HuskerOmaha's Subwoofer Showdown GTG (Interest Thread) - Page 5

Originally Posted by Archaea

The pizza and bbq ideas sound awesome!

I'm ordering a pair of those high tech earplugs off amazon right now. I noticed there are two sizes currently produced and multiple colors - but I don't think the colors mean anything besides a cosmetic difference.

Large
http://www.amazon.com/Etymotic-Resea...8084656&sr=1-1

Standard
http://www.amazon.com/Etymotic-Resea...8084786&sr=8-1

I think the baby blue size is now considered standard and according to the website most people will use standard.
http://www.etymotic.com/hp/er20.html
*All ears are different. It is impossible to predict the size of an ear canal by the appearance of the outer ear, or by a person’s physical size, age or gender. Two sizes of ETY•Plugs fit almost 100% of ear canals. Recent studies of both fit and seal, conducted at Etymotic Research and an independent lab, showed that the smaller of the two sizes fits the majority of ears and is now designated as standard fit.

Originally Posted by Archaea

So the way it looks right now you have about 11 sub setups signed up and attending. Figure 75% attendance of those 11 subs -- if KC's meet was anything to use as a reference (though your meet may be different with folk bringing their subs over in advance - it sort of seals the commitment a bit more ). We are going to have a LONG FUN day! I may talk to KCNitro07 and see if he wants to take a half day or day off work on October 21st so we can drive up earlier and get to your place before 9PM.

Originally Posted by andersa

Greg,

I'm heading to Europe on the morning of the 22nd, so I'm afraid me and the Hsu won't make it. Sorry about the short notice, I did not know myself until a couple of days ago. I was really looking forward to the GTG so I'm a bit bummed out.

/Anders

Originally Posted by kwarny

Referring to the order of the subs, I like the idea of starting with the lowest displacement subs first and then moving up to the largest if the majority of the content is movies.

It will be hard to judge first sub since there is nothing to compare it to from before though. I think subjective comments are useful since I assume most of us are not trained listeners as in what would measure better objectively. Someone may enjoy warmer bass which I believe relates to frequency response rise and/or higher distortion. Maybe we should all write down our personal biases before the test or our biggest priority of what we are looking for that way others can relate to our comments easier.

I think it would be fun to keep our favorite sealed set-up and compare it to the top ported subs for music and theater if there is time.

Originally Posted by Archaea

In regards to KC's scoring system. I think it worked well overall!

With two notes for improvement - We didn't establish two things very well.

1) Some people used half scores IE 4.5, 2.5 etc - some didn't. That should have been established up front, as some people may not have wanted to put two subs identically at a 4, but they didn't think they were a 3 or a 5. I think the half scoring system is nice, but more difficult to manually add when you take into account this is all done with peoples scribbly unsupported and difficult to read handwriting, and periods you can't make out -etc. Perhaps just a system of 1-10 is best with 1 being the worst and 10 being the best. Easy numerically to add and average. Inevitably the score sheets were very difficult to read with multiple scratch outs and re-scores, and pens that were failing from writing half upside down and such.
2) This was stated, and agreed upon but I don't think everybody who scored at the KC meet either heard the note or perhaps just didnt take it to heart. The subs shouldn't really be evaluated against each other in the scoring system --- because you aren't hearing them at once and it becomes a grading nightmare - that final comparative analysis can be reserved for subjective written analysis (at which time let loose the dogs of war). What I mean is that it was most of our opinions in KC that each sub should be graded in a silo, at least as much as possible, with the subjective 1-5 rankings -- only graded against your opinion of ideal in the scoring section -- not graded against subs you anticipate to be better, but haven't heard yet. We should make it a point to try very hard to just listen to each sub individually out of context of the overall meet and not be afraid to give a lower priced sub a good score on x demo material if it sounded good on x demo material. So if a sub sounded really smooth - it didn't matter if it was a $500 sub. You could still give it a 5 on smoothness -- even if it was a cheaper sub. Basically --- you didn't have to rate it a 2 or 3 simply because you KNEW there would be better later. Heck if sounds good on x demo material give it a good score for that particular score. It'll all fall out in the wash because the lower quality subs will REALLY manifest that they are lower quality on some demo material - be it movies or test tone sweeps or whatever -- give them credit where credit is due and hit em hard where they deserve reprimand. I heard one comment that made me feel all parties were not onboard to this in KC when I heard a someone say aloud during the Jamo audition that - this sounds REALLY good, but I can't give it a five because I know there will be better coming up.

Well let the pieces fall where they may and then the subjective analysis can really point out any differences that the scoring doesn't pick up. I think the scoring will basically take care of itself in that you will see some people with less sub experience rate some of the cheaper subs higher, and some with more selective preferences may rate it lower --- but yet the scoring remains, when averaged, a valid indicator of quality.

This isn't perfect, but I think the alternative is worse.

For instance in the alternate rating system ---You label each sub 1-10 - 10 being best. Let's just say the subs happen to fall out in order of price --- just for ease of displaying this problem. Then your final score reveals you have collectively ranked the cheapest sub and average of 1 and the best sub an average of 10. Well that tells the reader nothing, about how the sub actually preforms in each category. The alternate ranking collectively system fails to point out that while the $500 DIY option wasn't that great at the single WOTW movie scene, it really did amazing for music, and was quite commendable on several of the other action movies ---- or whatever the case may be?!?!. It also fails to point out that the average Joe may be happy with that type of setup he realizes he can get 85% of the preformance at 30% of the cost --- and is willing to accept noted limitations.

I hope I didn't ramble to the point this discussion topic doesn't make sense...This is just my opinion. I default to Omaha's choice on the final ranking rules. It's his meet - I'm just happy I can attend!

Originally Posted by Archaea

Man I think you almost have to do it in order of expected output levels/quality. If you don't then you screw the scoring the other direction.

That's my vote cast...Just one vote of hopefully many! -- and as I said I'm absolutely willing to go with the majority - or even just Greg's choice here, serving as the host. If I just took a drive in a Ferrari Enzo, and then walked over to my v6 Ford Mustang I might not think anything of the V6 Ford mustang, but had I started with the Ford mustang I might think it a decent car, surprisingly decent in fact, considering 305hp on a v6 for only $22,000 MSRP. Again just one man's vote.

Originally Posted by Archaea

If you can't tell - I'm also a motorhead. I've got a 2000 grand prix gtp that I've swapped cams twice, upgraded rockers, fuel systems, exhaust, PCM, etc to now have 480 ft/lbs of torque according to my dyno session, and I've got a project 1990 corvette with a 383, accell superam, and all the fixings dropped in -- just itching to be finished.

Originally Posted by kwarny

I believe we are all lying prone in a semi-circle so our heads are a minimal distance from the driver to negate the rooms interactions .