Measurement Setups - Post Your Rig!

Discussion in 'Measurement Setups, Systems, and Standards' started by Luckbad, Oct 5, 2015.

  1. Luckbad

    Luckbad Traded in a unicorn for a Corolla

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    Anyone willing to show pictures and detail their measurement setups, please post here.

    I'm personally very interested in full-size can measurement rigs.

    For amplifier and dac measurements, I'm likely going to pick up an ESI Juli@ XTe later this month. I previously used the DBpro portion of the Sound Blaster ZxR.

    For IEM and headphone measurements, I'm going to pick up a miniDSP UMIK-1. I used to use the Dayton Audio EMM-6 and Scarlett 2i4. Sold the latter so OJ now has the former. I don't yet have a headphone measurement rig built.
     
  2. Ninja Pirate

    Ninja Pirate Friend

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    I would love to see some kind of standardized measurement system that people could either purchase as a package (without paying ludicrous amounts of dosh) or DIY themselves.

    My thought is that it would be the Objective2 of measurement systems (something like the Vibro Veritas), not perfect by any means, but it should give out reasonably accurate (whatever the criteria for that might be) and repeatable results.

    There should be details on:

    - Coupler (I'm thinking very basic/easy to build)
    - Microphone and preamp/processor
    - Compensation curve
    - Possibly testing/measurement methodology

    Heck, if I wasn't such a lazy bastard and actually knew what I was talking about, I'd do it myself.
     
  3. OJneg

    OJneg The Most Insufferable

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    • Panasonic WM61A ($4)
    • Square of open cell foam
    • Square of Creatology foam
    • 4 electrical components + wire + protoboard (<$2)
    Comes out super cheap. Catch is you need 48V phantom power mic input. I've built other iterations with WM61A that can be used with standard line-input. Only requires more complex circuit in front of it.
     
  4. ultrabike

    ultrabike Measurbator - Admin

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    • Dayton EMM-6
    • Focusrite 2i2
    • Scrubbing sponge (back sponge)
    • Flat cabinet liner (for seal)
    • Upholstery medium density foam (for absorbtion)
    • Balanced TRS cable for the mic
    • Focusrite cheap-ass usb cable (includes a choke)
    • POS 5 year old laptop (HP)
    • REW
     
  5. kapanak

    kapanak Canucklehead - Friend

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    For those interested, Marv went into a LOT of detail here on Changstar: http://www.changstar.com/index.php/topic,2305.0.html

    And I got the last piece of my coupler today, so will post details about it as well as photos and how to build one yourself very soon.
     
  6. purr1n

    purr1n Desire for betterer is endless.

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    Gilberto, we should probably start individual threads describing our measurement rigs with pictures and stuff. I plan on going this when I get a moment.
     
  7. ultrabike

    ultrabike Measurbator - Admin

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    No problem Marv. I will try to eventually prettyfi my setup as well. Cuntyfi it.
     
    Last edited: Oct 6, 2015
  8. Luckbad

    Luckbad Traded in a unicorn for a Corolla

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    Thanks guys. I ordered a UMIK-1 as part of my downsizing (cheaper than Scarlett 2i4 + Dayton EMM-6) and will need to build a full-size headphone measurement setup like you guys have done.

    It would definitely be nice to get something very similar to what you already use so I can get my measurements to mirror yours.
     
    Last edited: Oct 9, 2015
  9. Ninja Pirate

    Ninja Pirate Friend

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    Any chance you could MS Paint an epic diagram of this?
     
  10. Ninja Pirate

    Ninja Pirate Friend

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    Just completed v0.01 of my super awesome testing station.

    I present to you, the Mighty Migoreng Tester:

    [​IMG]
    [​IMG]

    Using only the most advanced materials like: A box, some tape, and even some foam.

    Seriously though, it's a box stuffed with medium density foam, stuffed with a Dayton EMM-6. Used some noise insulating material for PC cases I had lying around to cover the cardboard (you can tell I used only the most precise tools). And yes, it's a piece of shit, but it's a start.

    Using a Scarlett 2i2 as the interface, and ARTA as software, I got these results:


    HD 800 Anax 2.0
    [​IMG]

    LCD-2 Pre Fazor (leather pads)
    [​IMG]

    Audioquest Nighthawk (Brainwavz HM5 pads + acoustic stuffing)
    [​IMG]

    AKG K702 (Bass mod)
    [​IMG]

    Sony MDR-Z7
    [​IMG]

    HiFiMan HE-500 (Jerg pad)
    [​IMG]


    Only compensation applied is the EMM-6 manufacturer provided one.

    Thoughts and suggestions?

    - Edit: Added some more crap. Looks like there is a consistent peak just above 10k. Also the measurements all seem consistently shit.
     
