Von Schweikert Audio VR-5 manual Bass Response Tuning, General Tuning Information

BASS RESPONSE TUNING

BACKGROUND INFORMATION: Since enclosed rooms will affect the bass response due to standing wave formation, a woofer tuning feature has been designed into the VR series of speakers.

Deep bass in the 20-40Hz range is highly desirable in a reference speaker design, since hall reverberation at low frequencies is a sonic clue to both depth and hall size. Classical music simply sounds anemic and artificial without deep bass. In addition, the wide dynamic range found in pop and jazz recordings depends on bass “slam” and efficiency at low frequencies in order to sound like a live bass instrument such as bass guitar, synthesizer, bass drums, and upright string bass.

For this reason, a hybrid triple-chambered transmission line/bass reflex system was engineered which exhibits both deep bass and fast transient response, with a strong emphasis on tight bass. Although it is true that the measured transient response of a sealed woofer system has less ringing than hollow cavity type bass reflex cabinets used by virtually every competing company, the trapped rear wave of sealed enclosures results in low efficiency, while the compressed air load results in sluggish transient attack. For this reason, transmission line loading has much appeal and makes more engineering sense, since both deep bass and fast transient response (resulting in “tight” bass) are optimized at the same time. Bass reflex systems, however, which are hollow (lacking 100% stuffing fill), have very unpleasant “hangover” due to cavity resonance. This problem has been eliminated in the VR design by the utilization of a high stuffing density. The resistive damping in the form of acoustic foam and Dacron fill must be compensated in both the driver design and the cabinet tuning “alignment.” All VR Series use custom designed drivers with very high magnetic damping (low Qes) and stiff suspensions (high Qms). The tuning ratio is derived from a proprietary over-damped Theile/Small alignment with a total Q of less than 0.6, while the woofers themselves have a total Q below 0.3. By using an over- damped alignment, maximum tightness is assured due to oversized magnets, stiff suspensions, over- volumed enclosures, and a low tuning frequency.

In addition, the midbass rise normally associated with vented enclosures has been eliminated by the use of Zobel conjugate networks in the VR-5 Anniversary woofer crossover. The inductor coils used at extremely low frequencies have to be massive to avoid saturation and hence are quite expensive and difficult to design. However, the extremely clean bass response of the VR-5 is the direct result of engineering taken to the extreme.

GENERAL TUNING INFORMATION:

Both the volume level of the bass and the frequency response of the woofer system can be altered easily by several methods in order to equalize the room’s influence on the bass response. Although the VR bass systems measure ruler flat in larger rooms that have good dimensional ratios, (using both gated sine wave and maximum length sequence FFT signals), smaller rooms tend to have bass anomalies and overloading problems with low frequencies due to the long wavelengths involved.

STANDING WAVE PHENOMENA:

Standing waves are dips and peaks in the bass response caused by the room boundaries. Although many people have heard the term, many don’t actually know what causes standing waves and what to do about them. Since all speaker systems radiate bass almost omni-directionally, there are many path lengths that the waves take before arriving at the listening position. Although the first arriving bass wave will have flat frequency response, fractions of a second later the same waves have bounced off

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