I've tested samples of:
Joanne's Fabric white spandex
Fabricland Silver Active Wear spandex (only available in Canada)
Spandex World Moleskin
Seymour XD (post 31)
Spandex World Milliskin (post 138)
I will be reformatting this post in the future to include all sample tests all on the same scale and compared to their native bare speaker response. For now, scan the thread, sorry.
Here is my reference speaker. This speaker has a very good frequency response and a 1500hz cross over. It's a DIY Speaker but if you'd like to know more about it, I can give you details.
This is it's frequency response. For the following measurements, I used a 4.5ms gated impulse response without any smoothing. This offers the most detailed measurements even though we're used to reading smoothed graphs.
Here is my setup. I'm using a Dayton T-amp to drive the speaker from the output on my computer. My microphone is a Behringer ECM8000 calibrated by Cross Spectrum Labs (their top level of Calibration). The mic is driven by a Blue Icicle phantom power USB preamp. Decent stuff that I feel confident using and sharing my results.The mic was centered on the tweeter and placed approximately 0.6m from the baffle.
I then streched the spandex LIGHTLY around baffle and pinned it in place. I did it lightly so that someone could read these results and feel confident that they're acoustic transparency would be equal or better.
First up, the most acoustically transparent, the Joanne's. Very thin stuff this is. Note the 2db scale. Blue is the speaker bare. Red is one layer of spandex. Green is 2 layers of spandex.
Next is Fabricland. This is the medium weight stuff.
And last is the spandex world stuff. This stuff definetely is the thickest feeling stuff.
Conclusion: The results are as expected. The heavier stuff attenuates the upper frequencies more than the thin stuff. Another thing that happns is doubling up has notable attenuation. Something of a surprise is that the back wave reflection starts to cause some suckouts in the very high frequencies. I'm speculating at this point. EQ would not be a reasonable way of fixing this because it's not consistent and the locations of any suckouts may not be the same for everyone. My data can only highlight the issue, not offer a fix.
UPDATE - Conclusion: Milliskin is the best. XD is basically equal to 2 layers of milliskin. Fabricland is very good for those living in Canada.
Thanks to all who provided samples and participated. Zheka, BlasterMaster, efaust, and all who encouraged me and added to the discussion. I am still open to accepting materials for testing. PM me for shipping details.
Joanne's Fabric white spandex
Fabricland Silver Active Wear spandex (only available in Canada)
Spandex World Moleskin
Seymour XD (post 31)
Spandex World Milliskin (post 138)
I will be reformatting this post in the future to include all sample tests all on the same scale and compared to their native bare speaker response. For now, scan the thread, sorry.
Here is my reference speaker. This speaker has a very good frequency response and a 1500hz cross over. It's a DIY Speaker but if you'd like to know more about it, I can give you details.
This is it's frequency response. For the following measurements, I used a 4.5ms gated impulse response without any smoothing. This offers the most detailed measurements even though we're used to reading smoothed graphs.
Here is my setup. I'm using a Dayton T-amp to drive the speaker from the output on my computer. My microphone is a Behringer ECM8000 calibrated by Cross Spectrum Labs (their top level of Calibration). The mic is driven by a Blue Icicle phantom power USB preamp. Decent stuff that I feel confident using and sharing my results.The mic was centered on the tweeter and placed approximately 0.6m from the baffle.
I then streched the spandex LIGHTLY around baffle and pinned it in place. I did it lightly so that someone could read these results and feel confident that they're acoustic transparency would be equal or better.
First up, the most acoustically transparent, the Joanne's. Very thin stuff this is. Note the 2db scale. Blue is the speaker bare. Red is one layer of spandex. Green is 2 layers of spandex.
Next is Fabricland. This is the medium weight stuff.
And last is the spandex world stuff. This stuff definetely is the thickest feeling stuff.
Conclusion: The results are as expected. The heavier stuff attenuates the upper frequencies more than the thin stuff. Another thing that happns is doubling up has notable attenuation. Something of a surprise is that the back wave reflection starts to cause some suckouts in the very high frequencies. I'm speculating at this point. EQ would not be a reasonable way of fixing this because it's not consistent and the locations of any suckouts may not be the same for everyone. My data can only highlight the issue, not offer a fix.
UPDATE - Conclusion: Milliskin is the best. XD is basically equal to 2 layers of milliskin. Fabricland is very good for those living in Canada.
Thanks to all who provided samples and participated. Zheka, BlasterMaster, efaust, and all who encouraged me and added to the discussion. I am still open to accepting materials for testing. PM me for shipping details.