    Last edited: Oct 13, 2015
  11. ultrabike

    ultrabike Measurbator - Admin

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    Try to add more material (like a sponge) to minimize pressure loss through the mic edges into the box. Also, experiment with materials that offer more seal around the cup pads, and surround the mic with some small amount of low density foam.

    Also, your measurements are not too far off from what I hear.
     
  12. Thujone

    Thujone Friend

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    I just picked up a UMM-6 to make a new rig and found that the mic is 8+ inches long. I saw some others using this mic but I'm worried how stretched the headband needs to be to fit over it. I think it would be enough to snap an HD6XX headband, and that's without the USB plugged in. Am I missing something?
     
  13. logscool

    logscool Friend

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    Alright so here is my first attempt at a measurement rig. I am actually quite impressed by the performance given the cost of materials and low amount of time I put into constructing it. It's definitely not very flattering but it seems to work. I am using the miniDSP UMIK-1 inside of a cardboard box that just happened to be nearly the perfect width. The microphone spans the width of the box with the tip just poking through a hole in one end and a right angle usb cable plugged in through a hole on the other side. Two car wash sponges surround the mic inside for damping, support, and isolation. There is just a simple piece of craft foam stuck on the side of the box where the mic pokes through.

    Here are some pics

    [​IMG]
    [​IMG]
    [​IMG]
    [​IMG]
    [​IMG]
    [​IMG]

    I'll post some measurements soon.
     
    Last edited: Feb 19, 2016
  14. Bill-P

    Bill-P Level 42 Mad Wizard

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    So... I've actually had people wondering if my coupler even exists...

    But really, it does. Here's how it looks like currently: (sorry, not sure why postimg is rotating them sideways...?)

    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]

    The face is to make the coupler less jarring to look at. It succeeded at least in alleviating a bit of my stress.

    Foam piece on top for the headband to rest on, since some headphones have really low clamping force and weird headband design (Audio Technica full-size comes to mind)

    Small circle of felt is there because I've found that this circular piece somehow decreases mid distortion by a lot. I'm guessing the closed-cell foam around is doing something funky that I haven't quite figured out yet...

    On that note, I've been contemplating putting a ring of open-cell foam around that piece to simulate human ear... thing.

    Anyway, the electronics include a MiniDSP UMIK-1 (thanks, OJ!), my Macbook/Vaio laptop (whichever isn't busy doing some computing stuffs for me), and then I use REW on the software side to keep data consistent between all of the OSes I use.

    And that's it! Sample measurement of my modded HD600 (taken just now):

    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]
     
  15. purr1n

    purr1n Desire for betterer is endless.

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    Wow, excellent! All of you.
     
  16. Bill-P

    Bill-P Level 42 Mad Wizard

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    Thanks, Marv! I took a lot of cues from you!

    The old thread was very helpful!

    My last coupler was wood blocks, but the wood blocks turned out to not create a rigid enough coupling with the mic's body, so I ended up having measurements that were brighter than neutral. Stacking multiple pieces of cardboard seems to do the trick much better!

    On that note, though, I feel mine creates too good a seal, so sometimes I insert a piece of foam to break the seal on the bottom, where my jawbone would be, and that gives a somewhat closer representation of what I hear.
     
  17. OJneg

    OJneg The Most Insufferable

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    Silly children using wand mics and cardboard
     
  18. logscool

    logscool Friend

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    Thanks Marv. I definitely took some pointers from your setups although I put this together pretty quickly just to see what it could do.

    Alright here are some initial measurements let me know what you think, any feedback would be much appreciated. I tried to pick some phones with well documented measurements.

    Also as a side note it seems that when I use REW the CSD plots don't really show any information and just kind of look good for all of the headphones any thoughts?

    HD600
    Left
    [​IMG]
    Right
    [​IMG]
    Left CSD
    [​IMG]
    Right CSD
    [​IMG]

    AKG K7XX
    Left
    [​IMG]
    Right
    [​IMG]
    Left CSD
    [​IMG]
    Right CSD
    [​IMG]

    Oppo PM-3
    Left
    [​IMG]
    Right
    [​IMG]
    Left CSD
    [​IMG]
    Right CSD
    [​IMG]
     
  19. ultrabike

    ultrabike Measurbator - Admin

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    My parameters for CSDs on REW:

    Window: Blackman-Harris 7
    Rise Time: 0.1 ms
    Window: 10 ms
    Time Range: 2.5 ms
    Total Slices: 100 (max)
    Smooth: 1/48 (min)

    I wish had more slices.
     
  20. logscool

    logscool Friend

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    Thanks I don't know how I kept missing those settings. I still prefer the appearance of the ARTA CSDs that I'm getting but at least now I can get good data from both. Part of it might have to do with what you were saying about the slices since ARTA maxes out at 200 I can get better resolution even on a longer time range. I think I'll also need to play around with the view settings a bit to get the right perspective. How did you decide on your window type? I've mostly been using Hanning.
     

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