1. I would assume that with such designs the level of the early reflections is higher than with forward firing speakers and that the spectrum of those reflections is closer to the spectrum of the direct sound, provided that the room boundaries are not too absorbing. On the other hand sound field measurements in small rooms with omnidirectional speakers as source have shown that the field is highly directional. So with omnis we still have a directional sound field with a stronger participation of early reflections.
2. You certainly will hear that the recording has been made in a large room, but you will not be able to feel as if you were in that room simply because for having the impression to be in a large room you need the early reflections to come late and you need the reverberation time to be high, but your small listening room doesn’t give you either and the cues from the recording are not the correct ones. There is psychoacoustic literature on what cues are important for room size perception, but that’s a whole topic on its own.
3. I wonder how the off-axis behaviour is able to have an effect when the reflection points are treated?
4. My speakers put out a healthy 123 dB, so realistic levels are not really a problem?
5. The same sound event will be perceived differently by different listeners, soundstage included. The reason is the difference between the individual in-ear responses, and there is no “hearing better” or “hearing worse”, all there is, is hearing differently. And this is exactly why I skip the subjective/listening part of reviews, because the reviewer does not have my ears with my personal and unique head related transfer function.
6. Back to my question: which components of the sound field are responsible for soundstage and 3-dimensionality? What component creates width, what component creates depth?
Klaus
I would love to know if anyone with a large room and system can recreate a full orchestra symphony as live in a classical concert hall?
Kids can get close to two hundred decibels inside their cars.
Some theaters (public or private) can get 150dBs. Would that be the right recipe to recreate a live volcano erupting within say 3-5 miles from where we stand/sit?
Is loud means closer to the 3D real event?
Are two speakers best for 3D-dimensionality or is more better?
Where are the limits on the MBL 101 X-Treme loudspeakers system? Are they limitless in their 3-dimensionality? Are they the best @ that 3D holography than say horn speakers?
Multi-speakers; are they a gimmick in the year 2016 from ultra hi-end audiophilia forums, or is there any science behind it that can be counted as valid enough to blow the winds in the four corners of the globe and boil the oceans surrounding them?
Is DSP a consideration to emulate 3D space from music reproduction? Say Yamaha for instance with their real venue measurements from judicious microphone positioning and with their data encapsulated/transcribed inside DSP chips working @ high speed?
Computers with multi-core processors (8 to 16 cores) and trillions of parameters information communicated in less than 0.001 second; can they compete with room treatment acoustics?
Where are we today in the reproduction of the very best 3D sound illusion in our homes?
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Sometimes the best answers are the questions?
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1. An acoustic music concert is projecting sounds in 360°. Could be a small jazz ensemble in a small jazz club or an auditorium, etc., could be a classical chamber orchestra with twelve musicians playing in an art space or small concert hall, could be blues band playing in a long narrow bar club or private live house...tango, flamenco, samba, salsa, ...
There is no amplification, everything, all the instruments and singers are acoustic, strictly.
The room will dictate what we hear, and the speakers in our own rooms would need to match those live events from their dispersion pattern in tandem with our own room acoustics.
Can two speakers do that? Omnipole, horn, direct radiator, dipole, bipole, ...?
An electric rock, or blues, or jazz, or electronica, or punk, or metal live music concert...in a stadium or cultural centre or arena or amphitheater...; use amplification and speakers onstage with direct front dispersion plus multiple subwoofers with 360° envelopment (several techniques are employed, depending). When recording those live events, the various methods are almost limitless and same with the results all over the place. This is artificial music created in artificial venues and recorded and mixed artificially.
We need artificial loudspeakers to recreate the experience in our own rooms...with DSP and room EQ to adjust the sound to our own cohesive preference if not with the taste of the recording/mixing sound engineer.
Brief, the two worlds between un-amplified acoustic and amplified electric music. They are completely different; they project and reflect totally differently.
2. I agree. What is your take on DSP recreated acoustic spaces?
3. I believe, that for good 3D imaging a loudspeaker system with the attribute of excelling @ both on and off axis has a superior advantage.
...In the frequency response, with angles from 0° to 90° having close proximity in their measured responses, in particular from 500Hz to 15kHz.
4. 123dB; is that good enough for a full symphony orchestra, with 100 musicians, to be faithfully recreated in your own room's dimensions @ home?
Can a two-thousand seats hall space be transposed live in a room of say 40' L by 23' W by 15' H?
5. Assuming that two listeners have similar sets of ears with the same geometry design and size of orifice and level of overall balance; yes, that would be our best reference.
But we simply don't have this luxury in our audio/music passion/hobby/business. So even the replacement of fuses inside our audio electronics will sound different from one listener's set of ears to the next.
6. a) IMO...the recording, its source, and the source to reproduce it. Then the speakers chosen to match the room where they'll be reproducing, and balancing their acoustics.
6. b) IMO...great imaging from two speakers having the exact same frequency responses, and with close proximity in their on and off axis responses, plus air around them...meaning fair distance from the front and side walls...say no less than five-six feet. ...The larger the room the better. ...So, space. 3D spaciousness with width, depth and height is best reproduced in larger spaces...I truly believe. And only from the best stereo music recordings.
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