An old piece about Stereo Image by John Atkinson

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On 2/17/2020 at 12:08 AM, gmgraves said:

EMI, in Britain, used to record a lot in The Waterford Town Hall. Every time I played an HMV or the (always poorer sounding) US made “Angel Records” version of the same recording, I always noticed something wrong with the soundstage. The ambience seemed to lean to the left. I couldn’t figure out why. Then, many years after first noticing the phenomenon, I saw a picture (probably in HFN&RR) of the hall, with an orchestra arrayed on the floor of the hall. It was “L” shaped! With a large space leading off to the left at a right angle to the main hall! Suddenly the reason for the lopsided ambience was clear. The interesting thing was that the space added an easily recognized sonic character to any performance recorded there!

A few points to discuss here. It is Watford not Waterford Town Hall. Waterford is in Ireland. If you only heard odd soundstaging with EMI records caused by the Hall's acoustics then you should have heard the same with many Decca and UK produced RCA recordings as they too were made in Watford Town Hall.

 

Finally, Watford Town Hall ( now renamed Watford Colosseum) is shoebox shaped like the Concergebouw and Boston Symphony Hall which is the main reason why its acoustics are renowned. See linked picture.

 

https://www.architecture.com/image-library/RIBApix/image-information/poster/watford-town-hall-hertfordshire-the-assembly-hall/posterid/RIBA73866.html

[PAR]

5 minutes ago, semente said:

It looks like a domestic scale lounge with loads of tiny chairs.

😁😁😁

 

Thanks for pointing that out. Yes, if you assume as your visual  clue for scale that the windows and the ceiling lights are normal domestic sized then the seats must be for miniature folk.