To heck with room acoustic treatments!!

[IB Slammin]

I could get into a lengthy oration of personal opinion, but I will spare you.

IMHO, the room is about "tuning". We have active systems and "tune" the sound. For example,if a system has a 50hz spike, we can tune the room to overcome the deficiencys of the rig. If the mids are bright, then we "tune" to deaden that spot.

My tube amp bottom is a little light, so biamp the woofers with big SS. My SS is a little flat, so a tube preamp is in order.

Active Xover systems, EQs,bass traps, absorbent materials, and the like. We tune the amps, source, wire, and room to overcome a weakness.

Thats just me..I could be wrong.....

Terry

EDIT: and the room is only ONE link that we deal with, unfortunatly, it is usually the last.

Ever wonder why you have listened to a POS system and it sounded great? Or, a great system and it sounded like a POS?

[colterphoto1]

"These sounds that you hear with nothing playing will always be present."

DrWho, are you insinuating that I am hallucinating or are you just talking about the voices in my head" LOL

I do know what you're talking about. There is ambient noise and air movement in any room, anyone who's been in an anechoic chamber (at Klipsch, for instance) knows how disconcerting it is to be in a space with NO SPATIAL CLUES- it blows your mind. Of course if you lived around me, you'd see a lot of minds being blown.

Michael

[DrWho]

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On 3/15/2005 2:15:03 PM colterphoto1 wrote:

Of course if you lived around me, you'd see a lot of minds being blown.

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I think one afternoon is long enough to witness it, hehe

[dragonfyr]

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On 3/11/2005 7:32:03 PM artto wrote:

It seems to me that if you desire top performance from playback of these performances, one must also include the room as part of the equation. What do you think has the potential to produce a better result, a top notch playback system that is designed to decouple itself (as much as possible) from a “typical” room with inferior acoustics, or one that is designed to couple itself to the room, placed in a room that has superior acoustics? A “system” is only as strong as its weakest link. And for most audiophiles, the reality is, they generally ignore a major part of the “system”, which is the room itself, the final “link”. You cannot have the “ultimate” in sound production or reproduction without it.

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Well put!

As far as a remarkable reproduction system goes... I hesitate to say it removes the room, but rather it captures the totality of the sensory experience to an uncanny degree...

The most astonishing playback I have ever heard was utilizing the ITE (In The Ear) recording technique in 1990 at a SynAudCon seminar.

They used 2 presure zone mics that consisted of sphaghetti like silicone dropped into the pressure zone of each ear near the ear drum. It requires no preocessing as it accurately captures the phase information from both ears and accurately records it.

The playback system consisted of steroe front channels and stereo rear channels, for which the gain was increased just until you could ascertain that they were there, no more.

The played two recordings. On made by the conductor of the symphony, and the other from a Grateful Dead concert with Sting as Don and Carolyn Davis had been invited out to give them a had with some acoustical experiments and

measurements, etc.

While listening to the conductor's recording, the 360degree acoustic cues were uncanny. You could ACCURATELY place every instrument in the sound stage as if you were on the podium. And if the guy in row 14 stage let coughed or talked, you could have turned around and pointed him out. I have never heard anything before or since that is so extremely accurate.

But the real proof came during the recording of the Dead. The recording was done from the FOH board position. During the process, you just got lost listening until a point during the show when someone, not realizing that the recording was being made, walked up from behind the 'taper' and tapped him on the shoulder to get his attention and said "hey". Without hesitation, I whipped around to respond to the acoustic cue, only to realize that it was not from a real person, but that it was virtual in the recording. And thereupon felt very sheepish as Don and Carolyn Davis, Gene Patronis and Mary Gruska and one or two other folks (who had already been initiated!) watched and found great humor in watching me jump to respond! But afterwards, it became my turn to watch the next victim and to laugh as they too responded exactly the same way (as the game was not to let those who were still in the other room and had not heard it, know what was happening).

It was absolutely amazing, as the entire 360 degree environemtn is absolutely perfect, and no encoding-decoding is necessary.

Here is a little bit more information about the subject

http://www.eelab.usyd.edu.au/andre/VAS.htm

but the main topic is dealt with in the attachment.

ITE.pdf