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All drivers are broken in at high signal levels by 25hz sine
wave non-stop for two days. Then they are measured very carefully using delta
compliance with LspLab and finally matched in pairs based on their Thiel & Small
parameters. With this procedure I can guarantee the technical specs
of the speakers for a long time since they are broken in and, hence, do not
change when used by
the customer.
Thus far I have had little problem with 3%
matching. Most of the time I am able to get them within 2%. This,
however, is not the primary reason that I match the drivers. While
considerable 10% variation is common and audible, I don't measure drivers
because matching drivers makes a "huge sonic improvement". I match drivers
for quality control. I have encountered bad drivers - too often.
A bad driver will measure bad and sound bad.
I have measured such drivers, and heard the results. I have received them
in kits. I have also received email from others who received them in kits.
Implementing these drivers results in bad sound. It also
results in bad business. It is just "BAD" from every angle. It would
seem that the "better" drivers would always be perfectly operational direct from
the factory. Such is not the case. I once purchased eight Vifa wide
range drivers. Four of them had scratchy voice coils - bad. I
have measured 100-200 drivers (not many), and have found two with a
perfect record of Quality Control. One is the SCC 300 from Jeff Glowacki.
The other is the Hiquphon tweeter from Oskar Wroending.
I generally do not measure crossover
components. After measuring hundreds of components I find little reason for
this. Even the mid-range price components (i.e. Solen Capacitors and
Madisound Inductors) are extremely consistent. I don't remember a variance
of greater than 2%. Quite often the variance is less than
1%. This is normal consistency for crossover components. This
is miniscule when compared to driver variance that always occurs. Also, it
might sound nifty to have capacitors matched to within 1%, but this is not
audible. Matching crossover components to anything less than 1% exists
solely for the marketing department or those who are uselessly anal. I
will admit to this extreme detail orientation at times, but please don't mistake
my comments regarding THIS matter for something significant in the audible
realm. The only significant deviation I have found is that some inductors will
consistently measure on the low side of their advertised tolerance, but they
remain very consistent. |