When a speaker loads the room, what is it doing?

[tigerwoodKhorns]

Now, explain women...........

Here you go:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vnU7g4m0XmU

[Daddy Dee]

Chris,

Thanks for posting. I don't really grasp the math, but I became a believer in "loading the room" when I heard the difference between LaScalas and Khorns in my own living room. I was quit skeptical when a friend (who also acquired Khorns after listening to LaScalas for a season) described the difference as "a bigger sound." I couldn't grasp that because all the drivers and crossovers were the same. Even backing a LaScala into a corner cannot bring the same sound as a Khorn. The sound of a Khorn is "bigger" than a LaScala in the same room. I take that to be a demonstration of a difference in the way Khorn and LaScala load the room with sound.

[Daddy Dee]

P.S. In my very lay understanding of "loading the room" I also would think that the positioning of speakers for optimal sound is also a demonstration of how a speaker loads the room.

[Chris A]

In my very lay understanding of "loading the room" I also would think that the positioning of speakers for optimal sound is also a demonstration of how a speaker loads the room.

Right - the size of the horn's mouth, and its coupling to the room's corner determines the size of the sound, and not only the bass bin, but the midrange as well, as evidenced with the difference in size of the sound of the Jubilee vs. the Khorn.

The room itself becomes the last expansion of the horn and it also forms an enclosed space. The dimensions of the room, type of wall, floor, and ceiling materials, and even the structural backing of the walls, ceiling, and floor all contribute to how the speaker "loads the room".

PWK's article on corner speaker positioning is also relevant to this discussion:

https://community.klipsch.com/index.php?app=core&module=attach&section=attach&attach_rel_module=post&attach_id=47376

Note that the speaker used in this test was a prototype Cornwall.

Chris

Edited April 15, 2014 by Chris A

[Panacea Engineering]

Want to "Load a Room"....?

Sit in a bathroom stall and hum until the particions start to viberate. You have reached the Reasonant Frequency......Very same reason that you sound SOOOOO good, singing in the shower stall.......[]

[jacksonbart]

kinda like a baby loading a diaper

[dtel]

I take that to be a demonstration of a difference in the way Khorn and LaScala load the room with sound.

I know exactly what your saying DD, I heard it best in Hope at one of the listening sessions when they went through each Heritage model starting with the Heresy's.

When they got to the Khorn it all changed, it was like the walls and ceiling was part of the speaker, the room was enveloped in sound and not directing straight from the speaker, more like the whole front wall. It was the best audition of a Khorn I have ever heard.

That audition really woke me up to how room shape and size affects what a speaker can do, not to take away from the Khorn at all, but when it's the right combination it's easy to hear a perfect match.

[dtel]

Very same reason that you sound SOOOOO good, singing in the shower stall.......

I must have a defective shower. [:$]

[dtel]

kinda like a baby loading a diaper

With a better smell. [+o(]

[Quiet_Hollow]

When they got to the Khorn it all changed, it was like the walls and ceiling was part of the speaker, the room was enveloped in sound and not directing straight from the speaker, more like the whole front wall. It was the best audition of a Khorn I have ever heard.

Makes me wonder how the Heresy were setup? Because I can get them to do this little disapearing act:

That audition really woke me up to how room shape and size affects what a speaker can do, not to take away from the Khorn at all, but when it's the right combination it's easy to hear a perfect match.

Agreed. I heard Artto's system in comparison to the demo set at Simply Stereo. His room & K-horns can somehow place a snare drum hit at the tip of listener's nose...quite literally...like someone is knocking you in the snout if the drums are mixed just right.

[Chris A]

I have heard the term "loading the room" or some variation ot that, but never really heard a definition.

I just remembered this site for an illustration and discussion of bass bins loading room boundaries and each other if used in close proximity: http://billfitzmaurice.info/forum/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=398

Chris

Edited April 15, 2014 by Chris A

[artto]

they cannot explain it very well.

That's because it's a idea to begin with.

Actually, its a concept, that some people turn into a [bs] idea. []

FWIW, I see it exactly the opposite. It's the room that's loading the speaker, not the other way around.