And therefore the function of a good audio system should be to replicate that experience, via a recording of that space in which it was played. If the playback fails to do that, then it's not working properly ...
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AXPONA: Mark Seaton, Seaton Sound
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Mine is working properly.
Unsmoothed Frequency Response (gray), with the aberrations due to the pew I'm sitting in, some other narrow aberrations due to the distance from my pipes to the wall behind them, peak levels (red) with 1/48th octave resolution of some Bach playing right now, and the current notes in play (black) rising out of the noise floor of the room.
Unsmoothed Frequency Response (gray), with the aberrations due to the pew I'm sitting in, some other narrow aberrations due to the distance from my pipes to the wall behind them, peak levels (red) with 1/48th octave resolution of some Bach playing right now, and the current notes in play (black) rising out of the noise floor of the room.
Do you listen to recordings of other systems with your speakers or with headphones?
With speakers. Remarkable technique, I listen to an actual, proper recording of, say, a pipe organ in the flesh, over my speakers; then I listen to a recording of the speakers of a system I'm curious about playing the same, or similar recording - a copy of the original, so to speak. Strangely enough, I expect there to be some sort of correspondence between the two - if there's a major discrepancy then I tend to suspect the playback of that system to not be too brilliant ... heaven forbid, if all the stars are in alignment, then I mightn't be able to tell them apart with a DBT! 
Have you recorded your own speakers and played them back through themselves?
Not precisely that, but have recorded and listened through other speakers. Only recently had a recording setup good enough that I felt comfortable with trying something like this - will probably get to trying what you mentioned at some stage.
If you haven't heard a recording of your own system played back through itself, I wouldn't try to critically judge someone elses system played back through it.
Nonetheless, here is a (mono) recording I made a few minutes ago for you to try out.
UMIK-1 (the measurement mic) at the listening/measuring position, into and out of Audacity.
https://soundcloud.com/ray-880875693/organ
Ok...
I dug out my little handheld Tascam (stereo) and made a recording of what I was listening to, Patricia Barber, playback level was a bit low, but was how I listen at night, but in headphones it sounds about right. A little PC fan noise and/or recorder noise, but I'd say it captures the essence pretty well.
https://soundcloud.com/ray-880875693/dr0000-0117-edit
Nonetheless, here is a (mono) recording I made a few minutes ago for you to try out.
UMIK-1 (the measurement mic) at the listening/measuring position, into and out of Audacity.
https://soundcloud.com/ray-880875693/organ
Ok...
I dug out my little handheld Tascam (stereo) and made a recording of what I was listening to, Patricia Barber, playback level was a bit low, but was how I listen at night, but in headphones it sounds about right. A little PC fan noise and/or recorder noise, but I'd say it captures the essence pretty well.
https://soundcloud.com/ray-880875693/dr0000-0117-edit
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Ray, thanks very much for going to that effort, I do appreciate it! The organ piece does come across very well, a nice intensity and fullness to the sound ... Patricia Barber is not quite my thing, but the vocals work well, the drums seem slightly odd - which may be an artifact of Soundcloud.
Cheers,
Cheers,
No doubt... In-room recordings (in less than a stellar room, I suppose) will have artifacts that jump out of the recording that you don't notice on the 'original'.
If you really want to play with this, playback and record, and play that back and record, and repeat - the faults compound. You won't need many repeats.
On the other hand, 8 generations of DAC to ADC to DAC to ADC (no speakers, no room - in another thread) can barely make a difference.
I'm not familiar with SoundCloud, I note they say that the streaming is all encoded at 128k mp3, which won't help matters ... but that it's possible for the uploader to set the track to be downloadable for a visitor, at full quality. Is this something you could do?
Repeated recording loops via speaker will certainly compound, Tom Danley of Danley Loudspeakers notes that 3 rounds are usually enough.
I differ on the impact of generations of DAC/ADC, I actually tried some of the samples put up here, and it does degrade, similar to numbers of generations of tape - in particular, the transient sparkle is slightly dulled. If one didn't have the two to compare then it would be unnoticeable, and obviously since many commercial recordings are derived from a generational tape well down from the master it's not that severe a problem - only if they're side by side will the closer to the original be distinguishable.
Repeated recording loops via speaker will certainly compound, Tom Danley of Danley Loudspeakers notes that 3 rounds are usually enough.
I differ on the impact of generations of DAC/ADC, I actually tried some of the samples put up here, and it does degrade, similar to numbers of generations of tape - in particular, the transient sparkle is slightly dulled. If one didn't have the two to compare then it would be unnoticeable, and obviously since many commercial recordings are derived from a generational tape well down from the master it's not that severe a problem - only if they're side by side will the closer to the original be distinguishable.
Done now I think... Soundcloud noob here, seemed convenient.
Ray, thanks for that - have downloaded them and listened in my preferred environment with Media Monkey. Second time around experiencing them, I do hear qualities in the sound that I would aim to improve - if you're interested in my thoughts there let me know ...
Blow me away...
Looking at the spectrum, I'd blame the recorder, which I haven't used much or recently, nor remember studying closely (the little woman uses it in her activities).
Barber:
Hmmm...
Test, Verification, and Stare and Compare
Pink Noise generated by REW played in stereo in the room recorded via Tascam:
Same Pink Noise played in stereo in the room recorded via UMIK-1:
*gives the recorder back to the missus and says "Thank you..."
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Guess mono UMIK is the go then - some say stereo is overrated, tomelex for example, . I don't have worries, either way ...
Forgetting Patricia, I noted in the organ piece that the higher harmonics didn't quite gell, for me. The fullness of the bottom end of the piece obscured that to some degree, but listening more closely I found that the sparkle that normally I expect from the contribution of the higher notes was not quite happening - for whatever reason.
. I don't have worries, either way ...Forgetting Patricia, I noted in the organ piece that the higher harmonics didn't quite gell, for me. The fullness of the bottom end of the piece obscured that to some degree, but listening more closely I found that the sparkle that normally I expect from the contribution of the higher notes was not quite happening - for whatever reason.
Fair enough.
We now return the Seaton thread to the Seaton conversation...
We now return the Seaton thread to the Seaton conversation...
