Exactly!
The world is not black and white, it is a myriad of different shades of grey and a lot of colour.
Black and white are theoretical values that we can approximate but never achieve, like "forever" and "never".
I would probably spend the time to get a good fully mono setup if space was the biggest concern.
The behaviour of low frequency sound waves is no opinion!
Wave lenght of 100Hz is already about 3,4m. 20Hz is about 17m. Do you know what it takes to bring directivity to these frequencies?
What you experienced can have many different reasons (slopes, cut of frequencies, summing, ...). And nearly always low frequency instruments are panned center - that's not what you hear. But what's spot on is that extended low frequency response does a lot for the "room" you experience in listening!
Back to topic - I monstly source from a computer nowerdays. I have my CDs ripped and on my media server and access from most devices but still very often just use the computer to play them. I'm still stuck with foobar for this - just works.
But there is the occasional CD Player here and there (kids room, bath room etc) and in my office is a nice turntable - music isn't rational ;-)
Watch Top Gun Maverick. A fighter jet flying from right to left on screen really drives the point home. My speakers play down to 28Hz in room and you can hear and feel how much this actually matters when the rumble pans from right to left.
Your ears and brain are not able to detect direction at these frequencies! Psycho acoustics. Your ears have not far enough distance for a 12m wavelength (28Hz) and time difference of arrival doesn't give enough phase difference at these wavelenghts. And the features of your ear and head are not big enough to influence a 12m wavelength. It simply can't happen.
But this jet doesn't only emmit low frequencies (as no instrument and nearly no real event does) - it's a complete spectrum and most of it can be located cause it's higher frequencies. And of course does the "rumble" follow the move of the rest of the signal, no matter where it comes from. Key is a good subwoofer integration - which is not easy to get 100% right!
There are plenty of mistakes that CAN be heared - sloppy crossovers, distortion of the woofer, noises from reflex ports, to loud woofers (99% of "done by ear" setups). But a perfect sub integration ADDS to the impression of space, it does not defeat it.
And now probably back to topic? We don't use our woofers as music players 🤓
But this jet doesn't only emmit low frequencies (as no instrument and nearly no real event does) - it's a complete spectrum and most of it can be located cause it's higher frequencies. And of course does the "rumble" follow the move of the rest of the signal, no matter where it comes from. Key is a good subwoofer integration - which is not easy to get 100% right!
There are plenty of mistakes that CAN be heared - sloppy crossovers, distortion of the woofer, noises from reflex ports, to loud woofers (99% of "done by ear" setups). But a perfect sub integration ADDS to the impression of space, it does not defeat it.
And now probably back to topic? We don't use our woofers as music players 🤓
I wrote my own DJ software for Windows.
It has window on left of available songs and play list is window on right.
Just drag songs from left window to right window to play them.
It has usual pause, eject etc controls.
Output is to a USB audio DAC.
It has window on left of available songs and play list is window on right.
Just drag songs from left window to right window to play them.
It has usual pause, eject etc controls.
Output is to a USB audio DAC.
Maybe it's the hair on my arms bending in different directions, or the rattling of my bones ;-)
"Nearly always" is not "always". Hence the Top Gun example. Here it's clearly not the case.
By the way I used to take this piece of audio folklore for granted until I started looking at the audio signal from my record player. There were quite a few times where I found significant differences in the left and right channel at 50Hz and below. On LPs, where it would technically make sense to sum to mono.
Mac mini, streaming through „BitPerfect“ to a cambridge dac100, or a Thorens TD125/sme3009/AT Art-9
Don't be too sure that you know why a system sounds the way it does. A sub "crossover" that sharply removes bass from the Left & Right channels will cause some phase nasties. You want a very gentle, if any, high-pass on the main speakers. The sub "cross-over" frequency should be about the frequency where the speakers are a quarter wavelength apart, so not higher than 100Hz, perhaps 80Hz. But practically, a good choice is where the main speakers fall off naturally.
And I agree that the part of a bass instruments that you locate is the harmonics above 100Hz. If you have ever tried to locate the source of a 50/60Hz hum, you know that room nodes and the lack of harmonics makes it very difficult, even when you are on top of the source.
