Sony Buyout from PE Testing

[ErinH]

Thanks to Sidi for sending this over.

I'm goin to make these results rather quick and painless. No detailed reports. Just a couple screenshots for you guys.

LPM (T/S & Impedance):







LSI (large signal xmax derivation and curves):

Limited to 1.8mm xmax by Bl (10% overall distortion)





I'll post FR/HD/IMD later.

[ErinH]

Re: Sony Buyout from PE Testing

2.83V/1m

[ErinH]

Re: Sony Buyout from PE Testing

8v @ 1/2m (averaging ~ 98dB output; 92dB relative at 1m.)

[ErinH]

Re: Sony Buyout from PE Testing

All of the following are taken at 1/2m.

Fixed bass tone at ~fs/2 (40hz) and swept 'voice' tones from 400-4000hz, in steps of 20 to gather data.

3rd order sucks.

[Sidi]

Re: Sony Buyout from PE Testing

Alright so let's analyze this a bit....

With respect to the BL limited xmax, the BL center is offset a great deal. 1mm offset versus 1.8mm xmax.

This is a serious error. I'd bet this is part of why the entire driver performance sucks. Blech.

[AR3A]

Re: Sony Buyout from PE Testing

Is this the blue cone driver or the black Sony buy out driver ?

[greywarden]

Re: Sony Buyout from PE Testing

And you'd need to use it as a midrange between 500Hz and 1.5kHz? That's about all I grasped from those charts, haha.

[johnnyrichards]

Re: Sony Buyout from PE Testing

Well, it is usable as a wide range driver as indicated by subjective reports coming back all over the place. Just don't expect ultra-high fidelity out of it, is all.

[johnnyrichards]

Re: Sony Buyout from PE Testing

Is this the blue cone driver or the black Sony buy out driver ?

Black one.

[mzisserson]

Re: Sony Buyout from PE Testing

Well, it is usable as a wide range driver as indicated by subjective reports coming back all over the place. Just don't expect ultra-high fidelity out of it, is all.

That's just it. Use it where it works. It is not high fidelity but has a very classic "warm" sound to it that makes it very listenable and enjoyable.

Honestly, not as bad as I expected!

[r-carpenter]

Re: Sony Buyout from PE Testing

Well, it is usable as a wide range driver as indicated by subjective reports coming back all over the place. Just don't expect ultra-high fidelity out of it, is all.

that was not my report. On the contrary I mentioned that the driver has an issue around 2k that makes it's use limited.

BTW, Erin, Thanks!

[johnnyrichards]

Re: Sony Buyout from PE Testing

that was not my report. On the contrary I mentioned that the driver has an issue around 2k that makes it's use limited.

BTW, Erin, Thanks!

I know you said that - but I guess I was implying a broader range than 500 - 1500 especially if you concede the less than stellar upper midrange performance.

[ErinH]

Re: Sony Buyout from PE Testing

I've never seen a driver that had it's own shelf filter built in....

There's a decrease of nearly 4dB suddenly at 1.5khz. A nasty resonance issue at 5.7khz (as evidenced by the bump in all axes).
You guys who build speakers could probably implement your own low shelf to help resolve this, but this is a problem to folks in car audio who typically rely on dsp's without that ability. Once you get past that, it's actually got pretty good FR up until the ringing at 5.7khz but I imagine due to polar, most would cross this driver before then. So, yea... FR is probably workable (again, if you implement your own shelf filter).

But...
THD is pretty crappy. Mark K, and my own research, points to 3% as being a threshold for most (3% THD = 30dB). I think when I did the math, most people were not receptive to above this value, but about 94% of folks who took the Klippel audibility test could detect distortion within 30dB. I posted a data snap of this somewhere at some point. So, when you see nearly 3% at 1900khz, and 3.5% at 370hz .... all taken at a pretty minimal output (2.83v/1m which gives a mean output of about 85dB @ 1m), that's pretty bad.
Then I kicked it up a notch; 8v @ 1/2m which is about 98dB on average @ 1/2m. This is equal to about 86dB at 2m. This is probably close to on par with normal listening levels and distance. Now, look at those results:
4% THD at 1900hz and 6.5% THD at 360hz. Gross.

All in all, this looks like a cheap driver. You would almost have to use these in a line array to avoid the issues in distortion levels.

And that's not even considering intermod.


That's my $.02.

[r-carpenter]

Re: Sony Buyout from PE Testing

All in all, this looks like a cheap driver. You would almost have to use these in a line array to avoid the issues in distortion levels.
That's my $.02.

Aha ;)

[CUtiger]

Re: Sony Buyout from PE Testing

Well considering they didn't cost that much more than 2 cents they are not that bad in my book.

Pair them up with a very cheap tweeter and a very cheap lepai amp and give them to somebody whose main speakers are the little things stuck in the laptop and it would probably sound decent...