Article: A New Listening Room Part One

[HIFI]

Chris,

 

Congratulations on your new dedicated listening room.  I'm really excited for you.

 

There has been several comments on treating your room.  It is truly science and I get very interested.

 

I am sure you will find the finish line.  I hope you will concede that there will be some compromises over all.  If not . . . you are going to forever figget and that's frustrating.  I stopped buying equipment years ago "after" I treated my room.

 

I believe, beyond doubt , bass trap management is as import as dealing with placement of speakers, listening seat, and reflection management.  This may sound oversimplified but .....managing timing and managing bass IS room treatment and the key to hearing deep into the artistry. 

 

Congratulations Again!!!!

 

 

[HIFI]

On November 24, 2018 at 10:34 PM, STC said:

 

Accuracy is not important. What matters to the listeners is the how real is the sound as listened in a real space. 

 

 

 

In listening room, we want those missing reverbs which will be added by your room reflection. Often, the simplest aim is to creat Live end and dead end. Live end is where the listener sits. 

 

I will respectfully disagree...

 

I believe what should matter to the "listener" is how faithful the sound is to the original performance once it is played back in listeners space.

 

I'm thinking about your math ...you say you design your recordings with the thought of my room adding reverb you intentionally block.  Then I play back a recording that the sound engineers purposely and thoughtfully recorded the performance and the reverb (space) in that performance.  Then I add my room reverbs to this thoughtful recording. . . and I loose (accuracy) faithfulness.

 

 

[HIFI]

2 hours ago, STC said:

 

The term “Accuracy” is confusing in this context. A piano can have a different sound when heard one foot away compared to hearing from a 30 feet distance. So microphones placed at the respective spot will have two different sound. Which one is the accurate sound?

 

What we consider as accurate is when the piano sound comes from the speakers is to sound recreating the realism as hearing the real piano. A large part of the realism that we perceive is not the real sound of the instruments but a mixture of the recording and your venue’s acoustics signature. Otherwise, every recording made as original as the real insturment should sound accurate in an anechoic chamber which we all know the sound is unnatural despite being 100% accurate reproduction of the instruments. 

 

I will stop here as I have deviated from the Op. 

Actually this part of thread and your final response from you supports my original disagreement. It also very importantly supports OP.

 

If you recorded, with two microphones, one foot away or 30 foot away in your recording "space" and  intentionally remove your "space" in your recording then that is a exactly what my listening space should reproduce.  In you original theory you are expecting my listening space is going to recreate the reverb you propose will make it real.  That is 100 percent incorrect. 

 

No matter what you lay down as an original recording it is the job of a appropriately treated room to have very little influence and ONLY playback your original recording.  If I have a performance that was recorded in a church....I want to experience the entire performance including the recording space (church).  If I have an artist that put down his/her first recorded performance in their basement I want to experience the entire performance including the recorded space (basement). 

 

In short....I don't want you to sit in my chair and say something like "it sounds so great as if he/she is in my room singing to me". I want your brain to be so faked out that you say "it sounds as though I am in his/her basement experiencing their performance ". This can only be done by hearing deep into an original recorded performance and my room having very little influence.