Preliminary Testing

Today, we took the Elacs and our speaker stand prototypes to the ExCite Center to perform our initial testing in hopes of detecting which stand was most effective at reducing vibrations and producing an overall "better" sound.

After coordinating weeks in advance with the ExCite Center staff, we were able to gain access to the facility's anechoic chamber. While this may be overkill in this stage of the process (especially considering that our testing is comparative in nature), it will be helpful to have performed it in an neutral environment to make our data much more reliable.

Two tests were performed for each stand. First, the vibration transferred to the bottom of the stand was measured with a seismograph app on an iPhone 5c, which was placed on the bottom of the stands. This numerical data was exported as a .xtml document and will be analyzed further at a later date. The stand that results in the least amount of vibration at the bottom absorbs the most energy from the speaker through movement, indicating that it reduces the quality of the sound reproduced.

The sound quality of the speakers will also be analyzed. Digital recordings were taken of each of the speakers with different songs, each streamed at high quality (~320 kbps). These recordings will be run through computer software to determine various aspects of the frequencies and decibel levels being produced by them.

As the data is analyzed in the coming days, more detail will come with our findings and conclusions about the stand which will be rebuilt in final version for the ultimate deliverable of the project.

The anechoic chamber used for testing can be seen below.