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Yarra 3DX - anybody listened to one?

JJB70

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Has anybody here had an opportunity to listen to the Yarra 3DX soundbar? The premise of this device is intriguing and if it delivers what it promises then I think it'd be quite a compelling proposition for many people (me included). I have heard a lot of claims for technologies claiming to dispense with the necessity of lots of speakers before and none of them have been convincing which has left me a bit sceptical of such claims however I am very interested in this latest technique.
 

andreasmaaan

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I haven't heard it, but it appears to work on similar principles to wave field synthesis, which I heard on a much larger scale. I was impressed with that technology's ability to project a very convincing 3D soundstage, despite it being set up in a fairly normal performance space with no additional room treatment.
 
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JJB70

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I'm very tempted to take the jump as if it works anything like as well as claimed I think it'll be quite a transformational product. My better half refuses to position speakers around our living room so we just have a regular sound bar with sub for our screen. That is a big improvement on a screens built in speakers and works very well but if the Yarra 3DX creates a genuine 3D effect without all the speakers then it'd be wonderful.
 

andreasmaaan

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I'm very tempted to take the jump as if it works anything like as well as claimed I think it'll be quite a transformational product. My better half refuses to position speakers around our living room so we just have a regular sound bar with sub for our screen. That is a big improvement on a screens built in speakers and works very well but if the Yarra 3DX creates a genuine 3D effect without all the speakers then it'd be wonderful.

If it works as well as wave field synthesis, it sounds very different from Mch. Hard to explain though. A lot more like like watching a 3D movie, in the sense that sound images are placed at very specific front-to-back locations between the plane of the speakers (or behind) right up to directly in front of the listener's face, really. It's a totally different effect than you get from Mch.

The best way I can explain it is with a drawing. The pic on the left shows where (IMHO) Mch is best at placing images, and the pic on the right shows where WFS is best.

1540108388295.png


Another way to put this is to say that when Mch tries tries to produce an image in front of your face, in tends to sound a bit like the "in your head" sound of headphones. WFS can place very solid images right in front of your face, but still very much outside your head. However, it struggles to place images behind your head or right out to your sides.
 
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andreasmaaan

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PS: the most impressive thing about WFS is that, unlike e.g. BAACH or even Mch, listener location is not particularly important. As long as you are somewhere in front of the array, images will be convincingly mapped to the 3D space in front of you.
 
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JJB70

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Thanks for the info, very informative. Seems this is a technology with great promise. Would the technology allow you to escape from the whole issue of adjusting for room acoustics for regular two channel stereo?
 

jhaider

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I haven't heard one, but I ordered one through Kickstarter. I haven't followed them too closely but I understand there are some issues at Comhear. A lot of people, including Dr. Waldrep, are no longer associated with the product.

Hopefully it'll still be released at some time.
 

andreasmaaan

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Thanks for the info, very informative. Seems this is a technology with great promise. Would the technology allow you to escape from the whole issue of adjusting for room acoustics for regular two channel stereo?

Yes and no I'd guess. Although I've never heard it in a normal listening room, I believe that in terms of imaging it would have a wider sweet spot than 2Ch stereo. But in every other respect you'd still have all the same room considerations as for 2Ch on the quality of the sound, i.e. the effects of room reflections, the speakers' polar response, room modes, etc.

And IIUC it works more effectively in a deader room / in the nearfield, so in that sense it may be more limiting. Although my experience towards the back and a bit off centre, in a concert space seating a few hundred people, was that it worked surprisingly well (better imaging than I think there would have been had just two channels been playing stereo from where I was seated, and very convincing 3D effect).

EDIT: all I'm saying I guess only applies to a well-executed system. I don't actually know whether this particular Yarra 3DX is as well-designed as the large PA system that I heard... Also, I was listening to music specific programmed to work on the WFS system. I have no idea whether something like this would work effectively when the input is 2Ch and some kind of processing is involved.
 
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Sal1950

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Might be able to introduce an interesting sound effect. In the past I've heard some amazing stuff being done with digital phase processing, etc.
Is it ever going to replace genuine discreet multch reproduction, not in this lifetime. Might get better results from some of the headphone processing systems around.

Edit just read this on the site,
"The wired YARRA 3DX subwoofer has a 5.25" driver and 30 Watt amplifier that outputs deep bass from 50 - 100 Hz. " :eek::facepalm:
 
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jhaider

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"The wired YARRA 3DX subwoofer has a 5.25" driver and 30 Watt amplifier that outputs deep bass from 50 - 100 Hz. " :eek::facepalm:

That's fine for its real world use case, which is a desktop or bedroom. The subwoofer connection is a standard RCA, so you can use whatever you'd like (if they ever ship product).

I ordered mine with a thought to replacing my stereo at work (Elac EA101 DAC-amp, Mirage OMD-5 in burled birch, Tannoy TS10 sub).
 

jhaider

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Has anyone else gotten theirs? Mine is sitting in its L-shaped box in my office. I am discouraged by initial reports that firmware updates require a Windows computer.
 
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