Measuring power compression

Castore

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May 9, 2018
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Are there any helping tools in REW to measure the speaker power compression? Standard sweep is too severe for the tweeter (I believe). Especially compared to average music signal. What is the standard way to measure power compression? I've done it sometimes with the sweep, very cautiously of course. Some speakers fail at lows first and some at highs. As far as I understand failing at highs first sounds much better the opposite. If I remember correctly failing criterium in electronics is 1dB compression. Is that number valid also for speakers?
Wouldn't it be more realistic to measure compression with a sweep that decreases by x dB/oct, like the pink noise?
 

John Mulcahy

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Measurement sweeps do decrease at the same rate as pink noise, 10 dB/decade. Here is an example sweep spectrum. Best keeping the sweeps short to minimise heating effects if you are using high levels, but testing at high powers will always carry a risk of driver damage.

28967
 

Castore

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May 9, 2018
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Thank you!
So, in principle sweep is no more risky than pink noise. In practice pink noise is more risky, because you can leave it running forever.
I think sweep can be used fairly safely, if the level is increased in small enough steps and any indications of compression are checked after each run. Sweep levels over 95dB do not sound nice even with ears plugged, so I usually consider the test passed after that.
 
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