Jesco Lohan (Acoustics Insider) explains WHY the room is critical to good sound
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- čas přidán 28. 08. 2024
- Camera: John Darko | Editor: John Darko
Your room is messing with the sound of your loudspeakers -- and you'd be surprised by just how much. Berlin-based studio acoustician Jesco Lohan takes us into the world of room acoustics to give us some pointers on how to make improvements.
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#room #acoustics #audiophile
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This is the best headphone sales pitch I've ever heard!
Now hear actual headphones for the best speakers sales pitch.
That being said headphones cannot give you that sense of space that a room can.
Plus most Headphones only have one driver in them giving them many many limitations that loudspeakers can offer on performance and physically feeling sounds you cannot hear.
Loudspeaker Hi-Fi is a completely different aspect to audio reproduction listening altogether.
This is why many audiophiles own both types of rigs.
🔊💪😊👌🕪
Great one! I would add two simple suggestions, get your speakers as far away from walls as possible, and get closer to the speakers. Both will minimize room effects, but difficult to implement.
Very true, but if you have a low frequency room mode where the dip happens to be where you sit, then this will reduce the problem a bit, but it will still be intolerable. I have this exact situation where I am very close to the speakers, but still needed MAJOR bass traps (e.g. 100+ lbs of rockwool) to bring things within 10db of flat. This will definitely help with the comb filter effects - unless your room is pretty small. Even then, floor reflections (or desk reflections in a studio) are going to be a prob.
Indeed
You're right it can be a challenge to implement but huge sonic rewards are to be had.
Also if your space permits, it's advisable to sit in the front half of the room (viewing the speakers). Experimentation will be your guide (listening, or ideally measurement/software), but a good starting point for the LP off the front wall is ~38%.
This suggested starting point is to find the least bad spot for modal resonances and the powerful acoustic distortions that plague bass articulation.
Although they're huge, my Seaton Catalyst 3-way coaxial quasi point source mains help facilitate such midfield to near-field listening.
Steve you and I discussed this a few months ago at Axpona. I appreciate you pointing out the benefits of bringing the speakers away from the boundaries and sitting somewhat closer to them. Even though all those room distortions still exist, sitting closer to your speakers tilts the relative balance of direct sound to room sound more in your favor.
Steve you need to learn to listen :P He spoke about more room than speakers at 4:25 and demonstrated distance effect at 5:12 in untreated room vs treated.
Steve Guttenberg Audiophiliac what if your room is very shallow and wide?
I agree, however having planar speakers complicates the matter as they propagate sound from the front and back. Being out from walls is very important as well as being farther away from the speakers.
Had this guy over at my studio, super down to earth, knows his stuff and very approachable as you can tell from this interview.
I found that my being in the room affected the standing waves so I found my system sounds much better when I'm not in the room.
Interesting thought. One question: how do you know if you aren't in the room?
@@robertbierman8881 Hook, line, and sinker... it was a joke/jab at audiophiles. The room and speaker placement does have a huge effect on sound no doubt but I think Brad is just having a little fun.
the real question is: How does the standing wave know that you are not in the room!?! ;)
@Brad - Your standing wave issues are easy to fix. When you're in the room, don't stand up. The standing waves will go over your head because you are no longer standing.
The ultimate tweek!
The eq boost getting cancelled by equal energy in the reflected wave pressure was a “mind blown” moment. Great info here. Thanks
What a joy it is, listening to a guy who really knows his stuff :-) :-)
He is so right. I own my mainspeaker since 1998 and moved about 8 times in different rooms with different sizes, proportions, shapes and materials for walls and floor. Boy was I diappointed with some places, no matter how I treated them. On the other hand in the right room my speakers sat in and the positioning was right it was amazing, what you could enjoy! And the funny thing is, I was not trapped in buying new speakers over the years. They improved with the roomtreatment and better apmlification.
I managed to place a pair of speakers in the room in such a fashion as to fill it with sound completely. I blindfolded a friend and asked him to step into the room and point to the direction of each speaker, and he wasn't able to no matter where he stood, as the sound was the same all around. To me, that was perfection.
