X-Git-Url: http://pere.pagekite.me/gitweb/homepage.git/blobdiff_plain/aaf3a8d6ac3f87b3060fda22f11cb474d2e37af0..8a2e71b1dc05bc1f558ba3d691834cb53e979957:/blog/archive/2018/10/10.rss diff --git a/blog/archive/2018/10/10.rss b/blog/archive/2018/10/10.rss index 7a3b9faadf..380dd00c6e 100644 --- a/blog/archive/2018/10/10.rss +++ b/blog/archive/2018/10/10.rss @@ -3,13 +3,87 @@ Petter Reinholdtsen - Entries from October 2018 Entries from October 2018 - http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/ + https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/ + + Measuring the speaker frequency response using the AUDMES free software GUI - nice free software + https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Measuring_the_speaker_frequency_response_using_the_AUDMES_free_software_GUI___nice_free_software.html + https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Measuring_the_speaker_frequency_response_using_the_AUDMES_free_software_GUI___nice_free_software.html + Mon, 22 Oct 2018 08:40:00 +0200 + <p><img src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2018-10-22-audmes-measure-speakers.png" align="right" width="40%"/></p> + +<p>My current home stereo is a patchwork of various pieces I got on +flee markeds over the years. It is amazing what kind of equipment +show up there. I've been wondering for a while if it was possible to +measure how well this equipment is working together, and decided to +see how far I could get using free software. After trawling the web I +came across an article from DIY Audio and Video on +<a href="https://www.diyaudioandvideo.com/Tutorial/SpeakerResponseTesting/">Speaker +Testing and Analysis</a> describing how to test speakers, and it listing +several software options, among them +<a href="https://sourceforge.net/projects/audmes/">AUDio MEasurement +System (AUDMES)</a>. It is the only free software system I could find +focusing on measuring speakers and audio frequency response. In the +process I also found an interesting article from NOVO on +<a href="http://novo.press/understanding-speaker-specifications-and-frequency-response/">Understanding +Speaker Specifications and Frequency Response</a> and an article from +ecoustics on +<a href="https://www.ecoustics.com/articles/understanding-speaker-frequency-response/">Understanding +Speaker Frequency Response</a>, with a lot of information on what to +look for and how to interpret the graphs. Armed with this knowledge, +I set out to measure the state of my speakers.</p> + +<p>The first hurdle was that AUDMES hadn't seen a commit for 10 years +and did not build with current compilers and libraries. I got in +touch with its author, who no longer was spending time on the program +but gave me write access to the subversion repository on Sourceforge. +The end result is that now the code build on Linux and is capable of +saving and loading the collected frequency response data in CSV +format. The application is quite nice and flexible, and I was able to +select the input and output audio interfaces independently. This made +it possible to use a USB mixer as the input source, while sending +output via my laptop headphone connection. I lacked the hardware and +cabling to figure out a different way to get independent cabling to +speakers and microphone.</p> + +<p>Using this setup I could see how a large range of high frequencies +apparently were not making it out of my speakers. The picture show +the frequency response measurement of one of the speakers. Note the +frequency lines seem to be slightly misaligned, compared to the CSV +output from the program. I can not hear several of these are high +frequencies, according to measurement from +<a href="http://freehearingtestsoftware.com">Free Hearing Test +Software</a>, an freeware system to measure your hearing (still +looking for a free software alternative), so I do not know if they are +coming out out the speakers. I thus do not quite know how to figure +out if the missing frequencies is a problem with the microphone, the +amplifier or the speakers, but I managed to rule out the audio card in my +PC by measuring my Bose noise canceling headset using its own +microphone. This setup was able to see the high frequency tones, so +the problem with my stereo had to be in the amplifier or speakers.</p> + +<p>Anyway, to try to role out one factor I ended up picking up a new +set of speakers at a flee marked, and these work a lot better than the +old speakers, so I guess the microphone and amplifier is OK. If you +need to measure your own speakers, check out AUDMES. If more people +get involved, perhaps the project could become good enough to +<a href="https://bugs.debian.org/910876">include in Debian</a>? And if +you know of some other free software to measure speakers and amplifier +performance, please let me know. I am aware of the freeware option +<a href="https://www.roomeqwizard.com/">REW</a>, but I want something +that can be developed also when the vendor looses interest.</p> + +<p>As usual, if you use Bitcoin and want to show your support of my +activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address +<b><a href="bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a></b>.</p> + + + Web browser integration of VLC with Bittorrent support - http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Web_browser_integration_of_VLC_with_Bittorrent_support.html - http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Web_browser_integration_of_VLC_with_Bittorrent_support.html + https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Web_browser_integration_of_VLC_with_Bittorrent_support.html + https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Web_browser_integration_of_VLC_with_Bittorrent_support.html Sun, 21 Oct 2018 09:50:00 +0200 <p>Bittorrent is as far as I know, currently the most efficient way to distribute content on the Internet. It is used all by all sorts of @@ -38,7 +112,7 @@ what the strange x-scheme-handler style MIME types in desktop files are used for. By adding x-scheme-handler/magnet to the MimeType entry in the desktop file, at least the browsers Firefox and Chromium will suggest to start VLC when selecting a magnet URI on a web page. The -end result is that now, with the plugin installed in Buster og Sid, +end result is that now, with the plugin installed in Buster and Sid, one can visit any <a href="https://archive.org/details/CopyingIsNotTheft1080p">Internet Archive page with movies</a> using a web browser and click on the @@ -70,8 +144,8 @@ activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address Release 0.2 of free software archive system Nikita announced - http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Release_0_2_of_free_software_archive_system_Nikita_announced.html - http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Release_0_2_of_free_software_archive_system_Nikita_announced.html + https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Release_0_2_of_free_software_archive_system_Nikita_announced.html + https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Release_0_2_of_free_software_archive_system_Nikita_announced.html Thu, 18 Oct 2018 14:40:00 +0200 <p>This morning, the new release of the <a href="https://gitlab.com/OsloMet-ABI/nikita-noark5-core/">Nikita @@ -145,8 +219,8 @@ activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address Fetching trusted timestamps using the rfc3161ng python module - http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Fetching_trusted_timestamps_using_the_rfc3161ng_python_module.html - http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Fetching_trusted_timestamps_using_the_rfc3161ng_python_module.html + https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Fetching_trusted_timestamps_using_the_rfc3161ng_python_module.html + https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Fetching_trusted_timestamps_using_the_rfc3161ng_python_module.html Mon, 8 Oct 2018 12:30:00 +0200 <p>I have earlier covered the basics of trusted timestamping using the 'openssl ts' client. See blog post for @@ -251,8 +325,8 @@ activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address Automatic Google Drive sync using grive in Debian - http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Automatic_Google_Drive_sync_using_grive_in_Debian.html - http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Automatic_Google_Drive_sync_using_grive_in_Debian.html + https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Automatic_Google_Drive_sync_using_grive_in_Debian.html + https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Automatic_Google_Drive_sync_using_grive_in_Debian.html Thu, 4 Oct 2018 15:20:00 +0200 <p>A few days, I rescued a Windows victim over to Debian. To try to rescue the remains, I helped set up automatic sync with Google Drive.