SDC (not MWAF) 2022 fallout thread....

[[email protected]]

Hello from Parts Express –

We will be posting the project images from the competition on PE’s social media and on the Speaker Design Competition link on the PE homepage within the next day or so. Our videographer has been hard at work editing the dozens of interviews, and will post those by category as they are completed. First up will be the Open Unlimited interviews so stay tuned!

Thank you for your patience!

[charlielaub]

Hello PE staff -

I see that some of the official speaker pictures have been posted. Nice! I'm looking forward to more content soon. That will also help me to put names to faces for future reference...

Also, I noticed that my last name was spelled LAMB under the picture of my speaker project. Don't worry that happens all the time, since in cursive a "u" and an "m" sort of look similar depending on the writing style. Can you correct it to LAUB while you are still in there working on it?

[DanW]

My user profile was finally approved by moderators. I enjoyed the wide variety of designs and the brief discussions I had with several of you. I don't "need" another set of speakers but am already brainstorming for next year's event. Following the format of others, here are my judging notes:

Open Unlimited, Active Acoustics SP47

Category: Judge 1,2,3
Clarity: 8, 5, 8
Craftsmanship: 9, 8, 8.5
Dynamic Range: 9, 7, 8
Originality / Design: 7, 7, 7
Soundstage / Imaging: 9, 4, 7
Tonal Balance: 8, 5, 8

Total, Average: 132.5, 7.36

Judge 1
T1: WIDE - good =). Great pace. Fun Bass
T2: Done well. Detailed. Dynamic.
T3: Nice piano. Good vocal.
Great Job =)

Judge 2
Good soundstage but limited depth. Voice recessed. Bass heavy in middlerange & poor transient performance. Dynamics good but deep bass missing. Transients in mid & highs soft. Lack of overall detail and clarity.

Judge 3
T1:
- Sounds good! Nice balance
- Good bass level & impact, little hot
- Good channel separation
T2:
- Little "chesty", possible boost at 3-600 Hz
- Good clarity
T3:
- Good bass balance
- Good soundstage
* Nice Job!

My impressions of the listening room seem to be very different than some, I felt the judging room was way too lively and small. My speakers used active DSP for all channels (3-way speakers) so I had fairly extensive control over frequency response, I assumed the speakers would be in a large space far from any boundaries except the floor and tuned my competition DSP to match that assumption. The in-room bass gain was significant!!!

Attached (hopefully) is my speaker in an anechoic chamber for active crossover tuning with a free field boundry condition assumption.

[Shawn_K]

My speaker design competition scoresheets were sent back to PE due to the street address being incorrect. Vivian Jones at PE scanned them and sent them to me today.

My speaker design is called Peerless Uncubed (3-way all peerless drivers in an enclosure with only one 90 deg corner)

Scores are as follows Clarity, Craftsmanship, Dynamic Range, Originality of design, Soundstage/Imaging, Tonal Balance.

Judge 1: 8, 10, 8, 8, 3, 8
Judge 2: 8, 9, 7, 9, 8, 8
Judge 3: 9, 9, 8, 7, 7, 9
Total 143

Comments,
Judge 1: Track 1: Good female and male voices. Good bass slam.
Track 2: Good clarity in vocals. Weak imaging.
Track 3: Fun sounding on this cut. Good vocals.
Not sure why image was so vague.
Judge 2: Soundstage good. Bass a little lumpy. Transients good. Voices good. Good separation of voices and instruments. Good sound decay.
Judge 3: Track 1 and 2: Good clarity and detail. Nice tonal balance.
Track 3: Vague center image. Good detail and aim, not bright. Nice soundstage.

My takeaway from the comments is my speakers has good voices, tonal balance, detail and soundstage but lacked good imaging. My speakers are an asymmetrical design, and the dispersion is different from the left and right side of the speakers and at the competition setup I positioned them to so that the side wall reflection would be reduced (more dispersion inward). I noticed that Judge 1 (Jerry) was moving his head to the center of the table which signaled to me that he was having issues hearing the right-hand speaker. The 3-point score I got for Soundstage/Imaging by judge 1 really pulled my score down. My overall score was almost exactly what I predicted, and I think placed 5th overall (I don't know for sure not all the scores have been shared). My next design will be a high end 3-way MiniDSP/Passive system and I have about $1600 in drivers invested.

​​​

[Bryguy91]

Now it's time for the Dayton category, and the 1st place winner simply blows my mind. Tom Z. took the prize with a pair of extremely small speakers, "The Bantams" (SP48). They have to be the smallest speakers that have ever won 1st place in ANY category! Drivers were the Dayton ND91-4 3.5" aluminum cone woofers and the Dayton AMTPOD-4 autosound tweeter (air motion transformer). The passive radiator on the back was a Peerless 830878 3.5". And all of these small parts were jammed, together with xover parts, into a pair of ultra small Denovo .04 cu. ft. knock down cabinets! Incredible!

I have a pair of ND91's that I got at the garage sale after the event. Maybe thinking I might make a pair 🤔

[tomzarbo]

I have a pair of ND91's that I got at the garage sale after the event. Maybe thinking I might make a pair 🤔

Here is the link if you want to go that route: The Bantams Micro Speaker System - Techtalk Speaker Building, Audio, Video Discussion Forum (parts-express.com)​

I can't imagine you'd be too disappointed with them.

Besides this year's speaker competition, they were demo'd at Roman's Naval Yard Speaker event in Brooklyn, NY several years ago and they seemed to be well received.
TomZ

[Bryguy91]

Here is the link if you want to go that route: The Bantams Micro Speaker System - Techtalk Speaker Building, Audio, Video Discussion Forum (parts-express.com)​

I can't imagine you'd be too disappointed with them.

Besides this year's speaker competition, they were demo'd at Roman's Naval Yard Speaker event in Brooklyn, NY several years ago and they seemed to be well received.
TomZ

Thanks Tom! I remember looking around for mini monitor designs in the past, and seeing these mentioned here and there. Forgot about them until now, but since I've got the ND91 I think I will go that route. Would the thread you linked be suitable for me to share my build?

[tomzarbo]

Thanks Tom! I remember looking around for mini monitor designs in the past, and seeing these mentioned here and there. Forgot about them until now, but since I've got the ND91 I think I will go that route. Would the thread you linked be suitable for me to share my build?

That's fine with me... It keeps things all in one place for easy access.

TomZ