Speakers that sound great in terrible rooms

@mapman wrote:

"Note that Ohm Walsh are not full but rather pseudo omni (polydirectional?) to manage the reverberative field better in most rooms. The driver is physically attenuated with absorbing material inside the can in the wall facing directions."

Now we are getting into the fine details of a highly evolved speaker design, the Ohm Walsh!

Imo there is at least one very good argument for their choice.

For the sake of brevity (which is NOT my strong suit!) I have been saying that the reverberant sound should have the same spectral balance as the direct sound, but actually it should have a little bit less top-end energy. This better approximates what we would hear in a large venue: Because of the long reflection path lengths in a large venue, the air itself somewhat attenuates the top-end energy in the reverberant sound, relative to the amount of top-end energy in the direct sound.

So I agree with Ohm, and do something similar when "voicing" my own designs.

For a more in-depth discussion, see Robert E. Greene’s article entitled "Records and Reality: How Music Sounds in Concert Halls":

http://www.regonaudio.com/Records%20and%20Reality.html

Duke

Duke another thing relating to what you said regarding the Ohms is that they opt to use a conventional tweeter normally angled in 45 degrees rather than attempt to reproduce the top end (higher frequencies are inherently more directional) omnidirectionally as well.

Compare with German Physics and the omni DDD Walsh driver which covers the higher frequencies while the low end is handled by more conventional bass drivers.

Duke and heaudio both make good points. But without hijacking this thread I will simply say that there are some folks (including me) that find omnidirectional speakers better mimic the music we prefer in the venues we typically listen live. I listen mostly to acoustic music; jazz, classical and small venue recordings. I don't find that typical unidirectional dynamic drivers do as good a job of reproducing complex music and full dynamic range as do omnis. Different strokes.

But I do agree with Duke's point about good/vs bad rooms: most rooms are not universally bad but are just bad for the specific speaker/design, speaker position, listening position and volume level from which you want to listen.

@br3098 wrote: "omnidirectional speakers better mimic the music we prefer in the venues we typically listen live."

I get it! Good omnis have very rich timbre and convey a wonderful sense of spaciousness, especially when they have a bit of breathing room.

The omni and quasi-omni formats are already being done and done well; I see no window of opportunity for me to offer any worthwhile net improvements. This is one of the reasons why I’m barking up different trees.

"I don’t find that typical unidirectional dynamic drivers do as good a job of reproducing complex music... as do omnis."

Agreed!

Floyd Toole fell in love with the quasi-omni (technically "bipolar") Mirage M1 many years ago. Like you, he finds that a well energized, spectrally-correct reverberant field actually enhances the clarity of complex music. This is somewhat counter-intuitive, but it has has been my experience as well. Toole theorizes that the ear is better able to decipher complex music signals when it is given "multiple looks" via multiple spectrally-correct reflections.

I was pleasantly surprised when my first bipolar speaker design had noticeably better clarity than its monopole counterpart, which used the same drivers and essentially the same crossover.

Regarding dynamics, imo that is something a good narrow-pattern horn speaker does well, and not just because of its lack of thermal compression. You see, dynamic range is partially a function of how loud the in-room "noise floor" is relative to the direct sound. To the extent that the reverberant energy in the room constitutes a masking "noise floor", it can reduce the effective dynamic range. So imo there’s some juggling of tradeoffs involved in this area when it comes to radiation pattern width. Or, as you far more succinctly put it:

"Different strokes."

Duke

 

a well energized, spectrally-correct reverberant field actually enhances the clarity of complex music

That's it exactly.