How does one get more Decay?

caesar

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Personally, the best decay I have experienced is from an (omni-directional, all solid state) MBL system in a room with SMT diffusers and Helmholtz resonators...

Other than the "perfect room", how does one get more decay?
Thank you
 

JackD201

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Mike Lavigne

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Personally, the best decay I have experienced is from an (omni-directional, all solid state) MBL system in a room with SMT diffusers and Helmholtz resonators...

Other than the "perfect room", how does one get more decay?
Thank you

ultimate note decay needs a few things.

first off; note decay and ambience retrieval are related. you figure one out and the other one comes along. since the note decay....'decays'....into the ambient room sound. which is why analog has an advantage with note decay since it more fundamentally 'loads' the room with the bed of ambience....maybe Quad dsd and dxd get pretty close to analog on this issue and blur the separation.

you need a room that is 'live' but tame. you need enough live surfaces to retain the musical energy, yet reflective glare has to be controlled so the glare does not obscure the decay.

no substitute for deep bass extension and amplification headroom and ease. authority in the amp-speaker relationship allows for linear bass and extends decay into ambience.

low noise floor/ high dynamic range.....that vividness and transparency in the signal path uncovers more decay and ambience.

obviously certain driver types do emphasize the holographic aspect of the music and the delicate decay and ambient information. but maybe they might lose out in terms of ultimate musical nuance, texture, tone or coherence. or maybe they require amplification that lacks ultimate subtlety. some choose tone and pace over low noise and transparency. to get all 4 is harder, but sometimes you choose which you want more. some view 'uber detail', 'low noise' and 'sound staging' as audiophile artifacts and desired but not essential. if you love gear which goes one direction or the other then enjoy.

there is no right and wrong.
 

treitz3

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Choose your gear, connections and speakers wisely.

Tom
 

Rodney Gold

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Jan 29, 2014
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you want a very quiet but not a dead room and implement bass control
 

cjfrbw

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Apr 20, 2010
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I've noticed getting older helps a lot.
 

DaveC

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you need a room that is 'live' but tame. you need enough live surfaces to retain the musical energy, yet reflective glare has to be controlled so the glare does not obscure the decay.

there is no right and wrong.

The room has too large of a dependence on the speakers, I've heard great detail and soundstaging from Boulder Amplifier's very dead room and Focal Utopias. From what I was told this doesn't work well with other speakers like Wilsons. And it wouldn't work for most controlled directivity or horn speakers either because of the dispersion pattern.

There may be no right or wrong as far as personal preference but I'd argue if we're talking about getting the best resolution possible there are certainly rights and wrongs.

- - - - - - - - - -

I'd also mention that electronics and cables are key, especially interconnect cables. I've tested many highly regarded interconnects that smooth out fine detail and massively truncate the decay of notes and reverb. IME most systems perform poorly in this regard as results depend on many things that can't be measured. Having built my entire system minus source, every part choice matters. Some resistors will smooth things out too much, some caps add grain that will hide fine detail, sources of noise in the system will hide fine detail, etc... Ultimately all these tiny choices add up to a system that is capable of performing far beyond average. Some often think we're crazy because we listen for minor differences but what most seem to not understand is there's a million choices to make and the cumulative effect of all of them is what really matters. It makes the difference between a system that draws you in and makes you want to listen all night vs a system that feels like work to listen to.
 

Folsom

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Introducing more RF to heighten the volume of the decay may give the perception. There's plenty of that found in popular products here. But another big issue is speakers are prone to being over dampened, which can fight it, especially with too much dampening (feedback) from the amplifier - whether the speaker is over dampened or not.

In general I think a lot of people prefer more of it than is possible with real instruments. Maybe they believe they get more of it in person, but had a few beers first. There are certainly instruments like piano that can lay a note out forever, but not everything resonates so long. Either way it sounds enjoyable to us, so I can see a desire to get more.
 

RogerD

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I think it was the RE Steve Hoffman that did a experiment on decay with a analog vs a digital recording and the digital truncated the note more than the analog recording. My answer would be to increase the signal purity of the playback system. No reason digital can't do as well.
 

Folsom

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I think it was the RE Steve Hoffman that did a experiment on decay with a analog vs a digital recording and the digital truncated the note more than the analog recording. My answer would be to increase the signal purity of the playback system. No reason digital can't do as well.

Certainly not. If it were low distortion then the issue would have been solved.
 

RogerD

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Certainly not. If it were low distortion then the issue would have been solved.

Certainly,your digital experience is not the same as mine. Don't feel bad though you've got a lot of company including Steve Hoffman whole is overrated. When RE's like Tom Fine move to digital,I take notice.
 

thedudeabides

Well-Known Member
Jan 16, 2011
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You can also stop flossing and going to the dentist for a cleaning.

Does anyone have a sense of humor on this forum?

Guess not.

Very sad IMO.
 

Folsom

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Certainly,your digital experience is not the same as mine. Don't feel bad though you've got a lot of company including Steve Hoffman whole is overrated. When RE's like Tom Fine move to digital,I take notice.

I meant just the purity comment, should have deleted the rest because now I have no idea what is being talked about.
 

BlueFox

Member Sponsor
Nov 8, 2013
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You can also stop flossing and going to the dentist for a cleaning.

Does anyone have a sense of humor on this forum?

Guess not.

Very sad IMO.

It's hard to keep track of one's humor with all of the troll 'questions'. :)
 

DaveC

Industry Expert
Nov 16, 2014
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Also, turn up the volume! :)
 

the sound of Tao

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Jul 18, 2014
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You can also stop flossing and going to the dentist for a cleaning.

Does anyone have a sense of humor on this forum?

Guess not.

Very sad IMO.

Well clearly the humour could be somewhat in decay... PS I did love your first comment dude, decay can be something of an ageing audiophile issue.

I figure there can also be too much decay when the old tunes need some livening up.

As a young n wild and dancin at raves dude since they began way back in the 80s for me attack and decay in good measure is the right balance. Don't want to make that music too decayed... sometimes the music should make you want to get up and get your groove on as well.
 

JackD201

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There's always composting Dude :p
 

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