 95 measuring software with source code (under Freeware/Freq Analyzer), FFT basics and C++ tutorial.
- AIRR (Anechoic In-Room Response) (English)
Homepage of the author J.J. Brunn.
- CAMS32 and LspSuite Homepage (German)
LspSuite is a very interesting All-In-One package (simulation, measurement, box designer) for an acceptable price! See also test in K&T 3/2000. Demands a pretty sophisticated soundcard (concerning mixer adjustment), but a nice program to test the soundcard compatibility is offered, too. The new version CAMS32 is not yet available as a demo.
- Speaker Workshop (English)
The Speaker Workshop of AUDUA is special as it is a freeware project! The functionality is good (measurement with output of generated signal or use of external signal, 2 channel transfer function etc.), only an integrated mixer control and input level display are missing (so the limited WINDOWS standard tools have to be used instead). The impedance measurement works fine, particularly the curve fitting algorithm (especially when Rdc is given).
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SIMULATION:
- AudioCad by M.B. Uibel (English/German)
AudioCad version 8.0 ECNC does nearly everything that I expect from a loudspeaker simulation program (rating: fairly good) and for a network simulation program for single drivers and complete systems (rating: superb). Measured data in ASCII form from other programs can easily be imported. The DOS user interface could be more intuitive, but overall it is my standard tool for these kind of tasks.
Unfortunately Mr. Uibel does no longer improve AudioCad and even tries to sell the rights of the program. Stay tuned!
- LSP CAD (English/Swedish)
Very powerful simulation program written by Ingemar Johansson. The outstanding feature on this program is that the effect e.g. of a changed network element or the chassis placement on the baffle is displayed on the fly in the result diagrams (total impedance, total sound pressure level, group delay etc.). This enables you to understand what influences what.
An interesting feature is the possibility to filter a music signal with the predicted sound pressure level. This allows to hear design influences before realizing them!
The effect of the listening room can be estimated, too (extremely fast!). As individual reflections can be switched on and off (e.g. floor, ceiling) the reasons for resonances can be found quickly.
I also the provided tutorial very instructive. Here most aspects of loudspeaker development (and how LSP CAD can help you on that) are described with examples.
- HornResp by David J McBean (English)
Very powerful simulation of horn loudspeakers, although only the sound pressure radiated by the horn is simulated (the direct radiation of a backloaded horn is not superposed). I have simulated several horns presented in Klang & Ton or Hobby-HiFi (e.g. ACR FE208 in Jericho horn (K&T 2/96), ACR FE103S in CT164 (K&T 5/96) and the Micro Horn with SEAS W111 (Hobby-HiFi 06/1999)) where the sound pressure on the horn mouth were depicted and found very good agreement.
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ROOM ACOUSTICS SOFTWARE:
- CARA made by ELAC (English/German)
A very powerful WINDOWS® 95 program for the prediction of room influences on loudspeaker response (see article in STEREOPLAY 07/1999). Now also special adapted Test-CD available! However the geometry input is pretty time-consuming and the calculations definitely require a very powerful CPU! But the graphical presentation of the results (e.g. animated wave fronts) is state-of-the-art!
- Room Acoustic-Calculator (German)
Very fast JAVA-Calculator that does not only calculate the in-room frequency response but also the reverberation time (takes also room absorption elements into account). Please note that you must enable JAVA on your browser before starting it (at my laptop only Netscape Navigator works correctly). A very nice feature is that the frequency response is immediately recalculated each time the loudspeaker or listener position is changed. This enables you to get a feeling for the situation while playing around with the locations! Due to the high calculation speed only few mirror sources are assumed to be considered.
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OTHER LOUDSPEAKER HOMEPAGES / DIY-PROJECTS:
- Albanidis-Audio (German)
Very detailed development story of a cheap 2-way-system named COBRA including measurement results etc. Besides delivery of loudspeaker chassis you may additionally order a measurement of the T/S-parameter for only 10 DM/chassis (incl. warm-up procedure)
- Chaosmic (German)
On this homepage you may find constructions with unconventional materials (YTONG-enclosure and corrugated cardboard as absorber). Their effects are documented with measurements in detail. Very interesting is a project that uses the ACR FE103S as midrange driver.
- ExDreamAudio (German)
Theo Winterscheid has ambitious plans with his new homepage design, but currently many sections are under construction. You may find a very interesting statement concerning transmission lines (paper by F. Hausdorf, formerly with VISATON) and a provoking statement of Peter Krips concerning horn loudspeakers. Finally Theo gives some music tips.
- Linkwitz Lab (English)
This is a goldmine from the master of DIY loudspeaker development! The presented projects are very well explained including measurement results etc. Detailed basics on active filters and room acoustics.
- Art Ludwig's Sound Page (English)
Here you can find lots of information concerning room acoustics, physics of hearing and others (physically oriented background).
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LINK COLLECTIONS/DISCUSSIO FORUMS:
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