advertisement


Testing Tannoy Drivers

Beadlesabout

Active Member
Assume I’m a complete amateur (I am) but keen to learn.

I have x4 tannoy monitor gold 12” R drivers and I want to work out which is the best pair to keep by taking meaurements.

What equipment do I need and what’s the best method to use?

Many thanks in advance
 
I’ve been reading about REW. Most people seem to be using a MiniDSP UMIK-1 microphone. Is that overkill? I’d rather spend less money if possible.

I’d like a microphone with its own USB interface so I don’t need to buy an external sound card as well.

The reason I ask about method is I think some people test the driver without the cabinet. Is that preferred?
 
I’ve been reading about REW. Most people seem to be using a MiniDSP UMIK-1 microphone. Is that overkill? I’d rather spend less money if possible.

I’d like a microphone with its own USB interface so I don’t need to buy an external sound card as well.

The reason I ask about method is I think some people test the driver without the cabinet. Is that preferred?

I think the Umik-1 is pretty much the cheapest calibrated mic you can get, and native USB so no interface required, hence why it's popular.
 
Thanks all.

If someone can help me with the method (just the positioning and if the driver should be in the cabinet or not)
 
Tannoys are very hard to measure IME. They use a compression driver horn-loaded through the bass unit and as such are very directional at close distances. As such a tiny error in mic position, literally just a cm or less, will often show. I’ve done it many times and found it a really frustrating process and to be honest I think you’d need a jig to do it accurately.

Again very much IME the areas Tannoys are most likely not going to be right is in the crossover and compression-driver alignment region, i.e. right in the mid-band from about 1kHz to 6kHz. My favoured way of checking a pair sound pretty much like a pair is putting the drivers right next to each other and panning pink noise left/right. You really can hear if they are different. Any difference can often be narrowed hugely by very carefully tweaking the compression driver alignment, but it is a right PITA of a job and one with plenty of risk as the compression drivers are all but unobtainable. Anyway, that is the area I’d listen to the most carefully, though you will find it very hard to measure with sufficient precision to really trust the results.
 
Thanks Tony, I appreciate your insight and I like the approach of listening and deciding that way. I should keep it simple!
 


advertisement


Back
Top