This is fabulous information and I have been telling people that your room is a component in and of itself and must be treated. Now the amount that is needed to spend on the room and the amount of panels needed is a surprise. This guys thought process on room treatment is outstanding. At my old house I had a dedicated room that I fought with but made compromises to get what I got. At my new place the room is much different and so is the sound. Thanks for getting this information out John, this type of content is what separates you from the rest.
I’m delighted to see this video about room treatments. I believe that a modest system in a well treated room sounds better than a “hi end” system in an untreated room. I have treated two rooms myself and the benefits were enormous. The treatments have to be done intelligently. Acoustic treatments are very interesting.
The best video about room treatment on CZcams by far.
The quality of the interviewees is always top notch. It's criminal this channel doesn't have 10x the subscribers.
That's becoz not a lot of ppl iare in hq audio. It's a niche market.
As someone just starting a journey, this was hugely valuable. This tells me to worry much more about the room than all the minutiae. His statement about 10k on room fir 2k speakers was a bomb blast.
This will now be my ficus of learning for a while. Thanks and kudos!
Jesco did a great job of explaining many of the issues due to the acoustic conditions in a listening room. I was surprised to hear him say the reverberation time in his studio was only .2 seconds. I looked it up and reverberation time is the time it takes for the sound to drop by 60 dB. This room is practically dead. Under such conditions, you would still have modal effects at the lower frequencies, needing bass absorption, but the highs would not be subject to much spatial information transmitted to the listener. In other words, the sense of space would be nearly gone. That said, stereo itself provides some spatial information, but under such conditions, it would be mostly limited to the spatial information conveyed by the direct sound from the speakers, thus giving one a sort of headphone effect. That might be suitable for detailed, somewhat sterile, listening. And in Jesco's line of work, that is exactly what he needs. But for pleasurable listening, I would probably prefer a little more reverberation, maybe about 1/2 second. Jesco didn't mention the effect of irregular room shapes. I'm fortunate that in the modern style home I live in, there are many angles, two different heights of sloped ceiling, large hallways and staircases. carpeted and uncarpeted floors, near and far walls to my left and to the rear of the speakers. The only real concern I have is making sure my listening position is right. Yes, there are bass nodes, but none that are very objectionable, unless I position my head too close to the back wall. I have not added any specific room treatments, except for a tapestry rug that helps reflections to the right of me. Under these conditions, I'm sure room treatment would help some, but I suspect the results would be small.
Amazing interview!
I’m very interested in those topics. Many audio reviewers lacks in that area. You see some talk about the “tweeter material sounds that way” or “silver cables” and “day and night different” and you can hear the massive reverberation when they speak in the listening room!
Like a sommelier tasting wine in a sewer. 😂
Great work man. You are one of the best!
What a fantastic demonstration of room affect on sound!
I think what we need as a follow up, and Audioholics kind of did this, is a series on how to improve the sound of your room. So topics like 1) Room orientation based on dimensions 2) Speaker placement 3) Listening location 4) Furniture selection and placement 5) Floor treatment "Get a Rug" 6) Wall/ceiling treatments (Acoustic panels as art, book shelf placement, plants, heavy blinds, etc. Each episode should have some measurements to quantify how the room response changed as well as a subjective report. I think folks could pick through this list and decide which segments they are willing, or able, to accomplish to increase the enjoyment of their listening.
Big fan of channel and big believer in music 1st.
I don't normally comment on videos but I enjoy music and used to work in low end recording studios myself acoustics was something I studied. Budget was limited so it was lots of listening and spending wisely.
Happy to share some findings from years of mixing and recording in very different rooms.. Take it or leave it.
Personally I wouldn't have a defuser at the side. I would place mine behind me simply to remove long wave nodes my thinking is If the point of your setup is direct sound don't have a reflective surface either side of your ears which is designed to scatter different frequencies in different directions. You won't get rid of the reflections completely with foam but your at least make them uniform and your brain will do the rest.
Types of wood ( it my look pretty) but I can tell what type of softwood he has in that room by the sound of that room ( there is too much, causing a distinct lower mid reverberation)
You can ruin a room with too much acoustic foam. As different density and thickness absorb different frequencies at different rates. I.e. If you only buy 2" foam your suck the mids and highs dry and the bass will take over. Look at the manufacturer graphs.
