Dejan, what I'm really complaining about is the almost certain, these days, loss of the sense of the musical vibrancy of the voice and/or instruments, absolutely straight. Thank God for buskers(!), the local area has a few, in shopping areas, etc - they position themselves where the natural echos nicely enhance the sound, and voice and say acoustic guitar fill the air with glorious sound - lovely stuff!! That thick, dead, compressed blarring of some muso's rubbishy "pro" gear is completely absent, and it's a very pleasant, uplifting interlude in the day ...
You would best be served by avoiding any of my systems, particularly the ones in Seattle. (Although the only one I suspect you might wander into is the Flint Center.)
Design goal is to reproduce music at 102dB with headroom of 15dB.
That Frank these days originates from ignoramuses who pass themselves off as "professionals". Today, if yoou can attach a music source to the PA system, you are immediately promoted to a professional. Yeah, sure!
Keantoken, I don't know that improving your WM and potentially raising your IQ will necessarily make you a better listener. The mind, I hear ,is quite a complex thing.
My wife studied WM and it is a major processing bottleneck for all sorts of things and studies do strongly suggest it correlates well with IQ. I suspect good programmers and mathematicians score highly in this area.
My wife studied WM and it is a major processing bottleneck for all sorts of things and studies do strongly suggest it correlates well with IQ. I suspect good programmers and mathematicians score highly in this area.
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I already figured that out, no offense but not my idea of enjoying music.
billshurv,
In my eyes there is a big difference between controlled directivity and the misnomer of constant directivity in a waveguide. I don't want to start an argument here and though I agree strongly with much of what E. Geddes says I also strongly disagree with some things he says about his oblate spheroid topology. Ed Simon has to install these types of systems into large venues and I am sure he could tell you many things about the problems with any and all types of waveguides, they all have certain problematic aspects in reality. I spent many years in the real pro-sound industry and I can tell you there is no magic bullet.
I completely agree that most pop music and many other types of music are played to loud, it just takes away from the music itself. I know that my ears compress the sound as soon as a certain spl level is reached, it just ruins the experience. I have stayed away from many of the clubs here in Los Angeles as this is my general experience, the music pushed to hard and the distortion levels get stupid when this is done with mediocre or miss designed systems.
I have friends who are professional jazz musicians and I get to enjoy them at times playing for only myself and a few others, this is when you understand what the music is really supposed to sound like.
In my eyes there is a big difference between controlled directivity and the misnomer of constant directivity in a waveguide. I don't want to start an argument here and though I agree strongly with much of what E. Geddes says I also strongly disagree with some things he says about his oblate spheroid topology. Ed Simon has to install these types of systems into large venues and I am sure he could tell you many things about the problems with any and all types of waveguides, they all have certain problematic aspects in reality. I spent many years in the real pro-sound industry and I can tell you there is no magic bullet.
I completely agree that most pop music and many other types of music are played to loud, it just takes away from the music itself. I know that my ears compress the sound as soon as a certain spl level is reached, it just ruins the experience. I have stayed away from many of the clubs here in Los Angeles as this is my general experience, the music pushed to hard and the distortion levels get stupid when this is done with mediocre or miss designed systems.
I have friends who are professional jazz musicians and I get to enjoy them at times playing for only myself and a few others, this is when you understand what the music is really supposed to sound like.
Even live, un-amplified music in some circumstances is not to be heard up close even if the musician is good.
Bagpipes, oboes, pianos, opera singers when they're belting, the effect is not pleasant. Distance is required for air to absorb some of the very edgy HF sounds and in the case of pianos to diminish the sound of the mechanical workings.
Which brings me to my next beef: close micing in recordings - horrible!
That's why I said constant/controlled. There is confusion over both terms in many minds. JBL call it 'uniform' directivity in their M2. But whatever it is called, there does seem to a significant consensus amongst the real pros the directivity is more important than us mere mortals might have realised.
The issue is on axis response vs actual energy output. A 15" woofer can be designed to give flat frequency response on axis up to 3000-5000 Hz. However all that is happening is the power out is dropping but the directivity is increasing. Now if you are on axis outdoors it may not be a problem. However indoors the less directional lower frequencies bounce around the room and deliver more energy to the listener. So the frequency response is no longer "Flat."
