True Audio: About MacSpeakerz for Macintosh

1. About MacSpeakerz v3.5
Any hobbyist, technician or engineer, who is designing, building or just learning about loudspeakers will benefit from using MacSpeakerz, loudspeaker simulation software for Macintosh 68k/PPC. This speaker simulator lets you propose various speaker systems and then evaluate them in software before making a cut into wood or ordering expensive transducer components. A typical design session might go like this: You select a woofer from the driver database and load it to the "workbench". Next you select the type of enclosure you want to simulate; you have a choice of closed, vented or bandpass boxes with a total of 18 different variations. Once the enclosure is determined you can enter volumes and tunings directly and run the analysis. You can also ask MacSpeakerz to calculate an array of possible responses for you to browse. MacSpeakerz calculates frequency, excursion, phase, delay and impedance responses and plots them with frequency limits and scale factors easily adjustable by menu selection. You can save your work from the workbench into any of the 10 system memories in the speaker project file. This allows you to easily compare any of the 10 systems on the screen at once. You can compare different enclosures with different drivers or fine shadings of tuning for a particular system. At any time you can print a detailed report on the system currently on your workbench. Besides just enclosure simulation, MacSpeakerz supports speaker builders with various enclosure and crossover calculators to see your projects to completion. Impedance compensators and tweeter attenuators can also be designed quickly. Just enter a few parameters and the component values are calculated as you type. Because driver selection is such a crucial part of speaker design, MacSpeakerz includes a very sophisticated loudspeaker driver library. New drivers can be added to the database just by filling out a new driver form. In addition to simulating enclosures, MacSpeakerz also includes these powerful interactive calculators: Vent Calculator (tubes or rectangles) Crossover Calculators (6 types!) Impedance Compensation Calculators Attenuator Calculator Rectangular Enclosure Calculator Trapezoidal Enclosure Calculator Bandpass Enclosure Calculator These calculators totally eliminate the drudgery of cabinet and crossover design. All details of your crossovers and enclosures are saved as part of each project file.
2. Using MacSpeakerz to Design Loudspeakers
Here is what MacSpeakerz looks like with a project file loaded. The Plot window is the large upper window where the Frequency, Excursion, Phase, Delay and Impedance responses are displayed. The black plots show a range of frequency (loudness) response curves for this driver. The red plots show the excursion responses. The Driver and System Parameters window (bottom left) displays the basic parameters of the driver. The Driver and System Parameters window is where you specify the number of drivers in the enclosure, SPL (Sound Pressure Level) is given for any number of drivers at any input power and any listening distance.

The MacSpeakerz Workbench with 18" JBL Driver Loaded
The large window at the top is the Plot Window. This is where the Frequency, Excursion, Phase, Group Delay and Impedance response plots of the systems you design will be displayed. In the screen shot above we show 10 different frequency response plots (black) for the JBL 2241H driver along with the corresponding excursion responses (red). The lower left window is the Driver and System Parameters Window. This is where the key parameters of the currently loaded driver are displayed along with a few important system parameters. This is where you will specify the number of identical drivers in an enclosure (N=1), the input power (P(in) = 300 W) and listening distance (SPL @ 1 meter or 3.28 feet) of the proposed system The window at the lower right is called the Box Parameters window. This is where you work with the program to evaluate the selected driver in various boxes. In the screen shot above, we have selected the 4th Order Vented Box. MacSpeakerz has 6 different Box Parameters windows listed under the Box menu ranging from the 2nd Order Closed Box to the 6th Order Bandpass Box . To have MacSpeakerz suggest an enclosure you can simply leave the V(B) set to 0 and calculate the response by selecting 'Calculate Response" under the Analysis menu. The program will calculate and display an array of responses that are possible for the selected driver. These suggested responses will be saved to the 10 system memories. Or, enter any box volume, V(B) or Closed Box Q, Q(tc) and calculate the response. These two fields are interactive, enter one and the other is calculated. MacSpeakerz can display the frequency response in two different modes: 0 dB mode and SPL mode. While the 0dB mode is normally used to quickly locate the -3 dB and -10 dB frequencies on the response curve, the dB SPL mode is useful for showing how loud the speaker can play at various power levels and listening distances. The SPL scale lets you accurately determine the SPL that can be achieved at that input power where the system reaches its excursion limit. It is not unusual for a speaker system to be excursion limited to well below its full rated power. Rectangular, Trapezoidal and Bandpass Box Calculators are included in the program. You can enter box dimensions and the box volume will be calculated, or you can enter a volume and MacSpeakerz will calculate the dimensions using the Golden Ratio. MacSpeakerz has nine types of crossover and network calculators: 1st, 2nd and 3rd Order Butterworth, 2nd and 4th Order Linkwitz, 1st Order Series Resonance Compensator, Inductance Compensator and Tweeter Attenuator Calculators. They all operate in the same manner with the user entering the impedances of the tweeter and woofer and specifying the crossover frequency. The crossover calculators will give you the component values needed for the crossover type you have selected. No other loudspeaker CAD system provides the combination of advanced features and ease of use that MacSpeakerz delivers. Sound professionals can save time designing custom enclosures for their clients while audio hobbyists can build highly optimized speaker enclosures on the first try.
3. The MacSpeakerz Driver Library
A large Driver Library with over 1,000 drivers is included with MacSpeakerz . You'll find a full range of pro audio, automotive, musical instrument and hi-fi drivers. There are over 70 different manufacturers in the Driver Library including Alpine, Audio Concepts, JBL, EV Seas, Scan-Speak and many others for a total of over 1,000 drivers. Of course you can easily add new drivers to the Driver Library.
4. The MacSpeakerz System Editor
The System Editor comes into play after you've selected a driver and have started working at the Workbench. In order to see the full details of the System currently on the Workbench you open the System Editor by selecting "Edit System" under the Edit menu (or at the toolbar). The System Editor is the place to make adjustments to various system parameters (such as box loss Q, isobaric factor, R(e), etc.), write notes on the system as well as make custom adjustments to this System's particular driver.

The MacSpeakerz System Editor
5. The MacSpeakerz User's Guide and Installation Disks
	(1) The software (supplied on 2 HD floppy disks) (2) A detailed User's Guide, over 140 pages, including a tutorial section which will step you through closed and vented box designs.
6. Minimum System Requirements:
Any Power PC Macintosh or any 68k Mac with a 68020 processor or later. At least 35 MB of free hard drive space
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