How many of us really knows the importance of tweeters?
All this while we were only told only about their basic function. That is to play either those internal or external sounds.
Are there any other functions that can help to bring more birds into our BHs?
Is their size and shape very important?
How about the way we mount them onto those nesting planks? Are there any guidelines to maximise their usefulness?
What about the optimum numbers that we should install? How many is good and why?
The installation techniques, do we need to orientate them in vertical or horizontal?
How far should they be mounted away from those nesting planks corners? How many inches away and why?
When we wired them which cable goes to which wire?
How many tweeters per wire?
Is it good to install those tweeters based on zones?
There are many more questions that we can raise and our only trouble is who can give us the right answers.
Nowadays we no longer want straight answers but we want a full explanations on why the answers should be like that or like this.
Many of us only know that the basic function in deploying those tweeters inside their BH is only to provide those baby sound to lure those wild birds to stay and build their nests.
I think we are not 100% correct. I believed that every tweeter that we placed in our BH have multiple functions which we tend to ignore or perhaps no "fucking ideas" of any other function except to deliver those sound signal from our amplifiers.
Just step aside and evaluate these points:
1) When you just operate a new BH and opened for operation for the first few months, where will those bird shit spots were found? The answer is below those tweeters.
2) When you discovered that your BH have her first nest markings, where was it located? Normal answer will be the 90* nesting plank corner closed to the tweeter.
3) If you install 20 tweeters in your new BH and when you count the bird shit spots on the floor, how many will be they be? The answer will probably 20. Hey how come the number is nearly the same as the number of tweeters?
4) If you install a tweeter on your cement walls playing those Baby King sound, where will the nest be build? The answer is on the cement wall either above or at the left side or the right side of the tweeter. Hmm..... very interesting.
5) If you happened to visit your new BH at night (10pm onward) and do a bird count check, where do your think those birds that entered your BH will be found? On the tweeter. In fact the loving couple will share one tweeter most of the time. Hmm... why they prefer to hang to those tweeters?
The more you look at those black gadget the more you begin to realise that there are more then delivering of those sound.
Beside playing those birds music they have many more functions and we need to fully study and understand all these functions.
Once you have determined all their functions, you can then design with precision on how to choose them and how to install them. Remember the word "PRECISION".
Remember they have more then one function.
a) Their basic function is to play those soothing bird sound. If those young birds love the sound they will stay in your BH.
b) The birds do not have any idea that there is such thing as tweeters. To them the only way to give those sound, it must be from a nest. Those babies must be hungry and calling for food. So to feel very safe is to stay close to those sound.
c) The tweeter with those music played tend to be warmer then the surrounding. Those birds will find those warm surface a good place to stay.
d) If you check your BH and all the tweeters were occupied, (count the bird shit spots and compare with the number of tweeters you installed), you need to increase them to a comfortable number. The rule of the thumb is 1 tweeter per square meter. If you are smart push it to 1.25 or 1.5 per square meter.
e) The best choice will be those rectangular shape tweeters (2" x 5") and not those square shape tweeters. Main reason being, the square shape will not allow you to install the tweeter properly onto the nesting planks due to their design.
f) My preferred installation technique is to let the tweeter stand. Yes the 2" section screwed onto the nesting plank while the 5" section will be standing up. The 2" section will limit the number of birds to stay to only two (one set). This will cause less headache to the male bird. Remember three is a crowd.
g) The placement of these 2"x5" tweeter should be about 3-5 inches away from the 90* nesting planks corners. The reason of this selection is that the young couple will soon build their nest at this corner. While the male is busy building he can also can keep a close eye on his female partner. If he is not careful another male might come and steal her away.
h) The tweeter should never be installed until it touches the ceiling. This will reduce the tweeters function. They should be installed on the perimeter of the nesting plank, at the bottom tongue about one inch up.
i) Start the tweeter installation from the end of the nesting room. If you cannot use the 1st plank on the cement wall, due to the tweeter's base, skip to the second row of those nesting planks. Start from one end of the wall and move towards the other wall. Once you complete jump one line and move to the nesting plank row number four.
j) It is worth to install two tweeters at the start and the end of every row chosen. The twin tweeter concept have proven to be very attractive to those wild birds in many BHs that I visited.
k) Once you reached the first nesting planks crossing you should install one each on the left and right side of it. Yes you will need to install the tweeter about 3-5 inches to the left and right of the 90* corners.
l) Move to the next crossing and do exactly the same as in k) and repeat the installation on the rest of the crossings.
m) It is important to connect the positive wires from the tweeter to the positive wire of the signal wire to the data room. Any error of joining the positive and negative to the signal wire will cause serious sound defect to you BH sound system. If might also lead to constant electrical trips.
n) I recommend the terminal connecting the tweeter to the data room to be at the 1st row of the tweeter on the planks. If you do this the sound at the furthers line will be louder then the one in the middle or the other end.
Frankly there are so many other points to consider but for the moment I hope the above are good enough for those newbies who wanted to DIY.
If you are not sure call 017 755 1318 for a clearer explanation.
1 comment:
Harry to help other readers I might want to add the following info on speakers connection. Speaker or tweeter connection have to take into consideration the impedance of amplifier output and that of tweeter. they should match to get the best performance. Normally both come either in 4 ohm, 8 ohm or 16 ohm impedance.
Let say you have an 8 ohm amplifier output, and you use 8 ohm tweeters. They match very well if you have one output to one tweeter. When you use two tweeters you have a slight problem. Connect in series you have a 16 ohm tweeter system. Connected in parallel you have half of 8 ohmn, ie a 4 ohm system.
How this come about? In series the impedance just add up, so 8+8 equal to 16 ohms. In parallel, it is just like having two same size pvc pipe connected to a water tank, resistance is half. So two 8ohm speakers connected in parallel will allow easy passing of current instead of one tweeter, the impedance is half, ie 4 ohm.
The formula for calculating combine impedance in seires is Z(a) +Z(b) = Z(total). If connected in parallel it is 1/Z(a) + 1/Z(b) = 1/Z(total)
One need not be confused by these formulas. Just remember to have equal number of tweeters in series as the number of branch connected to the amplifier. For example, for 4 tweeters, you connect two branch in parallel, with each branch having 2 tweeters in series which gives an impedance of 8+8=16ohms in each branch. Because you have two branch of now 16 ohms circuit, the two branch in parallel will let the amplifer see an impedance of half of 16 ohm, ie 8 ohm. For 16 tweeters, you wire 4 parallel circuits, each circuit with 4 speakers. For 64 speakers, wire 8 parallel circuits with 8 speakers in each circuit. Basically if you have N circuits, each circuit should have N numbers of tweeters in series.
This means speakers systems should have N x N number of tweeters. 2 x 2 =4 speakers system, or 3 x 3 = 9 speakers system, or 4 x 4 = 16 speakers system, or 5 x 5 = 25 speakers and so on so forth.
Polarity of wiring is not critical as signal from amplifier are a kind of Alternating current, the most it cause is speakers out of phase, causing some cancelation in Hi Fi sound especially in lower frequency, not significant in tweeters which work in shorter wave length, all these assume speakers type are those having voice coil and come with permanet magnet type. Electostatic type speakers might required accurate positive to positive connection.
You can attenuate sound level in a multi speakers system by having some with shorter wiring to reduce the resistance/impedance of that particular circuit, or you can reduce one or two speakers in that circuit as compare to other circuits so that particular branch have a lower impedance compare to other, therefore receiving more current than other normal circuits.
Hope these explanation are useful to bird lovers.
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