In my linux pc-based dsp system for crossover and EQ of active loudspeakers, I use a pc to send 6 channels of processed audio over hdmi, with an Atlona AT-HD570 to convert all channels to analog before amplification. Recently I discovered that this setup can distort badly at moderately high signal levels, in a way that produces large transient subsonic signals which, when amplified, could permanently damage loudspeaker drivers. My measurements point to a flaw in the HD570.
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Category Archives: Digital Signal Processing
Digital Piano Reproduction: Phase Issues 2
Following up on an earlier post, I’ve been investigating why digital pianos sound so bad in stereo. I did a spectral analysis on the outputs of my Yamaha CP50 stage piano. The results confirm what I and others have been hearing: because of how they are sampled, stereo pianos don’t reproduce well except in headphones.
Update: based on my investigations here and elsewhere, I’ve designed a new loudspeaker system to deal with the challenges of turning piano samples into naturalistic live piano sound. Visit taylorsoundlabs.com to purchase or get more info.
Digital Piano Reproduction: Phase Issues 1
Musicians often complain that their digital piano sounds good through headphones but terrible through an amp/PA, describing their live piano sound as “thin”, “nasal” or “boxy”. This can be frustrating and musically uninspiring. Because the piano sounds good through ‘phones, people naturally blame their amp/speakers and seek a solution there.
Update: based on my investigations here and elsewhere, I’ve designed a new loudspeaker system to deal with the challenges of turning piano samples into naturalistic live piano sound. Visit taylorsoundlabs.com to purchase or get more info.
A Parametric Allpass for Crossover Phase Alignment
I keep being interested in allpass filters. An allpass changes a signal’s phase only, leaving the magnitude spectrum untouched. This article is about a 2nd-order allpass design I’ve been working on for phase alignment of crossovers in active loudspeakers.
Dither and ecasound
rt-plugins-0.0.4 released
I just posted version 0.0.4 of my LADSPA plugins for doing crossover/equalization of active loudspeakers. Just a couple of changes to note:
- First-order low- and high-pass filters are now available.
- The build system has been moved to cmake; hopefully this makes it easier to build the plugins on other platforms. Also some code cleanup and restructuring. (All thanks to Florian Franzmann.)
There’s no need to upgrade if these changes don’t affect you.
At some point the LADSPA API will become deprecated and my plugins will have to be migrated to LV2. Any volunteers?
Digital Allpass Filters for Crossover Phase Equalization
When two loudspeaker drivers are crossed over we typically want their on-axis acoustic outputs to sum in-phase. For example the 4th-order Linkwitz-Riley (LR4) crossover is designed for this. In practice, however, things rarely work out so well because there are potentially many sources of (often nonlinear) phase distortion, e.g. equalization filters, physical offset of the drivers, band-pass characteristic of the drivers, and acoustical interaction with the baffle.
Crossover phase alignment is often corrected by delaying the signal to one of the drivers. This typically aligns the drivers’ acoustic phases only up to zeroth-order, which is a bit rough. It’s possible to do much better: one can design an allpass phase-equalization filter that gives accurate alignment throughout the crossover region. My aim here is to briefly demonstrate the technique. Continue reading
Pluto 2.1 with Software DSP
About a year ago I implemented a software-DSP version of the Linkwitz Labs Pluto 2.1. My aim was to replace the original analog signal processor (ASP) with a small, standalone PC that can double as a media server: like a Squeezebox that also performs xover/eq duties.
Pluto is an outstanding loudspeaker, and really deserves to be built/heard by more people. Part of my motivation is to provide a lower-cost, easier-to-build alternative to the ASP.
I own the original ASP version of Pluto 2.1 as well: in several hours of level-matched A/B listening tests I haven’t been able to hear any difference — except that my DSP version currently has a less powerful amplifier on the woofers, which limits the peak output somewhat.
If you want to go the software-DSP route yourself, follow the 2-way crossover instructions in my DSP how-to article. I’ll post the proprietary Pluto-specific configuration files in the Owners’ area of the Orion/Pluto Forum. Continue reading
Digital Crossover/EQ with Open-Source Software: HOWTO
The following setup can be used to implement a 2- or 3-way digital crossover (with equalization) for active loudspeakers. It runs on a linux PC and uses only free, open-source software. My design goal was a small, self-contained unit that can live on a shelf beside an amplifier: it runs without need of a display, keyboard, or mouse, and it looks like this:
The PC is the small box on the left. It’s silent, always on, and requires no user interaction.
One could use this system to implement the xover/eq for the Linkwitz Labs Pluto 2.1 or LX521. For those interested, I’ll post specific configuration files in the Owners’ area of the Orion/Pluto/LX521 Forum: together with this how-to, those files can be used to build a DSP version of the Analog Signal Processor (ASP) for those loudspeakers. I’ve written a long article detailing my development of the LX521 implementation; my Pluto implementation is similar. Continue reading
LADSPA Plugins for Active Loudspeakers
Here are the LADSPA plugins I use in my software DSP approach to active loudspeakers. I mostly use them within ecasound, but they should work just as well in any other LADSPA host.
You can download the source code here. Install with the usual make; make install
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