Author's acoustic systems. Author's acoustics or traditional. Own branded packaging

Speakers are the main battleground for manufacturers and the most widely discussed topic among music lovers - because they make the greatest contribution to sound quality...

... and it primarily depends on them whether the owner of the system will enjoy his favorite music every day, surprise friends with its scale and naturalness, or use acoustics in the form of an expensive but little useful accessory.

Different speakers do not play all genres of music equally well. Some people do an excellent job with pop, rock and RNB, but completely refuse jazz and classical music. Others reproduce vocals superbly - but Rammstein sounds disgusting on them.

Omnivorous acoustics do not exist - either they are omnivorous, but cost indecent money from the standpoint of a sane mind...

You need to select speakers especially carefully - and preferably according to the musical preferences of the future owner, and their type and brand should be linked to a very specific amplifier, cables and room.

First of all, you need to pay attention to the size...

Why do we need big speakers...

(There is an opinion among audiophiles that large speakers create a large and large-scale sound, and small ones create a small one...)

Bass is the basis of any music; if it is absent, then the entire musical composition sounds flat and uninteresting.

If we ignore the external finish and shape of the case, then a trend can be traced: the larger the internal volume of the speaker system, the better the bass... You can’t escape physics - low frequencies have a long wavelength, and a large volume is needed to reproduce them correctly.

(By analogy with cars, no matter how we manage to load three tons into an ordinary city sedan, nothing will work, for this we need at least a truck.)…

Although relative bass quality can be obtained from small speakers...

To do this, they use speakers with a heavy moving system and a large diffuser stroke. Such speakers have low sensitivity (efficiency) and require powerful transistor amplifiers for their normal operation.

... High powers - high currents, as a result of high heating and loss of characteristics.

Low frequencies in such speakers are delayed in relation to vocals and have a noticeable viscosity to the ear. This produces a “sound breaking” effect. The same thing happens in home theater sets with a powerful subwoofer and small satellites. You almost always hear that the subwoofer plays as if on its own - separately from the other speakers...

And the sound on any material, no matter if it’s music or the sound track of a film, must be integral - unified.

Options for compensating for the small volume of speakers - labyrinths and bass reflexes - do not have the best effect on the sound. When using them, noticeable humps and dips appear at low frequencies.

The systems - consisting of small speakers and powerful transistor amplifiers - play well pop music, modern club styles, classic rock - and very mediocre jazz and classics.

The lightest and most open sound is produced by acoustic systems of “infinite volume” - when the dynamic heads are built into the walls, and their rear volume is not limited by anything. Or speakers - which are large shields with speakers built into them. The sound of the shields is very similar to infinite volume acoustics and greatly outperforms “Box” acoustics.

Unfortunately, in real houses and apartments these types of decoration are used very rarely - which is a pity...

... When jointly designing housing and acoustics in it - a design such as a shield or an infinite volume, can be built into the room with virtually no damage to its design. You just need to start this as early as possible, when there is concrete around - and not wallpaper and hanging curtains.

What's inside the speakers?

The sound depends very little on the appearance of the speakers - it depends on the quality of the dynamic heads, the volume and rigidity of the housing, the correct calculation of the crossover frequencies and joining of the bands, and the accuracy of the filter elements.

This multipolar task is difficult to accomplish for large-scale production. The acoustics are modeled and adjusted once - this happens at the stage of manufacturing a prototype.

In contrast to the external finishing - on the inside of the company, manufacturers usually - save...

Filter coils are wound with thin wire - which introduces increased resistance

To reduce copper costs while maintaining the inductance of the coils, iron cores are inserted into them, which have a bad effect on the impulse characteristics of the speakers

Copper and especially silver, used in coils and filter capacitors, are mixed in strange proportions with iron to save money.

Resistors for filters are inexpensive, usually metal-ceramic - low precision

Each dynamic head, produced in large-scale production, differs from each other at least slightly in terms of characteristics and sound.

Nobody makes individual settings for speakers.

The sound of commercial acoustics, even expensive ones, can be noticeably improved by adjusting the filters - changing the elements in them to more accurate and high-quality ones. Replace standard internal wiring with audiophile cables. Install additional spacers inside the housings to increase the rigidity of the walls, add vibration-damping material...

There is room to expand in the post-Soviet space, with its incredible reserves of ultra-pure copper and silver. This is something that domestic enthusiasts use very successfully to improve their branded speakers. This is a kind of “custom” or handmade production of unique copies not of Harley Davidson motorcycles, but of sound.

(By the way - many internationally respected foreign manufacturers of audio wires often purchase materials from the Urals or the Far East of Russia, where copper smelters still adhere to Soviet standards of purity and quality).

