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Fine Tuning Vandersteen 5s An offer gone missing

Awhile back I purchased a pair of Vandersteen 5's and I inquired regarding placement, etc., etc. As anyone who has these knows, there are a host of room contour adjustments that can be done. There are 11 adjustment "pots" for bass contour which generally require the use of an SPL meter and test CD to set accurately. One fine Audiogonner said in an e-mail that he had a very good way to accomplish these adjustments by "ear" and that I should contact him once I was fully satisfied with the speaker placement, cables, etc. Now, the e-mail (and address) has gone missing. Would that member be so kind as to contact me again? Of course, I would also welcome comment and advice from others. Thanks
4yanx
zargon's avatar
zargon
453 posts
 
Warble tones are useful for two reasons, and apply equally well to any type of speaker. At low frequencies you lesson the chance of measuring directly on top of a specific room resonance and overcorrecting in that region. At high frequencies you lesson the chance of measuring directly on top of a specific comb filtering narrow peak or valley and again overcorrecting. While the phenomina are different, the result is the same.

Using pink noise for measurement can also be useful because it excites all room resonances simultaneously, including those harmonics which add together at any specific frequency. If you have an RTA, play a single bass note down around 63 hz on your test disk, and observe the resulting frequency distribution on the RTA. It will be bell shaped from 31.5 to several hundred hz, due to a combination of the instrument harmonics and the room resonances that are excited.
d_edwards
204 posts
 
If you can afford Vandersteen 5's you can afford True Audio, True RTA, the full suite is $99 and is an accurate professional level tool.

Microphone and preamp for computer interface $200

Then you can tune the speaker properly from bass to treble
jeff_jones
418 posts
 
mre2007 - Rives will work, a cd from Vandersteen with 11 frequencies matched to the 11 potentiometers makes the job easier. Also, time alignment goes out the window for the bottom firing bass (low frequency = long wavelength = even if the bass was time aligned you couldn't tell it).
agaffer
256 posts
 
I am lucky enough to live near Zargon and he was kind enough to fine tune my 5As. The improvement was like getting new speakers.
4yanx OP
1,576 posts
 
Oh, you would have to add that Agaffer. .. :-( Ha!

Jeff, the obvious question (for which I probably know the answer) is, can a guy lay his paws on one of the Vandersteen-produced CD's?

Thnaks for the new info regarding True Audio D. I will look into that software. I come from a staunch background of trusting only one's ears and am a bit reluctant to admit that tools like this can help optimize room sound. But, I'm getting there.

I will be in touch, Zargon. Thanks again for your kind offer.
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