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What Does Holographic Sound Like?

And how do you get there? This is an interesting question. I have finally arrived at a very satisfying level of holography in my system. But it has taken a lot of time, effort and money to get there. I wish there had been a faster, easier and less expensive way to get there. But I never found one.

Can you get to a high level of holography in your system with one pair of interconnects and one pair of speaker wires? I don't believe so. I run cables in series. I never found one pair of interconnects and speaker wires that would achieve what has taken a heck of a lot of wires and "tweaks" to achieve. Let alone all the power cords that I run in series. Although I have found one special cable that has enabled the system to reach a very high level of holography -- HiDiamond -- I still need to run cables in series for the sound to be at its holographic best.

There are many levels of holography. Each level is built incrementally with the addition of one more wire and one more "tweak". I have a lot of wires and "tweaks" in my system. Each cable and each "tweak" has added another level to the holography. Just when I thought things could not get any better -- which has happened many times -- the addition of one more cable or "tweak" enabled the system to reach a higher level yet.

Will one "loom" do the job. I never found that special "loom". To achieve the best effects I have combined cables from Synergistic Research, Bybee, ASI Liveline, Cardas, Supra and HiDiamond -- with "tweaks" too numerous to mention but featuring Bybee products and a variety of other products, many of which have the word "quantum" in their description.

The effort to arrive at this point with my system has been two-fold. Firstly, finding the right cables and "tweaks" for the system. Secondly, finding where to place them in the system for the best effects -- a process of trial and error. A lot of cables and "tweaks" had to be sold off in the process. I put "tweaks" in quotation marks because the best "tweaks" in my system have had as profound effect as the components on the sound. The same for the best of the cables, as well. For me, cables and "tweaks" are components.

Have I finally "arrived"? I have just about arrived at the best level that I can expect within my budget -- there are a couple of items on the way. In any case, I assume there are many levels beyond what my system has arrived at. But since I'll never get there I am sitting back and enjoying the music in the blissful recognition that I don't know what I am missing.

I should mention that there are many elements that are as important as holography for the sound to be satisfying, IMO. They include detail, transparency, coherence, tonality, and dynamics, among others. My system has all of these elements in good measure.

Have you had success with holographic sound in your system? If so, how did you get there?
sabai
sabai OP
2,027 posts
 
Mapman,
Yes, cleaner power is definitely a prerequisite here. I heard two very expensive systems in Bangkok recently -- beautiful Tad speakers with Marantz amplification and the amazing all-Accuphase showroom. Both lacked basic AC cleaning that I consider minimal and it showed. They could have done so much better if they had paid attention to their front end, their cabling and their "tweaks". But that would not have made for a pretty showroom.
sabai OP
2,027 posts
 
Mapman,
I have auditioned various MBL systems at the MBL showroom in Singapore on different occasions. MBL is in the Adelphi 1 Audio Mall. I brought my own reference CDs the last time I was there. My system sounds better that what I heard at MBL. But my system does have an omni-directional quality similar to MBL.
sabai OP
2,027 posts
 
Newbee,
Regarding off axis listening, what one normally experiences in most systems is that when one moves outside the sweet spot or the sweet zone there is a loss of realism. The image that one hears in the sweet area does not carry over into the non-sweet area. So, other listeners will not have the same sonic experience outside "the zone" as those inside "the zone" have. With my system, you can move around the room and all the elements remain in place. It is quite uncanny. You can sit or stand virtually anywhere in the room and not feel the sonic image is diminished. You never get the feeling that you are outside "the zone" unless you are very close to one of the speakers or directly outside one of the speakers.
sabai OP
2,027 posts
 
Newbee,
You are elucidating an important point -- the difference between stereo imaging and sonic holography. We are actually talking about a continuum here that starts with the most elementary stereo imaging that has little depth and where location of voices and instruments is imprecise and the images not well defined.

On the other end of the continuum is the most sophisticated holographic imaging one could imagine which would be represented by an incredible sense of 3-dimensionality that moves out from the speakers on all sides with exceptional depth, width and height where placement of voices and instruments is not only precise but also appears with a sense of realism, finesse and continuity that gives one the feeling of "being there". Of course, the other sonic parameters that are important to us all must be there, as well.

I do not think it is possible to reach the apex of sonic holography. I believe we are always working toward that idea. I have been working toward it with every improvement I have made to my system -- with a couple of improvements to go. But I have attained what I consider a high level of sonic holography in my system.

I have been working on room treatment as much as possible. The addition of the Shakti Hallographs has made a big difference in my room. But things are not ideal yet. I have the Synergistic Research ART but I do not have the space to mount everything properly at the moment. When we remodel the house everything will fall into place in a larger listening room
geoffkait's avatar
geoffkait
23,365 posts
 
Sabai, I acquired an Audio Pulse Model One, a digital time delay system that had three (3) sets of outputs (L and R). The user could select among a small club, a medium size auditorium or large concert hall. Each set of channels, front, side, rear, output the reverberant decay information associated with the size of venue selected. Separate amplifiers and speakers were necessary for the full system; however, inexpensive amplifiers and speakers could be and were used since the Audio Pulse Model One produced "non-coherent signals" and only up to 8 kHz for the ambient information channels. This time delay system, with all three sets of ambient channels, was capable of producing a soundstage as big as Kansas, much larger than the room, perhaps 30 feet deep in some cases. Note, the volume of the ambient channels relative to the primary speakers was much lower so as not draw attention to themselves.

It was later on that I discovered how much information is actually buried in recordings, that even very large and expensive systems fail to reproduce, and what was required to extract that buried information for 2 channel stereo. The real ambient information was there all along, we just couldn't hear it!
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