Mono is fine, been prototyping a speaker in mono setup before building a pair for it. It has been great. Some recordings sound a bit odd, some very good. Some stereo recording techniques work better in mono than others. Also if the mixing engineer was checking the mix in mono or not might affect. Consequently I have dived into electronic dance music, that most has to work in mono (clubs). At least, all of them club tracks have sounded good in mono (other qualities aside). Haven't listened in stereo in months 
Each on their own liking.
Each on their own liking.My large dipole ESL panels with room-filling ambience produce on mono signals a virtual sound image exactly mid-way between with no spread of location.
The sound in dual-mono (at least with my fine panels) is a big step nicer than a single speaker. While located in the air between the panels and never moving, the sound is sort of room-filling. In one-speaker mono, all the sound comes from out of the single panel.
Back to parlour tricks: a single speaker can bring music with great SQ into your life, and dual-mono adds a nice trick further, and two-speaker stereo a very nice trick on top.
My point is that localization is not a necessary and essential feature of a music system.
B.
It's binary winding-unwind of a progress in time, not exactly stereo.
Or...
two realities caught at the same time.
It's up to you to discern; the fact that the event happened and it can be reproduced over and over brings some more questions...
Something happened. actually many things happened. A sound recording is a description of a limited range of certain aspects of that what happened. Reproducing a (somewhat) distorted version of that description in a setting that makes it impossible for the reproduction to be the same over and over again makes quite distant from reproducing "the event".
Unfortunately, the single stereo speaker did not work for me - since the room I tested in is not suitable for this arrangement.
But the best "stereo image" comes now from my pair of unorthodox 34c9 speakers - My 34c9 (omnidirectional full range with 3FE22) build
I highly recommend anyone to try out.
But the best "stereo image" comes now from my pair of unorthodox 34c9 speakers - My 34c9 (omnidirectional full range with 3FE22) build
I highly recommend anyone to try out.
Not all that bothered if it is single or twin speaker mono, or twin speaker stereo. Still thinking a lot about building a battery powered large yet portable single point stereo horn speaker I can set up in unusual spaces. I find placement of a speaker (or speakers) and custom eq more important for a quality listening experience than the parlour tricks of mono or stereo. If it sounds good it is good.
ToS
Ummm, looking like there are audiophiles who are prepared to dispense with localization (with the exception of home theatre for obvious reasons).
But dispensing with localization, as some have indicated, is not the same as denying the value of multiple tracks or multiple speakers in providing fulfilling listening experiences in a room.
If you'll pardon my use of the word "Bose", I think the future might really see many room music systems with a single Bose-shaped box and two independent internal systems installed off to the side of the room and which plays two-track stereo recordings.
How many people devote major home real-estate to establishing a stereo music system with their listening chair at 45-degrees? I bet even many at DIYaudio would rather build fabulous clean single-boxes with expensive drivers and locate them off to the side and then they could sit where they pleased.
B.
But dispensing with localization, as some have indicated, is not the same as denying the value of multiple tracks or multiple speakers in providing fulfilling listening experiences in a room.
If you'll pardon my use of the word "Bose", I think the future might really see many room music systems with a single Bose-shaped box and two independent internal systems installed off to the side of the room and which plays two-track stereo recordings.
How many people devote major home real-estate to establishing a stereo music system with their listening chair at 45-degrees? I bet even many at DIYaudio would rather build fabulous clean single-boxes with expensive drivers and locate them off to the side and then they could sit where they pleased.
B.
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I agree with you. My stock in trade is suspension of disbelief through technology as magic. Most of my listening is in mono, and prefer stereo through headphones for that whole inside and out bodily sonic experience. Mono through a large horn speaker is for me akin to sitting inside a holographic bubble of sound. I like both.
ToS
Famous Clark quotation.
All perception is a parlour trick in the sense that all perceptions are constructions, as Helmholtz first argued. Hearing an oboe in the middle of a stream of pressure pulses in the air is a great trick.
While spatial localization is a trick that can not be separated out from other aspects of hearing (even when listening to mono or headphones), the effort to fashion the perception by recording and sound system design can be separated out.... and foregone.
B.
Actually this *and* mono *and* classic stereo *and* varying levels and methods of multichannel audio are available in the same music boxes ordinary consumers enjoy now. And they use them in such varied ways.
Soundbars with much the single box bose-style setup, but also allowing bluetooth or wifi pairing with separate loudspeakers for a more normal stereo setup, or surrounds etc. Some of this available at Ikea.
But also fairly modest AV receivers with multichannel outputs and auto setup and autoEQ. The AV receiver is able to deal with many loudspeaker configurations, able to normalize soundlevels, frequency response, distance etc.
I don't know if you're aware of Dolby Atmos and crazy stuff like that, but essentially they take the placement of loudspeakers and re-pan the sound to get the optimal reproduction, placement as intended by the original mix.
And while I see most relatives and friends getting that convenient and admittedly pretty impressive soundbar, i inevitably see a subwoofer being added, and surround loudspeakers, and then separate left and right....
I think audiophiles get caught up in pursuing optimization considered from the system side. Consumers seem to optimize to fit into available space and lifestyle. I still think we will see the range of systems seen today.
MMmmhh... I was to correct some flaws in my system, the largest one being that my speakers are too far apart. I guess 1,80 m might be a good human measure
Nevertheless, I had cognition once how the correct localization was flawed: I recorded one classic record for the purpose of transferring it to my mom's Ipod.
The left and the right channel were swapped and I quite enjoied the Mp3 playback except that the correct orchestra scenario was not there, it was inverted.
Funny, stereoscopic vision is related to depth perception while stereophonic hearing is related to lateral localization.
If you look at Toole's book, it's pretty much all about the localization parlour trick, as if THAT is why we bring speakers into our homes. I wonder what the book would look like if it asked the more general question about non-localization systems?
B.
If you look at Toole's book, it's pretty much all about the localization parlour trick, as if THAT is why we bring speakers into our homes. I wonder what the book would look like if it asked the more general question about non-localization systems?
B.
Well, sound is slow propagation compared to light.
In one second it travels 344 m, so after it arrives at your ears, it has bounced on the walls many times, and a new one is on the road to come too
Moreover, the ears are lateral! The brain makes the operation(s) of arrivals. Like PRR said at post #45
In one second it travels 344 m, so after it arrives at your ears, it has bounced on the walls many times, and a new one is on the road to come too
Moreover, the ears are lateral! The brain makes the operation(s) of arrivals. Like PRR said at post #45
No TNX, I'm really full!
If a system has a really good soundstage/image it is very much 3D if the information is on the source.
dave
Yes, I agree with this.
At present I am listening to Jon Hassell’s ‘Listening to Pictures’. It is made up of thousands of tiny snippets of sound all moving in harmony within a stereo-sonic soundscape, and on headphones it sounds wonderful. Truly fabulous music.
Interestingly, the best 3D cinema in terms of depth information happens when the camera POV is moving relative to the audience POV. Obviously, fast dynamic camera sweeps are impressive, but on long static takes with tiny movements of the camera POV, an incredible amount of visual information can be conveyed. This takes a tremendous amount of skill from any one Director of Photography to achieve this, mainly because the necessary cinematic language is still in a state of evolution.
Very strong parallels with audio here.......ToS.
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