If you've had to put a sock in the bass reflex port of your speaker they are to close to your walls or your rooms not big enough for the speaker. You've also completely changed the frequency response of that very well designed speaker.
Rooms are never as wet as you think they are . There are lots of soft furnishings in houses often these have an impact on the sound. Fabric curtains fabric sofas will absorb sound sometimes as well as an expensive bass trap will. (Avoid shiny fabric these often reflect high frequency)
If your placing foam or speakers and then go back to your listening poation Don't listen to the room with your eyes open, sounds strange but if your eyes are closed your much more focused.
Hopefully someone will find this useful. I am no expert but always best to use your ears and your own judgement and remember if you've been in a room more than 40 mins your brain has already mapped that room out and it much harder to hear the difference already.
Easily one of the most informative videos, that I've come across...thank you for this. My favorite part was "hold on", and the 3 big wins,speakers not included. Great video.
This is one of the best videos I've watched on hifi recently - the Rega, Naim and PMC forums to which I subscribe all ask somewhat empty questions about this cartridge, or that black box, or whether a £1000 cable can "brighten" the sound - when the room is as big a factor in the overall sound. Part of the reason, IMHO, that this hobby is so interesting is because of my room, my ears, my "system" and my musical preferences - not whether failing to listen to hi-res music is an audiophile faux pas :-)
Best discussion on this topic I ever heard
Truly good information. My mancave is paneled with oak and has a 7 foot drop ceiling. It has shelves of the nik nakkery that has been accumulated along life's journey. It has a Sony STR ZA5000ES processor. It has 6 Polk Audio RT55s, 1 Polk Audio CS400, 4 JBL PB10 subs and 4 Polk Audio M5s as front and rear heights. Making a simple and inexpensive 7.4.4 room. Obviously everyone is impressed when they hear the room.
What really taught 'me' something in this video was the fact that we get better at hearing our environment over time. Truly a revelation.
Thank you for the time and effort of making this video.
As a producer, these are my favorite, back to fundamentals
Makes perfect sense to invest in room treatment. The science behind it backs it up ! Plus aesthetics with room treatment as a bonus ! Budgeting 10% of the value of the stereo seems like a good starting point, much like cables.
I'm a retired pro audio professional. I subscribed to your channel on the strength of this video. Honestly I've been enjoying all the content. Excellent channel, good work!
Darko I can't thank you enough. GREAT interview
Awesome video!!! Thank you. The room setup and speaker placement is equally as important as the equipment.
Agh!! I wish I had heard this 20 years ago! I knew the room had an effect on my sound but never really appreciated how much. Really going to change my thinking at this point and work on the room significantly before I go spend money on new speakers. Thank you for this! Priceless!
GIK is the place for panels, they will answer your questions with more than sales talk. No mater how much you measure and calculate, it still comes down to trial and error to get the room right. My ideal listing is about 6 ft behind my couch but the couch is perfect where it is for movies. I wish my couch was on rails for easy moving back and forth.
Excellent video!!! The room is the most important component...
This is my favorite article about stereo rooms. It's brilliant
Great video and interview! Very interesting stuff! I'd love to see more coverage of this topic!
Very valuable information here, thank you!! Kind of explains why I like nearfield listening, and headphones, so much.
This conversation is super valuable. The audio professionals are such recluses otherwise.
Hi,
Sorry to say John, but... this seems to be THE MOST INFORMATIVE VIDEO on your channel !
This is the essence of this video and whole idea of hi-fi equipment:
JOHN: You confirmed pretty much what I've been thinking for the last few years. Number one, most audiophiles, most people listening at home do not listen in a dedicated treated room. They're listening in their lounge room. That lounge room is inherently compromised by its dimensions, therefore it's almost like there's a glass ceiling that the room applies on any item so no matter how much money you throw on your speaker, you're gonna get to a point where it's just dead money.
