[initech]

Some companies have relatively large funds to draw on for engineering their new speaker lines. Some speakers, such as the Revel Ultima2 line, are claimed to have great cabinets to deter resonances. Obviously a company must also have the motivation with the funds to make this happen.


I currently have some 5 year old Klipsch reference line speakers. Occasionally I will hear a vibration upon pushing the volume a bit, and this puts a damper on the moment. However, I'm not expecting perfection considering the price I paid.


Numerous parts and factors contribute to a great speaker, yet how important is a superbly engineered cabinet for the overall sound quality? No one wants to hear outright vibrations. But, what's the impact of lesser resonances which may nonetheless degrade sound quality. Do you think companies with smaller funds such as some of the hot internet direct brands are at a major disadvantage? They can source many of their parts and I suppose even cabinets, but several of them seem to build their own. Am I silly to even worry this much about speaker cabinets as I look to buy new speakers?

 

[Chu Gai]

Do both speakers vibrate?

 

[ChrisWiggles]



Quote:
Originally Posted by initech /forum/post/14176155


Some companies have relatively large funds to draw on for engineering their new speaker lines. Some speakers, such as the Revel Ultima2 line, are claimed to have great cabinets to deter resonances. Obviously a company must also have the motivation with the funds to make this happen.


I currently have some 5 year old Klipsch reference line speakers. Occasionally I will hear a vibration upon pushing the volume a bit, and this puts a damper on the moment. However, I'm not expecting perfection considering the price I paid.


Numerous parts and factors contribute to a great speaker, yet how important is a superbly engineered cabinet for the overall sound quality? No one wants to hear outright vibrations. But, what's the impact of lesser resonances which may nonetheless degrade sound quality. Do you think companies with smaller funds such as some of the hot internet direct brands are at a major disadvantage? They can source many of their parts and I suppose even cabinets, but several of them seem to build their own. Am I silly to even worry this much about speaker cabinets as I look to buy new speakers?

You can build an extremely dead cabinet with MDF if it's thick, internally braced, and well built, etc. Building a good to extremely good cabinet is not horribly complicated, it just takes a lot more material and workmanship, thus it increases the cost of the speakers. This is true whether it's an internet brand or not.


There are a lot of exotic materials out there in use too, which can get way way way costlier, and may or may not provide a great deal of benefit compared with a well built MDF type design. Keep in mind that there are many extremely expensive high-end speakers that are wood/MDF, and many of them sound very good. And there are also many extremely high quality speakers (like the Revels) that use other materials.


Time, effort, and great cost go into making a great cabinet, and that's true whether it's wood or some other material, or combinations. You'll find that in a lot of high end and high-priced speakers, the overwhelming majority of the cost of the speaker is often the cabinet and all the materials and labor that go into that.


There is also the consideration of aesthetics, which adds cost too. I personally pay as little or no attention to that as possible, but most people do pay attention to that. That's a subjective thing, to each his own there.


Now, if you are hearing actual vibration, that would either be a seriously bad bad cabinet/speaker which I would not expect at all from klipsch reference, or more likely in your case something else is vibrating. It may be the cabinet vibrating against a flat surface it's sitting on, or cabinetry around/near the speaker, a damaged speaker driver, or something like that. But you don't rarely ever actually HEAR clearly cabinet vibration unless something is physically seriously wrong with the speaker, or it's just absolute crap. It's usually some other damage or something else that the speaker is vibrating or vibrating against. I would try to track that down and specifically figure out what's vibrating/rattling in your system. A frequency sweep is really useful for that. Run that loud enough, you'd be amazed at how many objects, lights, walls, things around the room will buzz or rattle or vibrate. Then you can go around and fix em all!

 

[initech]



Quote:
Originally Posted by Chu Gai /forum/post/14176274


Do both speakers vibrate?

No only the right speaker while running 2 ch mode.

 

[initech]



Quote:
Originally Posted by ChrisWiggles /forum/post/14176294


You can build an extremely dead cabinet with MDF if it's thick, internally braced, and well built, etc. Building a good to extremely good cabinet is not horribly complicated, it just takes a lot more material and workmanship, thus it increases the cost of the speakers. This is true whether it's an internet brand or not.


There are a lot of exotic materials out there in use too, which can get way way way costlier, and may or may not provide a great deal of benefit compared with a well built MDF type design. Keep in mind that there are many extremely expensive high-end speakers that are wood/MDF, and many of them sound very good. And there are also many extremely high quality speakers (like the Revels) that use other materials.


Time, effort, and great cost go into making a great cabinet, and that's true whether it's wood or some other material, or combinations. You'll find that in a lot of high end and high-priced speakers, the overwhelming majority of the cost of the speaker is often the cabinet and all the materials and labor that go into that.


There is also the consideration of aesthetics, which adds cost too. I personally pay as little or no attention to that as possible, but most people do pay attention to that. That's a subjective thing, to each his own there.


Now, if you are hearing actual vibration, that would either be a seriously bad bad cabinet/speaker which I would not expect at all from klipsch reference, or more likely in your case something else is vibrating. It may be the cabinet vibrating against a flat surface it's sitting on, or cabinetry around/near the speaker, a damaged speaker driver, or something like that. But you don't rarely ever actually HEAR clearly cabinet vibration unless something is physically seriously wrong with the speaker, or it's just absolute crap. It's usually some other damage or something else that the speaker is vibrating or vibrating against. I would try to track that down and specifically figure out what's vibrating/rattling in your system. A frequency sweep is really useful for that. Run that loud enough, you'd be amazed at how many objects, lights, walls, things around the room will buzz or rattle or vibrate. Then you can go around and fix em all!

Hey thanks for the thoughts. It could very well be that something else is causing the vibration. The main reason that I thought it might be the speaker is that I have a dd-18 close by (speaker crossed at 80 hz) ,and it seems to be localized toward the top third of the speaker. When I say close by it's not touching my right speaker. Actually its between my display and my left speaker. I may be completely wrong. It could be something in the room or maybe its just the particular music has something as an effect. I'm not trying to trash my Klipsch they have brought plenty of happiness and emotion during my ownership.

 

[Grandarf]

I'd make sure the drivers are all well screwed in. Sometimes the screws can get somewhat loose and that might cause some noise. Have you tried to identify the source? Maybe it's something in your room.