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Thrush-CAT In the previous Thrush, loading the Satori MW16P-4 into an 18 liters bass reflex ended up with a mediocre bass. That was quite disappointing. I expect something magical in a woofer that cost $160. This time round, I loaded her into a 13 liters bass reflex. With a smaller box, I sacrificed the deeper bass in exchange for punch and dynamics in the upper bass. These were the elements that were lacking in the 18 liters box. And what do you know. The bass did come alive with a 13 liters box. This is what the box modeling looks (Fig 1).
Notice the +2dB bump at 80Hz. Well, that’s deliberate. It gave me some oomph in the bass. Without it, the Thrush-CAT won’t sound so nice. Satori MW16P-4 in a 13 liters Bass Reflex
Fig 2 is the new response in a 13 liters box (Fig 2). I kept the crossover unchanged so that a direct comparison can be made with it in an 18 liters box (Fig 3). Satori MW16P-4 in an 18 liters Bass Reflex
The region of interest is from 100Hz to 50Hz. In a 13 liters box, the response is flatter. This in itself doesn’t reveal how the bass sounds like. I had to listen to the Satori in the 13 liters box to hear the massive improvement. Since the crossover is the same for both boxes, some of the measurements look similar so there’s no point in repeating them. However, the step response is worth comparing. 13 liters Step Response
18 liters Step Response
The Step Response in a 13 liters box (Fig 4) is markedly different from that of an 18 liters (Fig 5). In a 13 liters bass reflex, the apex is sharper whereas in the larger 18 liters, it’s more rounded. What this indicates is the Satori MW16P-4 is more responsive in a smaller box. This is just my opinion but it can easily be verified when you do an A/B comparison with the Satori in a 13 liters and in a 18 liters box. Sound of Thrush-CATThe Satori MW16P-4 sounds so much better in a 13 liters bass reflex. The bass is what one would expect when listening to music. There’s just the right amount of punch and dynamics for the bass to be enjoyable. However, there’s room for improvement. The MW16P-4 bass attack is not as fast as I would like. She also lacks some texture. Her nearest rival, the Peerless NE180W surpasses her in these areas. More than that, the NE180W doesn’t exhibit the awful notch at 1.5kHz. I don’t know what the engineers were thinking when they worked on this Satori. The competitors have better bass. As for the extension, it’s not a game changer. It appears that they tried to please everyone but ended up with not having something that can blow the competition away. As for the price, I will leave it to readers to decide whether it’s worth paying $160. Unless otherwise stated, all measurements were made in Full Space (4 pi) with the mic at 36 ins, tweeter axis. Impulse Window=5ms. No smoothing applied. |
April 23, 2021Projects
Fig 1 – Satori MW16P-4 Box Modeling for 13 liters Bass Reflex
Fig 3 – 
Fig 4 – Thrush-CAT Step Response
Fig 5 – Thrush Step Response