JESCO: Yeah, that's right
JOHN: I would suggest that glass ceiling is pretty damn low
JESCO: Yeah, you wouldn't expect it to be so low
Cheers,
Przemek
P.S. F&^*k room acoustics- I'm going back to listening of my audiophile USB printer cable and power cables- I've spent so much money on them, so they MUST improve the sound of my hi-end system :D :D :D
Very good interview - here a few useful links:
* This is a room mode calculator so you can see what problems your room has. If you hover over the notes they play back so you can walk around in the room and hear them for yourself. It also shows between which walls the modes exist: trikustik.at/amroc/index.php?l=600&w=453&h=350&r60=0.6
* This is a loudspeaker / listening position calculator to find the best listening spot. You get to see the theoretical frequency response, you can adjust the speakers, their hight and position and see how the response improves: www.hunecke.de/en/calculators/loudspeakers.html
* Lastly you can use either Fuzzmeasure or REW to measure your listening spot and try to apply suitable treatment or even EQ to fix all remaining problems.
hukl - Thanks a lot for the links, very usefull.
Hukl- thanks so much for this info!
Very good one John. Unusually transparent and clear info from Jesco. Big thanks to him.
One thing you could have mentioned is digital room tuning/calibrations. Such as Sonarworks.
For people listening all in the computer and have no possibility to change the room, that could be a decent solution.
Personally not using Sonarworks software but Genelec GLM monitors with dsp based calibration, but the principle is the same.
Although, room treatment should always come first.
WOW! Such perfect information condensed. I have been battling the issue for some time now and now I think I have just the basis I need to tackle it all. Thank you both so much!
What an insightful piece of content John. Supremely interesting and useful to just about everyone interested in musical reproduction. Keep up the great work.
wow this was the best video on room treatment I've ever watched . thanks for the great sensible approach to this .
As of today 19.08.2019, 4 deaf people clicked on this great video.
Thank you so much for all the insight, detailed info and all the great ideas that came to me from the video.
That high ground reference... R/prequelmemes is proud. Also, Yes. Room and speakers are like marriage. When people ware asking me what has biggest impact on sound in a room I always said that with sound everything has impact on everything else, every single material is either adding reflections or absorbing, or both. Atmospheric pressure has impact on how sound travels, temperature and humidity also have impact and can change EQ of the room and these are trivial, the room modes and resonances are the worst. That's why after buying speakers one should place them where they are going to be and measure one at a time from a listening point, or area, After that, acoustically adapt the room and than measure again and continue.
As someone who has a history of chasing the upgrade "dragon" this is good information and confirmation of what I suspected to be true but just didn't have the experience to know for certain what I should focus on.
first and complete overview about acoustic treatment - Thank you! Learnt a lot, you ensured me about certain aspects, and change me on others. Again, Thank You!
Excellent! In fact a good Headphone and ampli is the best for a good home listening
I wouldn't say 'fact' or 'best'. Headphones are a different style of listening and an option according to time and place (situation).
Wow. Good stuff. Profound, if the truth be told. And it's truth I have experienced. My room has always been the main impediment to getting quality sound. Obviously, one might go the extra mile (could go the extra mile) in a studio set up. In a home environment, where most of us have sound rooms that are far from dedicated, treatments like the ones he showed and employed may not be possible or practical. And that's a shame considering how much money many of us put into our systems. Seems we've all put the cart before the horse. One of your best videos yet. There's nothing like an expert sharing his expertise.
Enfin quelqu'un de sérieux sur le sujet. Merci !
I have a small ~9' X 10' room. I hung felt on the walls and it has a wall to wall carpet; the ceiling is wood. Total "treatment" cost $250. I had a pair of KRK 6000s and a KRK S10 woofer from 1993, a Hafler p1500 amp and a Denon CD player with Alpha signal processing (Total amount actually paid ~$2,400). The acoustics were so good, that the sound transition from headphones to speakers, was almost seamless. The headphones were Beyrdynamic 9000 (I believe). Point being, you don't need to spend a lot if you have a small room available. I now have a setup worth a lot more in an oblong living room with hardwood floors and a glass wall. It doesn't sound good unless the volume is low and you're head is directly in front of the speakers. Looking forward to one day moving everything back into that small room. In the meantime, I'll use a good set of headphones.
Hopefully this video will convince my partner that I can get a dedicated music room in our next place
I've already done that ☺️👍🏻
Personally, I am willing to give up some sound quality in order not to be in a separate room.
'WAF'?
👗👠👡👢👚 No dedicated Wardrobe! L😂L
Or a nice of headphone!
