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Thread: Near or Midfield? Question.

  1. #1
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    Near or Midfield? Question.

    Hallo together.
    I listen on a JBL Century Gold. Can anyone told me, for what is the Century Produced? Is it a near or midfield Speaker?
    And wich Distance is near or midfield in Meters?
    Pleas help.

    Thanks Peter
    Deep clear loud transparent and accurat.

  2. #2
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    Is Nobody here, who knows about my Question?
    Deep clear loud transparent and accurat.

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    Based on the fact that most nearfield speakers I see advertised generally use either 6" or 8" LF drivers for close-up use, I would put the Century Gold more in the midfield category because of its larger size and greater listening distance required for the rest of the drivers to merge better as a source.

    John

  4. #4
    Senior Member BMWCCA's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Ti 5000 View Post
    Is Nobody here, who knows about my Question?
    It's really neither. It was designed for a living room in a home environment. That's why JBL called them "bookshelf" speakers rather than "monitors". If it's so important to you to find out, why not try them in both situations and see how they work? What are you trying to do with them, anyway? They were built as a special 50th-anniversary commemorative design destined for collectors to use in their homes. There are plenty of simpler, more available, JBL boxes that could be used in near or mid-field monitor application that have no real intrinsic value beyond the sound they produce. They're generally called monitors in those cases.

  5. #5
    Senior Member Doctor_Electron's Avatar
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    Ti5000, you may find these articles to be interesting:

    Near-Fields Handbook | Sweetwater.com
    http://www.sweetwater.com/NearField/

    Owners' manual for some Tannoys. Good placement information & more.

    Choosing a Studio Monitor for your Home Studio
    http://www.bhphotovideo.com/find/new..._March2007.jsp

    Generic monitor tech, nearfield vs. midfield function etc. Has good placement info & explainations as to "why?".

    "doc"

  6. #6
    Senior Member Valentin's Avatar
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    it is a midfield speaker

    based on the size of the drivers in conjunction
    Leo Beranek rule of thumb is 3 to 10 times the distance of the radiating area for full integration of the drivers
    there is also a formula but i would have to look it up
    the sum of the radiating area of your century gold speakers is about 53 cm
    (the distance from the tweeter too the woofer)

    3 meter away is a nice compromise of course your room plays a big part

    nice speakers hope you enjoy them

  7. #7
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    What is a monitor used for?

    Quote Originally Posted by Ti 5000 View Post
    Hallo together.
    I listen on a JBL Century Gold. Can anyone told me, for what is the Century Produced? Is it a near or midfield Speaker?
    And wich Distance is near or midfield in Meters?
    Pleas help.

    Thanks Peter
    Hi,

    let me translate Your question:
    a) what is near/midfield at all
    b) what kind near/midfield is the century gold
    concluding to
    c) how do I use it best as I allready own it

    (a) At what distance will the sound field change from direct to reverberation. At what distance will room reflections take over. That depends obviously on the room too. Near/midfield definitions are related to standard listening conditions. They are of no use with fidelity at Your home.

    (b) I read the ad from JBL. Alas JBL does not give a further note on the directivity of the whole speaker. By design the speaker may suffer from more or less deep notches off axis due to interference and/or narrowinging/widening radiation patterns. That for the C/G can be defined as neither near nor midfield - it has - my personal assumption - no defined directivity. It is not a monitor designed for monitoring situations at recording sites.

    (c) The C/G is in the first place designed to satisfy a demand on clear, substancial sound and high esthetics. You are free to simply enjoy. The less You fiddle with technical terms - that in this case won't apply - the more fun You'll have.

    by

    <edit 0>: some vintage JBL speakers for home use had measured @4pi space a slightly tilted frequency response towards the lower octave. This should be augmented by room influences (eq 2pi space radiation) to give flat response. That was excellent foreseeing engineering as own measurements with very different home grown speakers show nowadays. I remember myself as a youngster argueing with that technique. I wanted bass and more of it. Holy Moses, this company wouldn't give it to me!
    But this so far unique bass response of JBL full size monitors may be the reason for the high impact bass response avoiding the common but highly anoing booming. I wonder why the C/G does not reiterate this concept. Is it the current demand for even more breath taking pressure, a more physical impact that came up with CD and MP3-music?

    <edit 1>: the tilted, shelved - whatever You may call it - bass response of the older designs can be easyly reproduced by equalisation on demand. Drop a message to ask for it, it's DIY here

  8. #8
    Senior Member Valentin's Avatar
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    near field midfield etc has many interpretations one of the interpretation and a correct one is

    At what distance will the sound field change from direct to reverberation. At what distance will room reflections take over. That depends obviously on the room too. Near/midfield definitions are related to standard listening conditions
    But there is also an engineering point of view and its a important one

    i am not inventing this up

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    Quote Originally Posted by Valentin View Post
    near field midfield etc has many interpretations one of the interpretation and a correct one is

    But there is also an engineering point of view and its a important one

    i am not inventing this up
    Yeah, as mentioned the C/G is engineered neither as a near/ nor a midfield speaker. Somebody recapitulated that in the very beginning. It's a bookshelf speaker for home use with some arbritary and quite often changing listening position. From the engineering perspective the C/G is none of both near/ or midfield. The C/G is supposed to have fun with it.
    I'm still wondering why the favorable shallow bass extinction as with the vintage designs is not implemented here. Or is it?

    Regards

  10. #10
    Senior Member Valentin's Avatar
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    Bookshelf speakers should no be placed in bookshelves but their names implies that.

    consumer speakers also have design and objectives

    century gold speakers are no intended to be used at a distance of one meter o less

    As you will see JBL measures their speakers(anechoic) at 2 meters and then correlates this to the 1 meter standard


    From: Floyd Toole book Sound Reproduction page 367
    When a source is small compared to the measurement distance the sound falls 6db per doubling the distance this is called the far field. What is heard and measured in the near field is difficult to predict and not a reliable indicator of the events in the far field
    this is just part of the explanation but you should look it up in to detail

    Not because a speaker is made for C/G means it defies physics

  11. #11
    Senior Member BMWCCA's Avatar
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    OK. It looks like everyone agrees one thing they are not is near-field monitors! Right?? Looks to me like the original poster bailed on the discussion pretty much right away. Probably decided his Ti5000's worked fine and he didn't need the Century Golds.

  12. #12
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    Quote Originally Posted by Valentin View Post
    ... but you should look it up in to detail
    Hi,
    what is near/mid/farfield with a source built up from regular speakers plus a subwoofer or two/three ...

    The definition doesn't hold. It is derived from the differential equation for the radiation of a circular plain. It's physics. One should be aware whether the concept that physics offers as a basic solution applies to a practical issue.

    A three way speaker is not a circular disk.

    Ciao

  13. #13
    Senior Member Valentin's Avatar
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    well well well

    so you are saying that this 3 way speaker will sound and measure exactly the same 80cm away than 300 cm away in free field condition


    yea right

  14. #14
    Senior Member Hoerninger's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by mini View Post
    Hi,
    what is near/mid/farfield (?)
    The definition ... is derived from the differential equation for the radiation of a circular plain. It's physics.
    Mini,
    with your definition it does not apply to any speaker (-combination) in the real world.
    Good philosophers try to find the junction between theorie and daily life though.
    ____________
    Peter

  15. #15
    RIP 2011 Zilch's Avatar
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    4310, using the same size drivers, was designed as a nearfield monitor.

    4310 --> 4311 --> Century L100 --||--> Century Gold.

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