How to properly measure your speakers ? (frequency response, impulse response,..)

[baniza]

Hey everyone,

I want to measure my Yamaha HS8 speaker at my audio engineering institute.

I`ve got a measuring mic, interface, software (FuzzMeasure 3) and an absorbing liveroom. (I know that an anechoic chamber would be optimal, but there is none at my disposal).

Does anyone of you know how to properly measure the speaker ? Are there guidelines like "The microphone must be placed 1m apart from the speaker, at the height of the tweeter.." or something like that ? (The guys from my institute can`t help)

Some questions I have:
- Should I measure with an MLS-signal ? I`ve heard that this doesn`t show the room`s acoustic answer so much on the diagrams, so that would
be good I think..
- How far away from the speaker should the mic be placed ?
–> Also at which height/altitude ? (general positioning of the mic)
- Does the mic have to be calibrated ?
- How loud should the emitted signal be ? (94dbSPL ?)
-...


If anyone of you can help me with that or can post a helpful link, then I`d be more than happy.

Thanks,

Ferdinand

 

[Wapiti]

Studio monitors are tested and measured in anechoic chambers. So "in theory" the specs that come with the manufacturer should be accurate. As far as measuring your speakers at home I do not quite see the purpose behind that. I would recommend running a sine wave sweep and some pink noise through your speakers in your studio setup. You will be able to notice any room modes in particular that might be troublesome to help you with your production and mixing. More practical IMO, any true "measurements" you do at home will pull out all of these room flaws would be impossible to truly measure the speaker

 

[baniza]

What about testing the sound ?

Studio monitors are tested and measured in anechoic chambers. So "in theory" the specs that come with the manufacturer should be accurate. As far as measuring your speakers at home I do not quite see the purpose behind that. I would recommend running a sine wave sweep and some pink noise through your speakers in your studio setup. You will be able to notice any room modes in particular that might be troublesome to help you with your production and mixing. More practical IMO, any true "measurements" you do at home will pull out all of these room flaws would be impossible to truly measure the speaker

Thanks for your answer. Actually I`m comparing 2 speakers (HS80M and HS8) as a research project. Since the inaccuracies are the same in both measurements (provided that I set everything up the same), it`s not too bad.
I tried it today with a sine sweep and it worked great. The frequency response diagram itself doesn`t acurately reflect the speakers frequency response, but you can see a difference in HS80M and HS8.

Any ideas on comparing them auditorily ? I thought of doing a survey amongst 15 people or so regarding the different sound when playing music.
I know that opinions on "good" and "bad" are just opinions and not objective, so I maybe try and ask questions regarding specific differences.

Or maybe I just set up both speakers, put the people that listen a blindfold on their eyes and ask them "wether they can hear a difference between file 1 and file 2" (while actually playing back the very same file, just once through the HS80M and once through the HS8... (It`s kind of tricky to do a survey about the sound of a speaker).

Any ideas ?

Thx