Excellent information that shows how important the room is.
Great video and shows me that DSP active speakers with both frequency and time correction is the future . If want great listening room it must be dedicated and adds a lot to cost. I will stick with headphones until Active DSP speakers come down under 12-25 K price point. Hope to see you John at RMAF.
Another great eye opener John thank you so much!!
Thanks for that video, after a long day arguing and adjusting a large professional sound system for my days work I feel vindicated for caring.
Ofcourse you decide to upload a video with this title just after I've bought a pair of LSX's (that your review helped me convince to buy).
Anyhow this video has some good points right from the start. I also 'suffer' from the more/less bass in a certain part of the room, but for me it's really about the distance from the back wall I am sitting. Luckily my couch is in the sweet spot for me.
Doesn't the DSP that the lsx have compensate ever so slightly?
Best of the best ! Merci infiniment.But good acoustic treatment and how to achieve this still continue to be a mystery
Thank you for this. I also wonder how we choose where to listen. I spent time putting together a 5.1 system around the tv, but found I really like to listen in the kitchen when my wife is watching tv. I had a neighbor who listened in his car. I think the sociology/anthropology?of this is fascinating
It’s a great video, with all the basics covered. However, I’d like to add that it’s actually pretty easy to mess up your room treatment by adding too many panels, especially in a small room. Overtreated room sounds even worse than undertreated. I experienced this myself: bought too many panels for the side walls, installed them all at once and was initially very disappointed with the sound. Only by removing half of them I was able to find the right balance where the treatment fixes the issues and at the same time does not kill liveliness and realism in music.
Another thing to mention is that pulling speakers out from the wall into the room and moving your seat closer to speakers, forming an equilateral triangle can remove most of the issues caused by the room, even in a small square-shaped room which might be impossible to completely fix with acoustic treatment. IMO proper speaker and listener positioning provides 10x bigger effect than acoustic treatment, so start with that first.
this is what the chap talks about in this video - good setup gives you a good starting point - however you wont fix room issues with seating and speaker placement alone 99.9999% of the time.
Again what he says remove the room then you hear the system - maybe it was the sound of your system you wasnt totally digging or maybe things weren't setup as good as you thought or maybe not. Not a criticism more of an overriding thought.
This chap is looking at it from an absolute point of view not a preference because it's what your used to point of view which is something to factor in
Overtreat? ... I'd suggest perhaps you mis-treated via uneven attenuation of mid&high freqs, over lower freqs.
If you absorb, do it in a manner whereby you absorb as wide an effective freq range as possible.
Aim for relatively even decay times across the spectrum.
Adding a lot of thin absorption will suck the life out of the room, ... and leave the muddy boomy probs.
@@FOH3663 in my case it was too much absorption in mid-high frequencies.
It's crazy how much a room impacts sound when considering how much an improvement a good audio system vs. a bad one is if what Jesco Lohan says is true, 50-70 percent!
Awesome video John, what a great guest to have.
Personally I have always wanted a dead room like a recording studio vs. a balanced room...now I'm not so sure.
Makes me wonder how effective all these new mic sampling room equalizing systems really are too.
@C - I use three room/spkr equalizing systems. dbx DriveRack, IK ARC2.5, and Sonarworks Reference 4.4.
They are all very effective. Without a decent level of acoustic treatment, the room/spkr correction systems still work, but will not provide as much audio bliss compared to a room with treatment + active correction.
A simple solution that will work to ensure you feel bass frequencies below 80hz is bass shakers. Not sure why this isn't talked about much since you can't really localize the sounds and with a solid connection to the lounge it's a wonderful addition to providing all listeners with a better bass experience. :D
This was an excellent video. Very informative, and easily accessible.
Thank you John, this guy was really helpful. Even I’m a sort of a pro aware of all this kind of problems, I’ve my own studio acoustically treated by my self, it was really insight-full. Of course the primary insight here for people starting hifi trip is don’t waste money in equipment if this new toys plays in a non treated shit room.
Thank you so much. I’ve been looking into the room but finding reliable intel has been the tricky bit.
Another terrific video, John!
Absolutely marvellous video. Big fan of the room-first approach. My studio / 2 channel room has lots of treatment and sounds great. Home cinema relies on Dirac in the NAD t758, which is excellent for reflections and some bass control.