And I agree that the part of a bass instruments that you locate is the harmonics above 100Hz. If you have ever tried to locate the source of a 50/60Hz hum, you know that room nodes and the lack of harmonics makes it very difficult, even when you are on top of the source.
Right now, it's this beautiful, elegant, lifestyle system.
Kindle Fire (came free with broadband subscription) running VLC / FLAC files or Tidal, out to TDA1543 NOS DAC, out to a nice little head amp with an adjustable tone control.
Once the DAC has warmed up it all sounds lovely - what I imagine a decent vintage analogue system might be like.
Kindle Fire (came free with broadband subscription) running VLC / FLAC files or Tidal, out to TDA1543 NOS DAC, out to a nice little head amp with an adjustable tone control.
Once the DAC has warmed up it all sounds lovely - what I imagine a decent vintage analogue system might be like.
I do my primary listening of FLAC files through my android devices via BT(Boo!), summed to Mono, and finally through a push-pull twin triode 6BL7 Mid-Century consolette. Dual original Oxford 8" AlNiCo woofers, with 7 oz ceramic boosters(new)and original Oxford 3.5" AlNiCo sealed frame, paper cone tweeter. For Android devices, it's hard to lose with either VLC or KODI. Kodi being more of an all-in-one home media server, misses on some things, like 10-band EQ. VLC DOES have the EQ, but tends to fumble more often than I'd like. As far as it goes, Kodi is definitely the user friendly option with a HUGE user base and forum support. Honestly setting up the media server through Kodi was probably the easiest thing I've ever done.
Now, a note: Bluetooth Sucks!* If you are stuck using SBC Codec, you are screwed, and will be listening at fidelity lower than that of Cd.
UNLESS you happen to have two devices that both use aptX HD or LDAC codecs. Even through BT, when using aptX HD, high bitrate, and best quality settings, you WILL hear a noticable change in fidelity, becoming much less compressed and true. I'll be stepping up to a network DAC sooner, rather than later but right now, this is still the most pleasant way to hear.
Edit to add: Kodi can be installed on pretty much anything but a pregnancy test. FireStick? Yes. PC? Yup. Rasp Pi? Affirmative. Linux? Android?Check and Czech. Not to mention, you can use any android device as a Remote control for Kodi, so y'know there's all that mega home integration WITH a screen so you can see your album art. =)
Now, a note: Bluetooth Sucks!* If you are stuck using SBC Codec, you are screwed, and will be listening at fidelity lower than that of Cd.
UNLESS you happen to have two devices that both use aptX HD or LDAC codecs. Even through BT, when using aptX HD, high bitrate, and best quality settings, you WILL hear a noticable change in fidelity, becoming much less compressed and true. I'll be stepping up to a network DAC sooner, rather than later but right now, this is still the most pleasant way to hear.
Edit to add: Kodi can be installed on pretty much anything but a pregnancy test. FireStick? Yes. PC? Yup. Rasp Pi? Affirmative. Linux? Android?Check and Czech. Not to mention, you can use any android device as a Remote control for Kodi, so y'know there's all that mega home integration WITH a screen so you can see your album art. =)
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I use Emby server hosted on a home theater PC and am in the process of setting it up on a Synology NAS. The Emby app can access everthing from any PC or Android smart phone app. From there Chromecast Audio devices are throught the house connected to multiple amp/speaker combinations. The audiophile systems use a Chromecast Audio with a Schiit DAC and TOSLINK connection.
I use a desktop computer doing dsp duties with the output going to an external amp,most of the music is streamed on the computer,but very rarely i'll plug a turntable in and listen for a lil bit,but it happens only once in a blue moon,clearly not as involved as some people here but it gets the job done very well
Zyxel NAS326 for music storage (mostly wav and mp3), Google Chromcast Audio for playback over wifi, BubbleUPnP on Android for control. YouTube music streaming on Android to Chromecast Audio via Google Home. This way music is directly streamed to the DAC of the Chromecast Audio, and the smartphone only controls the library/source/playback. No Bluetooth is involved either.