Lighting for Listening and Watching

tmallin

WBF Technical Expert
May 19, 2010
968
375
1,625
71
Chicagoland
Audio Systems

There is definitely a visual component at both live events and home listening for me. My eyes and ears must both be open at both places.

At home, I listen with just enough light in the room to be able to focus my eyes on places in 3-D space, but not so much that the physical locations of speakers or other items in the room spoil the illusion of "seeing" instruments on the soundstage. In my room, that amounts to minimal equipment running lights (turn off all the displays you can for best sound anyway), plus two 4-watt night lights strategically positioned behind my left and right corner-mounted subwoofers so that I can't see the bulbs but only a generalized wash of dim light on the wall I face when listening. All lighted electronics are out of my direct vision when listening (at about 7:30 to my left), except for the amp pilot lights which are dead center in front of me.

I use clear 4-watt bulbs in the night lights and leave then on all the time. They are not plugged into outlets fed by the 200-amp electrical service which powers just the stereo equipment in this room, but into the other outlets in my listening room fed by my home's other 200-amp electrical service. I planned the outlets of that service in this room to put some near the room corners as well as mid-wall as is typical. If you can't hide the night lights behind subwoofers the way I can, another tactic which I've used effectively is to attach a 6" x 6" piece of black construction paper to the front side of the night light with double-stick tape, the side which faces you, in such a way as to block the brightest part of the light from your eyes so that you see mostly the diffuse light washing the wall.

I also suggest treating all connections in those night lights with Caig's ProGold (now known as Deoxit Gold. This will prevent the lights from flickering on strong bass notes from the subwoofers. You'd be surprised how strong vibrations can make incandescent lights flicker if the connections are not really good.

Video Systems

If the video part of your home theater system uses some form of technology other than front projection, you'll be surprised at how much proper lighting BEHIND your screen can increase your viewing pleasure. Front projectors really aren't bright enough to need this treatment, but if you are using rear projection, or especially plama or LCD screens, you really need a light washing the wall behind your screen of the proper color and intensity. Such a light will allow your eyes to relax more while viewing the bright screen in a semi-darkened room, allowing you to be able to watch longer without visual fatigue and be able to see finer details as well as more three dimensionality in the video image.

To make this work as well as it can, the wall behind your video screen should be painted flat white. The light should wash the wall as evenly in brightness as possible. The color of the light should be 6500 degrees Kelvin. The intensity of the light on the wall should be 10% of maximum screen white brightness, as determined by matching the brightness of the illuminated wall behind the screen with the brightness of the screen when playing a 10% white test pattern available on many video test disks.

The ideal light for making this happen, in my experience, is the Ideal-Lume fluorescent lights available from Cinemaquest. They give out light which is the right 6500 degrees Kelvin white temperature (this is warmer and more reddish than most fluorescent lighting). They are fully adjustable in orientation and come with filters to adjust both the way the light washes the wall and the intensity of that light.

If the wall behind your screen is not white, the results will not be ideal, but they are still worthwhile. One of my plasma screens has a dark cherry colored wood wall behind it. I need two of the lights behind the screen in that room to get enough light intensity, and the light color isn't quite right, but it is still a big improvement over not having lighting behind the screen.

While this video lighting costs a lot more than the two four-watt night lights I use in my audio room, this lighting can typically be had for less than $100 for the Standard and Panelight versions of this lighting. I think it's worth ten times that much in terms of subjectively increased video performance.
 

Mark (Basspig) Weiss

Well-Known Member
Aug 3, 2010
682
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940
New Milford, CT
www.basspig.com
Back in the 80s, for a period of time, I developed the habit of listening to music with the lights off and my eyes closed. I also did a blindfold experiment with a new friend who had never been to my home before. I convinced him to put on the blindfold, and I escorted him to a chair and played him some music. After the demonstration, I told him he could remove the blindfold. His first comment was "The room is much smaller than I thought!" By removing the visual perception that biases our perception of sound through blindfolding, this person was able to listen to a musical selection and determine space characteristics entirely by what he heard. Our sight pre biases us because we see the room space and know it's dimensions, thus we convince ourselve to 'hear' a smaller space when we listen to music in that space.

Back to lighting, I now prefer subdued lighting. I sit in the front row center and facing me is a 60 sq ft white acoustic transparent screen, surrounded by burgundy velvet drapes. Although I make a conscious effort to stare straight ahead, I always find my gaze shifting to the pleated drapes. I theorize that the brain is looking for more complex patterns to concentrate upon, rather than the emptiness of whitespace of the screen.

Not being able to see what's producing the sounds, I find that tends to remove 'mental coloration' from the perception.
 

JackD201

WBF Founding Member
Apr 20, 2010
12,308
1,425
1,820
Manila, Philippines
I like listening in a dim atmosphere. In my current listening room I'm using Martin Architectural Alien 05Rs with an Oracle DMX Controller. Seven colors using dichroic filters. In my upcoming music room, I'm going environmentally friendly and going with LED RGB rope lights for the ceiling midband diffusor's cove as well as above the Almute wave cloud, likewise DMX controlled.
 

Steve Williams

Site Founder, Site Owner, Administrator
I use a Bliss Laser light

 

FrantzM

Member Sponsor & WBF Founding Member
Apr 20, 2010
6,455
29
405
That would have distracted me to no end .. I listen with almost no light when possible..
 

VernNeal

New Member
Aug 15, 2010
30
0
0
Interesting topic. I just listened to Neil Youngs SILVER & GOLD and Jazz at the Pawn Shop and FOR ME I have to listen to music eyes wide open(I do at a concert) Image especially is decreased with ones eyes closed. I do however like the lighting turned down low
 

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