Best new loudspeaker
MrT, I've done a lot of recordings in halls and watched major labels at it too. They all put the mics up towards the front, so as to give you the perspective of the 'best seat in the house'. IOW if your equipment gives you a different perspective, then something isn't right! So what I get from your post is that you hear cone speakers having a more accurate soundstage presentation, but not one you **prefer** as you like to sit in the back? Could you comment on that? |
If the sound Is better at the back of the hall, then why is the conductor at the front of the stage and in the middle?? Perhaps he doesn't need to use his ears when he conducts just his arms. Next time I am at a concert I am going to tell the baton waver to go prop up the bar at the back of the hall and have a few bevvies also! |
i have never noticed a note jumping out at me. perhaps, it is because my favorite location is the last row orchestra. The reason certain notes jump out at you when listening to more of reverberant field compared to a direct sound field is because reverberations all arrive at your ears with multiple delays...this causes cancellation and reinforcement of one note viz a viz another. It is similar to the trick that can be used to make sound appear all around you from a stereo speaker by feeding it out of polarity signals. Reverberations can occasionally change the way a particular note on an instrument sounds in some cases it can lead to accents on the notes that the musician does not intend - increasing their audibility noticeably. The audio spectrum will look like a comb...with "suckouts" whereever there is reverberant cancellation. Our ears can compensate for this quite well being placed 6 inches apart as long as they receive different amounts of cancellation. In general a comb filter is well known to make the sound seem spacious and encompassing... like a flanger on the guitar (electronic comb filtering by adding delay). It is also well known that a delay or a strong primary reflection produces a comb filter. The key to understand about a delay comb type filter is that is affects harmonics too - we can and do hear it even with instruments and all their harmonics - unlike a single notch filter or the odd uncorrelated reflection it will affect timbre! In general this happens with all bass from ALL speakers (except soffit mounted ones) because the bass is omnidirectional anyway and therefore first reflections off the wall behind the speaker will interfere with the forward radiating direct bass signal heard by the listener. Speakers that radiate BOTH forwards and backwards in the midrange (like dipoles or panels) will have this comb filtering strongest in the direction of the listener as reflection from the wall behind the speaker and forward radition of the panels combines. Next time you listen to a highly reverberant sound in a room - say from panels with midrange frequencies reflecting off the back wall - try and listen for these effects - it is quite pleasing with an impression of spaciousness - the odd note will usually stick out because your two ears are at the same distance from the speakers AND the wall behind the speakers....in this case the difference between the sounds received by the two ears cannot be used to compensate because there is NO difference as reflected and primary sounds arrive precisely at the same time at each ear. So although the ear/brain is extremely clever, in these rare cases we are unable to separate timbre from reflection effects; this is also the case with ALL bass notes, which have long wavelengths and where 6 inches (between ears)is simply not enough to hear a different sound and compensate. Ok - so may be this is all too complicated. Here is the EASY way to think of it. Just imagine that you have FOUR speakers and not TWO in your room playing your stereo music. One speaker set is real. The other is the "virtual speakers" that you would see if the wall behind the speakers was a MIRROR. Now before you laugh...this is ACTUALLY what happens acoustically with ALL speakers in the bass and even more so with those that radiate forwards and backwards equally in the midrange - the wall IS AN ACOUSTIC MIRROR unless it is treated. So you are actually listening to FOUR speakers not TWO - no wonder this throws a deep soundstage... Here is a very simple explanation Cancellations from reflections This long winded discussion proves nothing as to what sounds better or what people like most! Education and enlightenment in our hobby is more important that "my Dad is bigger than your Dad" purile discussions. It does explain why Audio Engineers do NOT use dipoles/panels! These engineers are trying to create effects, such as spaciousness, through judicious reverb and delay and mixing tricks...the last thing they want is a dipole speaker doing the very same things in an uncontrolled fashion in the room. So not surprsingly they often listen in near-field with cone speakers. Notice I did not say what is better sounding...just trying to explain fundamental differences as to why things sound so different to your ears, MrT - that is all. |
the placement of microphones is different from the location of audience members. it is gnereally above the stage and sometimes over rows 1 to 5. placing the microphones in that position gives an orchestra a sound which does not represnt where i prefer to sit. since when is a seat in rows one to five, the best seat in the house. there is no best seat in the house, just as there is no best amp, preamp, speaker, cable, wife, car, book, movie, candidate running for office, etc. . i wish they would remove the word "best" from the english language, as it engeneders arguments. you are entitled to your opinions on a variety of subjects. an opinion is probably true and probably false. as to your implication tha an accurate stereo system is "better" than an inaccurate one, that too is your opinion. your reference to a stereo system which changes the perspective of a recording as being wrong, is also an opinion. obviously you and i don't agree on alot of things. i hope one day we can meet at a ces show and continue to discuss our differences. as i said before, it keep me mentally sharp to joust with you. hopefully, they print this post, otherwise you will think i am avoiding you. |
