Duke, I really enjoy your discussions on reverberant fields. I especially like the listen from the next room test. It's funny that you mentioned that. I was just poking around on the net and found some info on a fellow who had reviewed the Hegeman loudspeaker (one of if not the earliest omni). Apparently rather than post the frequency response of the loudspeaker, he described how the woman in his apartment building complained about the person playing the piano late at night. It was a recording of Sir Elton John.
I'm convinced that the reverberant field is very very important also. There are those who espouse the importance of flat frequency response. I personally do not consider the frequency response to be more important than reverberant field. (Yes this is a subjective observation) I have heard several loudspeakers with flatter response than my omni emmulators that did not sound as real.
As you mentioned, all the designs have trade offs. When someone finally designs a loudpeaker with the clarity of an electrostat and the dynamics of a cone speaker and gets the reverberant field correct, I'll be there with my check book ready to buy and invest.
Maybe someday our loudpeakers will be balloons filled with excitable molecules that expand and contract as directed by remote lasers. Ok I'll stop now before I go any farther off the deep end.
I'm convinced that the reverberant field is very very important also. There are those who espouse the importance of flat frequency response. I personally do not consider the frequency response to be more important than reverberant field. (Yes this is a subjective observation) I have heard several loudspeakers with flatter response than my omni emmulators that did not sound as real.
As you mentioned, all the designs have trade offs. When someone finally designs a loudpeaker with the clarity of an electrostat and the dynamics of a cone speaker and gets the reverberant field correct, I'll be there with my check book ready to buy and invest.
Maybe someday our loudpeakers will be balloons filled with excitable molecules that expand and contract as directed by remote lasers. Ok I'll stop now before I go any farther off the deep end.