Genuinely fascinating.
In the 1980s a guy I knew tried around 12 pairs of excellent expensive speakers but said they were all terrible. I visited his house once and found the floor of his music room just bounced, squeaked and generally sounded hollow. He refused to spend any money on getting it sorted
I have owned three houses, and my current house is the absolute worst when it comes to my sound system. I have a vaulted ceiling that just sucks the base out of the room. And when following the audio set up 101 instructions of the world, my couch would be up against the front door of my House. My speakers would then be in the middle of the room at some odd angle and guests would need to climb through my front windows to get into my house. The problem is so bad, it is making my floorstanding speakers sound like bookshelf speakers. So I really do agree with the concept that the room geometry is ultimately what is going to decide your musical fate. Particularly when any room treatments need to be blessed by your significant other.
That being said, the easiest thing I have found to do to correct my issue is just simply add a sub woofer. And it’s not just a matter of throwing a subwoofer into the room, because I have the luxury of being able to borrow is 750 W 18 inch subwoofer and it made almost no difference. But a 10 inch subwoofer in just the right spot brought the low and back.
So if you really really care about how your audio file level system sounds, you may want to buy a house or an apartment based on the geometry of your listening room. Because of that room is just simply not conducive to good sound, you’re screwed.
Very educating and helpful!
Yet another video that just might get the feet of some "audiophiles" back to earth :)
Thank you very much Jesco and John!
Great explanation about room size, and influence on audition. Keep publishing..
Use magnaplanar or ribbons in difficult rooms. The reason is they project sound in a more 180° vs 360° diffusion pattern. Otherwise mini dsp or advanced self leveling equipped speakers or software. Not many are up for panels or treatments. Not today with options like mini dsp.
I've been saying this for years, but people would rather use magic blocks of wood and $2000 cables. (shrug).
Another great video John! Loads of useful information. Thanks!
Our ears are fine tuned to distinguish the acoustics of the room from the sound we want to hear (voices). E.g. any precise copy of a sound that is delayed for >6ms will be easily dismissed as a reflection. A speaker that illuminates a room evenly and that is >3ft away from a surface will sound much better than speakers in a box.
A point source like a LX-Mini or CBT array like the CBT36 will do well in any room.
Thanks for the great interview, very interesting and really makes me think about how music might sound in an optimised room. And makes me want to build a dedicated music room 😁
I really enjoyed this video and learned so much from it. Excellent idea/interview John.
Brilliant! Thanks for this information packed interview.
Thanks for the video, lots of information here. An important tip is missing: the influence of those little plants on the standing waves.
John all my systems have room correction. Room correction is much more sophisticated than just a simple EQ. It is not perfect but it samples the sitting area or room depending on the system. It gets you 50% there. Hence instead of your room affecting 50-70% of the sound, it can bring you down to 25-35%. The correction is so significant that I would never buy another system without it. There are also different qualities of in-room correction systems. Unfortunately, few allow you to use high end measuring mics and pre. So there are issues there too. however, it is still much better than without having room correction.
The 2 best from what I can tell is Room Perfect and Dirac Live. I have Dirac live in my PC set up. It is great since I can use my Earthwork M30 measuring Mic with a calibrated file plugged into the Babyface Pro Pre AD. I use the Kef LS50W for that system. It sounds amazing! In my Home theatre, I have the Marantz 8805 with Focal speakers. The Marantz' uses Audessy. There they have an included cheap mic that you must use. The results are an improvement but missing that last perfect calibration I can get using my other set up. Simply put a $1,000 Dac in a calibrated system will sound better than a $13,000 Dac without a calibrated system.
great video! we need to know more about this like where to begin? first how to measure the room properly ,than how to address the problems. the best way to listen is through headphones, you can upgrade to dekoni pads (70$) or some fancy cable(100-200$) and your'e done!
