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Your HiFi Equipment vs Music it Plays
To establish a reference baseline for the following discussion of Hi-fi listening, it is helpful to skim an article published in Stereophile: The View into the Soundstage by John Atkinson
It is a commentary about listening to audio equipment and the perception of what is known as a HiFi soundstage. It confines itself to the recording technique, the playback equipment and the effect created as the sound signals from the left and right speakers are received by the listeners left and right ears, otherwise known as the “direct signal”. Although instructive, it is a foreshortened presentation of the actual HiFi listening experience because it excludes the inescapable: Room reflections and the influence they have on the listening experience as they mix with the direct signal.
Introduction
When one listens to a set of loudspeakers, over 99% of the sound wave emitted from the speaker expand in all directions other than toward the listener and is called “off-axis” sound. There is a very small portion of sound that does pass by the listener and it is called the “direct signal”. One might wonder what the direct signal sounds like. It’s a similar sound to what we hear with headphones, except the sound comes from the speakers in front of us, while headphone sound comes from either side of our head.
The direct signal is what we would hear if we could play the sound system in an area where there are no reflections. Set up the hifi system outside on a huge lawn area far from any buildings and we’d have a reflection free playback experience. More formally we might rent an anechoic chamber, an acoustic test room that is 100% sound absorbing. But in the real world, a reflection free environment does not exist.
In a hifi listening room, the other 99% of the sound, the off-axis part of the sound, can’t escape, it is reflected back into the room over and over again by the walls, floor and ceiling. It is essentially captured by the room and remains captured by bouncing around the room until it dies out.
With continuous music, there exists an ongoing plethora of reflections being created, replacing those which have died out, in the listening room, many of which cross and recross the listener’s ears which augments our perception of the direct signal. The effect of the reflections in the listening room is so powerful compared to the direct signal that the listening room (not the speakers or the direct signal) is referred to as the “last link in the audio chain”.
The listening room is where the direct signal is acoustically mixed with an ever-changing variety of previously created off-axis reflections. It is this sonic assembly of sounds built out of acoustic space and time that is impinging on the listener’s head that produce the gestalt of the stereophonic hifi listening experience. The last link in the audio chain is no small and simple thing.
The Listening Room Effect
In the simple view of audio playback, the speaker/listener setup and resulting soundstage exists independent of the listening room. This presumption leads to misunderstandings in discussions with seasoned audiophiles, who have well developed high power listening rooms, which include considerations for sound reflection containment and management:
Room Gain
To the right is shown an impulse response, sound level dB vs time in milliseconds. If the “direct sound” is a distinct quick snap then all the reflections; “early” and “late” reflections are also distinct quick snaps, as shown on the right. The “Room Effect” or Room Gain is the sum of all reflections which is usually 5 to 10 dB louder than the “Direct Sound” alone. “Room Gain” which is what makes sound seem louder inside a room compared to when setup outdoors. In a typical room, under steady state conditions, a speaker plays 10 dB louder than if set up outside. Since the reflections (room gain) in the room are significantly louder than the direct signal, the audiophile has acclimated to a different concept. they don’t imagine that they are really listening to the gear and the direct signal, they have accepted that they are, for the most part, listening to the room as it is being played by the speakers. In other words, the room is essentially an acoustic instrument that is being played, plucked and bowed, struck and blown by the loudspeakers.
Although each reflection is less loud than the direct, the sheer number of them add up to deliver 5 to 10dB more acoustic energy to the ear-brain system than the direct signal alone. Again, the reflections of the room overpower the strength of the direct signal and literally change what the direct signal sounds like.
Sound Fusion
In addition to the steady state condition, where the sound being heard is 10 dB louder than the sound from the speakers is heard, we have the image shift version of room gain, called the sound fusion or Haas effect. This is where all early reflections that sound just like the direct signal are fused into and become one with the direct signal.
This is not a consequence of room reflections per se, it is a consequence of the reaction time in the process of hearing. Similar to sight, variations in the sound that is heard within the sonic reaction time of 30ms are perceived as one sound. There are dozens of early or primary reflections within the first 30ms following the arrival of the direct signal.
Music Rooms
Some rooms are designed and arranged to support the playing of a particular musical instrument or ensemble in the room. The music room is voiced to support the performance of the instrument. The nature of the flooring, the size and shape of the room, its features, sound diffusing columns, partially draped and partially reflective windows, high coffered and corniced ceilings combine to provide an ambience that compliments the music and the instrument being played.
The music room is “voiced” to compliment the instrument. By this is meant that early reflections are considered and adjusted as they join with and help to define the sound of the instrument. Late reflections, also known as stage shell sound, compete with the direct and early reflections introducing echoes and coloration of the music. Lastly, there is the reverberation, the ambience that seems to fill the room and provide a background glow that is ever-changing with the music.
Audiophile Music Rooms
Like an instrumental music room, the HiFi listening room is voiced for the sound producing instruments, the loudspeakers and type of music being played in the room. Here is where the art of sculpting the enveloping acoustics of the room is introduced. The last link in the audio chain is inescapably the acoustic compliment brought to the music by the listening room.
- Speaker position, directivity and off-axis reflection control
- Redistribution of early, late, echo and parallel surface paired reflections
- Cultivation of reflection density and direction toward enhancing ambience
- Development of direction, timing and strength of spaciousness reflections
- Room resonance control, minimize speaker/mode coupling and add mode damping
- Stage acoustics, controlled reflection development in the front 1/3rd of the listening room
- Venue acoustics, controlled reflections development in the back 2/3rds of the listening room
There are 3 levels in the evolution of upgrading the audiophile listening room. These upgrades are developed by judicious placing of TubeTraps along the walls and corners of the room. The TubeTrap is an acoustic product specifically developed for the voicing voice or musical instrument recording and playback rooms.
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