Best Loudspeakers for Rich Timbre?

@prof, my comments about “too much or too little” reverberant energy arise from some experiments in varying the amount of reverberant energy while leaving the first-arrival sound untouched.

Briefly we used a fairly directional main array aimed at the listening area for the first-arrival sound, and then used a dedicated reverberant-field-only array (optimized for good power response) aimed off in a different direction, so that it made no contribution to the first-arrival sound. By varying the level of the reverberant-field-only array we could independently manipulate the amount of energy in the reverberant field. We found that the additional reverberant energy generally improved timbre, but too much and clarity started to degrade. Hence my comments.

@cd318 wrote: “Perhaps @audiokinesis has developed some form of refined DSP (unlike those crude ones found on many surround sound systems) which can subtly change the sound of your room. Perhaps it is possible to increase ’sympathetic’ room reflections which could give a sense of increased realism. Sounds phenomenally difficult but it’s certainly interesting.”

No DSP, but your “sympathetic room reflections” guess is right on the money!

We borrowed a page from concert hall psychoacoustics: The difference between a good seat and a poor seat in a concert hall arises from the amount of time between the first-arrival sound and the onset of reflections. In a good seat, there is a time gap between the two. In a poor seat there is no such time gap; the reflections start arriving too early, and the effect is, clarity is degraded.

These principles can be transported into the listening room, despite the difference in scale. Done “right” (see my reply to prof at the top of this post), we think we can improve timbre with no detriment to clarity. We also think we can reduce “small room signature” such that you actually hear less of your room and more of the acoustic space on the recording.

Admittedly it is highly counter-intuitive to think that ADDING reflections can REDUCE your room’s signature, so let me explain the theory behind this:

The basic premise is, if your system was in a big room, you would hear more of what’s on the recording because your room’s acoustic signature would be less intrusive.

The ear/brain system judges room size by the “center of gravity” of the reverberant energy. The later in time that “center of gravity” occurs, the larger the apparent room size. By injecting additional late-onset reverberant energy, we can push that center of gravity to later in time and thereby increase the apparent room size. By making sure this additional reverberant energy is spectrally correct and by not injecting too much, we preserve clarity.

I’ve been working with improving timbre by paying attention to the reverberant field for many years. The increase in apparent room size (thereby reducing small room signature) is an unanticipated but welcome side effect.

Duke

@fleschler wrote:

"I swapped my front row ticket for rows 10 through 20 to get the best sound for a combination of direct and long reflective sound."

Duke replies:

[capslock][bold][italics][giant font]YESSSSS!!![/capslock][/bold][/italics][/giant font]

Obviously we can’t get those long reflections paths in our living rooms, but the same psychoacoustic principles are applicable... and imo in many cases offer us a window of opportunity to make a worthwhile improvement.