Author's acoustics are in great demand today. Which acoustics to choose for a car - so to speak, “solid”, or original, is often asked on forums and websites dedicated to the subject of car audio.

This is a fairly broad topic, common among music lovers. Author's acoustics can be built according to the base and traditions of the brand; in most cases, their sound is no worse than the original, and sometimes the design is even better.

All this cannot leave music lovers indifferent.

Author's acoustics and comparative review of components

thorny, which only a car audio guru can handle. A lot should be provided here: independent measurement, calculation and modeling, as well as much more, including final fine-tuning and settings;
Cheating or amateur. As a rule, this scenario is suitable for many. It can even be called acoustics for independent repetition.

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Today, as always, the main battlefield for car audio product manufacturers is speakers. They are responsible for the sound quality, allowing you to enjoy musical compositions, the naturalness of frequencies, scale, and so on.

Note. The correct, competent choice of speakers will allow you to get the maximum benefit from the speaker system. It's no secret that many owners use acoustic speakers in their cars only as an expensive, but of little use, accessory.

I would like to cite a few important facts regarding speakers.

Every motorist who respects good music should know about this:

Not all music genres play equally well on different speakers. Some are ideal for pop music, others for rock or jazz compositions;
There is no such thing as omnivorous acoustics. If, nevertheless, it does occur, the price of the issue cannot be considered from the standpoint of common sense;
The selection of acoustic speakers must be in accordance with the musical preferences of the future owner. The type and brand of speakers must also be linked to a specific amplifier, wiring, and so on;
Size is important. As a rule, most experts are on the side of big, huge speakers.

The last point deserves separate, closer attention.

The benefits of large speakers

There is an opinion that huge speakers create larger sound. Accordingly, small - small.

All lovers of good sound know that the basis of any music is the bass. In its absence, talking about the quality of a musical sketch simply makes no sense.

Note. Their bass directly depends on the size of the speakers. Without paying attention to the design and shape of the speaker housing, we can trace a certain trend: the larger the internal space of the speaker, the better the bass. This is a law of physics that cannot be escaped - the larger the volume, the more at ease low frequencies with longer wavelengths feel.

On the other hand, relatively acceptable bass quality can be obtained from small speakers if you introduce a heavy moving system and give the diffuser more travel. True, such speakers will have low efficiency, but this is not a problem if you integrate them with strong transistor amplifiers.

In addition, manufacturers compensate for the power on small speakers with all sorts of labyrinths and bass reflexes, which negatively affects the sound. So, in this case, humps and dips appear on the bass, easily distinguishable by ear.

So, systems with small speakers and the right amplifiers do a good job with classic rock, pretty mediocre with jazz and classical compositions, but they play pop music great.

You can make a homemade version that gives almost perfect sound. These are the so-called “infinite volume” speakers, implying that the emitters are built into the walls and the rear volume is unlimited and open.

Note. It could even be simple wooden panels in which the speakers are installed.

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Sound quality depends most of all on what's inside the speaker. Correct calculation is of no small importance.

Many manufacturers, especially little-known and unpromoted ones, often take a shaky path, saving on the internal equipment of speakers. The appearance and design of such speakers, as a rule, does not cause disapproval. Needless to say, this is not recommended when creating custom acoustics.

In particular, here's what you save on:

The main savings affect the filter coil winding. In this case, it is made of thin wire, which introduces increased resistance;
Also, to reduce copper costs, iron-type cores are inserted, which negatively affect certain characteristics;
Cheap cermet resistors are used, which are characterized by low accuracy;
Adjustment for individual requests is not carried out.

Traditional or original

It turns out that by following the amateur route, you can significantly improve the performance of branded acoustics by making adjustments to it and changing the settings. But such acoustics can rightfully be called original.

Here are some improvements you can make:

Adjust filters, replacing internal components with more efficient and accurate ones;
Replace cables to more expensive ones;
Install additional spacers inside speaker cabinets to improve rigidity;
Modernize traditional speakers, using Soviet-style acoustics, which involve an incredible amount of pure copper and even silver.

Note. By the way, some branded manufacturers (including quite successful ones) often purchase materials to create their acoustics from copper smelters in Russia, where the old canons of quality are still in force. For example, there are many such factories in the Urals.

Understanding which acoustics is better to put in a car (see), branded (even if individually modified) or purely original is not so easy. This is not a comparison between the Vertu phone and its cheap copy.

But you should know that 90 percent of horn speakers known to this day are original. In addition, the best acoustic systems are created on the basis of proprietary designs, which, one way or another, says a lot.