My room is long and somewhat narrow, and without even trying, my listening position ends up in the middle of the room. I can't move any closer or farther back (easily) without really janking up the whole space. It's maddening because I know I'm at the nexus of standing waves at 70 and ~120hz. I thought there was something wrong with my speakers until I took them to my parents' house and set them up in their oddly-shaped finished basement. They sounded amazing! I sort of wanted to move in just for the sound quality. Now, when I look at houses, I'm looking for the perfectly weird room :)
Trinnov sound processors. The DSP can correct even the most difficult rooms. It cancels early reflections, phase corrects all speakers down to individual drivers within the same cabinet (obviously each speaker system needs to be bi/tri/quad amped), time aligns and eq's everything. The sound field is produces is like nothing you've ever heard.
Very timely and super interesting. Great information from “Les Grossman” look-a-like, and the best discussion on room treatment I’ve seen.
Awesome interview! Very much appreciated and very „enlightening“ 👍🏻
One wonders how one can hear music at all, in a concert hall. The best concert halls are designed provide a mix of direct and reflected sound. One reason they usually feature chandeliers to to scatter the sound. Columns also serve to scatter sound. They're not just there to hold the roof up.
Thank you so much John, your video, has enabled me to convince my neighbors that I need to breakdown the walls between us. Those low frequencies need to breath ;) But in all seriousness, great video. But, could you do a video on what you could do to a general size room. What should one be careful off. I know that might be difficult as all your listeners/watchers/followers?!? have different rooms. Maybe share what you did to your room? Perhaps you already did that in that case apologies for asking.
Great time...👌
It's worth remembering that a hi-fi system (or any acoustic sound) in an anechoic chamber sounds wrong. Sound engineers know that a system in any room will get, and needs, some room reverb. Reverb in any recording is technically a corruption of the original sound, but it is needed.
Just had the thought that the backwave reflections in speakers cabinets may have this reverb effect as well, although it affects direct signal as well when they come back through cone.
That's why 4th or 6th order bandpass enclosure designs is good not just for subwoofer but for all range of speakers including tweeters.
catastrophic! on the good way :)
i feel it now, now how speakers really sounds in a room… after this video! thank you very much for that really really awsome interview
Thanks you gents - great interview.
I’ve had my same system in three different rooms and it sounded different in each. Man one room was awesome, unfortunately not the current one. Still sounds good though
As good an explanation of a complicated subject as I've heard. I've measured the rooms of many of the audiophiles in our local club, and they typically exhibit 15 db peaks in the bass response at the listening position. When I introduce some EQ to reduce the energy at the peaks, the audiophiles never comment on the enhancement of the bass response, they always laud the improved resolution of the midrange (which is no longer drowned out by the bass).
I guess I've always wanted to fill my house with music and when I want to sit and seriously listen I plugin headphones and basically meditate on it.
hopefully you know what meditation is all about.
REALLY GOOD VIDEO!
Want to try some treatment? 1) Hang a duvet on a couple sticks of wood behind your listening seat. 2) Grab a couple of loft insulation rolls from a DIY store and put them in 2 room corners. (Leave them wrapped up. If cheeky, you could even take them back after a quick listen).
Good point about the rooms. What is the one component in a small home studio/theater which hasn't been built to provide the best possible audio at a given price point? Your room.
I also find partly blocking my monitors allows my room to more fully affect the sound.
Coolest thing I've learned over is the best way to find a good sub location without having to move your couch is put your sub in your listening location and walk your room, where the sub sounds the best is where you should put it.
Also known as the subwoofer crawl, because to really be accurate, your head needs to be at floor level, where the subwoofer will be sitting.
Thankyou ] someone explained the rooms needs. my hi fi speakers are off . and the smaller speakers match the room . crazy but true. i can not sound treat my living room .
This is why I use headphones.
Great vid. Thx. Wondering if you have any suggestions for rooms where you don't really want to put room treatments that stand out - are there any good pointers in terms of placing furniture, plants, etc? In particular, any good solutions for corners short of large bass traps? Obviously not as effective as acoustic treatment but better than nothing I suppose.
Actually I have a simple way to handlle some of these issues. I listen to piece of music (high quality recording that covers a full range of frequencies) through a high-quality set of headphones. Then I EQ the system to match what I hear in the headphones. Much better than spectrum analysis. This is what I do to set up a sound system for live performances that I’m mixing. I’ve never had the pleasure or experience of being in a perfect acoustic environment. As far as my home listening environment is concerned, I get rid of standing waves.