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Thread: Beranek's Law

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    Administrator Mr. Widget's Avatar
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    Beranek's Law

    “It has been remarked that if one selects his own components, builds his own enclosure, and is convinced he has made a wise choice of design, then his own loudspeaker sounds better to him than does anyone else's loudspeaker.”



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    Senior Member BMWCCA's Avatar
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    ". . . as you have no doubt noticed, no one told the 4345 that it can't work correctly so it does anyway."—Greg Timbers

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    Are we to assume you have confirmed this law of nature, or are questioning it's validity?

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    Quote Originally Posted by rusty jefferson View Post
    Are we to assume you have confirmed this law of nature, or are questioning it's validity?
    Is there any question in your mind? It is my belief we see it confirmed daily here and on other DIY sites.


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    None whatsoever. You must have had a good listening session last night.

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    Quote Originally Posted by rusty jefferson View Post
    None whatsoever. You must have had a good listening session last night.
    Ah, I see where you’re headed.

    I have heard too many great speakers to fool myself into thinking my creations are the best there is. Satisfactory perhaps, and in my case that is a very high bar, but the best? Nope.


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    Quote Originally Posted by Mr. Widget View Post
    Ah, I see where you’re headed.

    I have heard too many great speakers to fool myself into thinking my creations are the best there is. Satisfactory perhaps, and in my case that is a very high bar, but the best? Nope.


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    Same here.

    BTW, I use BBN all the time for construction noise when I do noise studies for development.



    https://books.google.com/books/about...d=Tq31I0ZO2WAC

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    Quote Originally Posted by Mr. Widget View Post
    “It has been remarked that if one selects his own components, builds his own enclosure, and is convinced he has made a wise choice of design, then his own loudspeaker sounds better to him than does anyone else's loudspeaker.”


    That notion is hardly exclusive to diy loudspeakers.

    Its part of anything diy because "I made it myself".

    That's why I subscribe to building a clone as do many others.

    The fact is the diy builder of anything only knows what he knows. But it's the unknown unknowns that differentiate him or her from a commercial product of any reputation in the majority of cases.

    In a commercial product there are nominally a lot of resources including highly training human resources to make objective investigations which lead to key decisions in the design of a product and how its manufactured.

    I find it quite amusing the number of Black Hats congregating in the Hi End Sound Preproduction business who proclaim they are gifted to make judgments because they have heard many good loudspeakers...LOL.

    They are there to line their own pockets and those of manufacturers by influencing consumer purchasing decisions.

    That has always has been the case and always will be. It's being going on since the day before Christ was borne.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Ian Mackenzie View Post
    That notion is hardly exclusive to diy loudspeakers.

    Its part of anything diy because "I made it myself".

    That's why I subscribe to building a clone as do many others.

    The fact is the diy builder of anything only knows what he knows. But it's the unknown unknowns that differentiate him or her from a commercial product of any reputation in the majority of cases.

    In a commercial product there are nominally a lot of resources including highly training human resources to make objective investigations which lead to key decisions in the design of a product and how its manufactured.

    I find it quite amusing the number of Black Hats congregating in the Hi End Sound Preproduction business who proclaim they are gifted to make judgments because they have heard many good loudspeakers...LOL.

    They are there to line their own pockets and those of manufacturers by influencing consumer purchasing decisions.

    That has always has been the case and always will be. It's being going on since the day before Christ was borne.

    Vanity destroys everything in its path. The bane of human existence.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Ian Mackenzie View Post
    That notion is hardly exclusive to diy loudspeakers.

    Its part of anything diy because "I made it myself".

    That's why I subscribe to building a clone as do many others.
    Or have a good reference speaker on hand you can compare too. I use a pair or Revel F206's as my yardstick. I have no illusion's my DIY stuff is the best but it doesn't have to be. In the end aside from the fun of doing the design, building and trouble shooting it just has to make me happy.

    No matter what personal satisfaction is what we are all after.

    Rob
    "I could be arguing in my spare time"

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    In my case my reference speakers are the modified L200/300s, and it took me lots of tries to make something as good, and far more attempts to make something sound better.

    But there it is.

    I do have lots of other good reference speakers also in use including the LS3/5As, L112s, and the studio-based, triamped, Big Red Supers. And I've listened to Harbeths and Magicos.

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    Also don't forget..., the room is a big part of the equation.

    If one designs speakers in a specific room, using the appropriate measurement equipment, and lots of listening, couldn't one design a speaker that works better in that room than a mass produced speaker made to perform in an anechoic chamber..., if that?

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    Administrator Mr. Widget's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by toddalin View Post
    ...couldn't one design a speaker that works better in that room than a mass produced speaker made to perform in an anechoic chamber..., if that?
    Define better.

    Actually I think Dr. Barenek's Law was a bit tongue in cheek. But to your point and his, if a semi competent person designs a speaker for their own room, it will likely please that person more than a substantially more accurate system designed by someone else.


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    Quote Originally Posted by Mr. Widget View Post
    Define better.

    Actually I think Dr. Barenek's Law was a bit tongue in cheek. But to your point and his, if a semi competent person designs a speaker for their own room, it will likely please that person more than a substantially more accurate system designed by someone else.


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    Flatter frequency response across the band (or voiced to taste) in that room because the peaks and dips of the room are taken into account in the design and at least partially mitigated in the final product.

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    Quote Originally Posted by toddalin View Post
    Flatter frequency response across the band (or voiced to taste) in that room because the peaks and dips of the room are taken into account in the design and at least partially mitigated in the final product.
    I assume that is your definition of a better speaker.

    Of course at a base level I think we would all agree with your statement, but actually I disagree with your it as a blanket answer... and I think you will agree with me once you read my answer.

    I think most of us DIYers have discovered that adding too much correction (to flatten the response curve) will crush the sound and make the speaker less enjoyable to listen to. I have seen this happen with passive networks and filters, analog EQ and DSP. Too much of a good thing stops being a good thing. So no, simply having a flatter speaker does not necessarily make it a better one.


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