The author has obviously spent a lot of time listening to these variables. This is both the strength and weakness of the conclusions. This list results from the entire audio world, including the recording engineers and producers, listening ONLY to speakers and NEVER to acoustic music. If you spend hundreds of hours listening to the same type of speakers in the same room you can learn to hear a stereo illusion from commercial recordings, but novices do not. If it were accurate reproduction, then it should be tangibly real to children, pets, significant others and acoustic musicians who have not trained their ears to the triangular panpot paradigm. If you and yours are not startled by the people who broke into your house and started playing music in your listening room, that is a sign there is something lacking. First, I agree with item (5). Glass has obnoxious acoustics, as does metal. I generally recommend avoiding glass fibers and metal domes in speakers as well. OTOH, listening rooms need bass leaks which are most often provided by large glass areas. Covering glass windows, doors, cabinets and mirrors with loose, medium weight fabric (1/4lb to 1/2lb per ft2) will absorb the bad high frequency resonances and pass the low frequencies to reduce bass modes. If you assume mono-miked panpotted recordings, symmetry as suggested in (1)-(4) is part of the LEARNED RESPONSE to music reproduction. Inter-Aural Level Differences (IALD) are the least and most fragile aspects of spatial reproduction. Recordings made properly for two channel reproduction with a near-coincident pair with reverberation supplied acoustically are more robust with regards to room symmetry, but require absorbtion and diffusion at the first reflection points including the ceiling. The reflections off bare side walls confute and confuse any recorded reverb, which in most cases is synthetic to allow splicing and overdubbing. Statistical reverb algorithms are more forgiving of modern interior design with bare walls than real reverb parameters, which abets the decision to record in dead rooms and then dial it in the mix. The edges of speakers and grilles - most all have symmetrically mounted drivers in sharp edged cabinets - create measurable and audible spurious responses as described in (1). The diffraction patterns create a learned response that is interpreted as imaging, but is actually an artifact of poor speaker design. The direct/reflecting sound is a red herring. Partly diffuse side wall reflections are a normal part of concert hall design, but this should come from the recording space, NOT the listening room. This is because we hear discrete specular reflections differently than diffuse reflections. Two channel reproduction can encode the reflections from the original soundfield, but the reflections in the room correspond to the geometrical locations of the speakers and are contrary to the goal of producing a stereo illusion. Room openings are not a negative - in fact, they have been an ESSENTIAL part of every room I have successfully tuned. Closed rectangular rooms have +-10dB bass frequency response and the corresponding smearing of pacing, rhythm and timing. Open floor plans make it possible to house a concert grand in a Living Room, and likewise full range speakers. For example, here is a positive review of a 1,000ft2 room I tuned for a Steinway Model D with 90ft2 of glass and three doorways: nytimes/2014/03/27/arts/music/piano-by-jacob-greenberg-and-reinier-van-houdt-at-spectrum.html?_r=0 As for mixed use, I design acoustic furniture that tames the room while providing functional and socially acceptable additions to the environment. These approaches increase the sweet spot to more seats so listening becomes more social, and sharing the music is a richer experience.
Posted on: Thu, 04 Dec 2014 17:19:47 +0000
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