A 15" woofer in a uniform directivity design would normally cross below 500 Hz.
The point which I was trying to make is that quite a few high range domes have rather small disperion oerormance with rising frequency. This tends to center the music in a small pint rather than disperse it around the room and let it bring in some "air".
The problem is further excerberated by poor tweeter performance, as shown by waterfall diagrams, where we can ofte see significant distorion rise with frequency rising and poor ovarload performance.
I am reaffirmed in tha view by my own dome tweeters, titanium vapor deposited (TWO25A16), from Son Audax, which according to the late manufacturer has an unusually good HF dispersion and is not easily overloaded. When it is, it behaves gradually, so to spek, at say +1 dB it's not bad, at +2 dB it's noticeable, at +3 dB it's clearly there and from there onwards, it becomes unpleasant. On the plus side, it's declared for 30Wrms, which is relatively high for a tweeter.
ON the other side, my AR94 speakers have a cone tweeter, and while its pretty good in terms of frequency resonse, it lags way behind in disperion, it simply cannot cope.
The problem is further excerberated by poor tweeter performance, as shown by waterfall diagrams, where we can ofte see significant distorion rise with frequency rising and poor ovarload performance.
I am reaffirmed in tha view by my own dome tweeters, titanium vapor deposited (TWO25A16), from Son Audax, which according to the late manufacturer has an unusually good HF dispersion and is not easily overloaded. When it is, it behaves gradually, so to spek, at say +1 dB it's not bad, at +2 dB it's noticeable, at +3 dB it's clearly there and from there onwards, it becomes unpleasant. On the plus side, it's declared for 30Wrms, which is relatively high for a tweeter.
ON the other side, my AR94 speakers have a cone tweeter, and while its pretty good in terms of frequency resonse, it lags way behind in disperion, it simply cannot cope.
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Some helpful hints for DIY'ers.
yes, for many, many decades. Only more recently have there been waveguides to do the job well. In my studies and experiements in just that area, I came to the conclusion that an angle of 60-90 total degrees is best for the home. Or, +/- 30 to 45 degrees horizontal dispersion angle.
I found that this is very much better to achieve the best balance between minimizing room coloration/influence and direct signal of what the recording has on it. The hard part has been finding this as well as all the other desired wants and needs. Besides the anechoic on axis response, a flat power response over this range is a good indicator of such directivity control. If the multitude of on and off axis water-fall plots were integrated into one plot, you will see the composite response you are hearing. or closer to it...... the more directional control (60-90) helps in doing this if executed well. But also the fine inner sounds of the recording (ambiance etc) are not masked by excessive room reverb and reflection arrivals. All in all it is the best numbers I have found for what angle of directionality is the optimum compromise/balance.
If you want to completely get rid of the room.... use headphones. But then , you are not sharing the experience with others.
[excuse the shortness and lack of fill-in-the-gaps.... just want to give the angle that gives best results without too much detail]
THx-RNMarsh
yes, for many, many decades. Only more recently have there been waveguides to do the job well. In my studies and experiements in just that area, I came to the conclusion that an angle of 60-90 total degrees is best for the home. Or, +/- 30 to 45 degrees horizontal dispersion angle.
I found that this is very much better to achieve the best balance between minimizing room coloration/influence and direct signal of what the recording has on it. The hard part has been finding this as well as all the other desired wants and needs. Besides the anechoic on axis response, a flat power response over this range is a good indicator of such directivity control. If the multitude of on and off axis water-fall plots were integrated into one plot, you will see the composite response you are hearing. or closer to it...... the more directional control (60-90) helps in doing this if executed well. But also the fine inner sounds of the recording (ambiance etc) are not masked by excessive room reverb and reflection arrivals. All in all it is the best numbers I have found for what angle of directionality is the optimum compromise/balance.
If you want to completely get rid of the room.... use headphones. But then , you are not sharing the experience with others.
[excuse the shortness and lack of fill-in-the-gaps.... just want to give the angle that gives best results without too much detail]
THx-RNMarsh
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