General Recommendations
The 28-inch square subwoofer is more expensive than the 32-inch due to its unique driver configuration and extended frequency response. The square design allows for four 10" woofers to be coupled on a carbon membrane, resulting in faster, more responsive output while maintaining infrasonic performance. Unlike the 32-inch, which primarily covers ULF and requires additional kick sub reinforcement—introducing group delay mismatches and inconsistent phase integration—the 28-inch extends from infrasonic frequencies to beyond the limits of waveforming, ensuring seamless bass reproduction. I would deploy 16 of these in the front in 4 quadstacks qand 8 in the back in quadstacks, expensive but if going with Gethain you would make up on the full range speaker costs, these 10/21 List outside EU prices are probably 25% more now:
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I would quad stack the Ascendo 28's with the monies saved with the Gethain like so:
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Just replace each purify 10 by an ascendo 28 - 16 front 8 back.
I'm sure Ascendo's advice will not be too far off. Quadstacking these 28's with a sturdy frame converts them into the ultimate performance FORCE CANCELING SUB AS WELL!
I would not use >40hz bass management into the single-channel waveform.
Dolby Atmos contains full-range signals down to 40 Hz from all channels, so I would deploy
Quad stacked batteries of the 28-inch strictly for waveforming while optimizing bass at the seating position using
FEM-BEM-designed notched rear corners. Also from the B-1 Visa aborted Me gethain project.
Since
40-60 Hz frequencies are ingrained in our evolutionary DNA as cues for impending events—rockslides or predator attacks—our auditory system is attuned to directional low frequencies.
This primal egocentric cinematic experience dates back to Neanderthals using percussive instruments in
Pyrenean caves—the first immersive theaters—where painted eight-legged boars were animated by fire, and percussive instrument echoes mimicked the sounds of galloping prey coincident with that cave segment during heroic story telling hunt recollections. The same principles applied to
Druid stone circles, where standing at the epicenter immersed participants in
head-encircling sacrificial sounds accompanied by 40 hz drums echoes all around.
Hollywood’s
Tomlinson Holman crippled cinematic sound by depriving surrounds of sub-100 Hz frequencies, forcing an
allocentric listening experience. Atmos corrected this, and
during the seventies, quadraphonic directional bass re-engaged humanity with the innate need to be surrounded
egocentrically.
25% of my 80-grand SACD, DVD-A, Blu-ray Audio, and Atmos Blu-ray library—and just 20 terabytes of my 100K Kaleidescape library—provides true egocentric immersion, unlike 2-channel audio (a workaround for splitting mono), pre-Atmos movies, or concerts where sound originates from the front and merely echoes backward. Worse still,
concert films introduce severe phase distortion, as 50% of the surround mix consists of arena compression drivers feeding back into open microphones and resulting in heavy distortion out of the surrounds.
Take
Prince—the egocentric wonder.
Diamonds and Pearls Music Atmos Blu-ray creates a true
egocentric envelopment, whereas the
deeply flawed allocentric Purple Rain Atmos mix of Let’s Go Crazy is the opposite. If you are not reaching for the
barf bag within two minutes, then you need to work on learning your auditory perceptions.
Achieving an egocentric soundfield while using waveforming is inherently contradictory because waveforming
requires bass management at ~120 Hz, eliminating the natural low-frequency cues necessary for immersive perception. The solution?
Deploy customized throw distance coaxial with cardioid dispersion from 30–250 Hz on every channel while restricting bass management
below 30 Hz for LFE into the Ascendo 28 Waveforming battery. This ensures full-range response from every speaker without disrupting waveforming integrity.
Since in my suggestion
waveforming bass manages <30 or 40 Hz, individual speakers must remain
boundary-agnostic from 30–250 Hz, leaving
250 Hz–750Hz for precise
time-domain engineering.
Peter Aylett and FEM-BEM modeling should handle this high-correlation predictive design.
For the main speakers, I would commission
custom coaxial ME Geithain monitors, as coaxial designs provide superior
3D object localization by maintaining phase coherency particularly at long throws, Ive have installed meyers, synthesis one, PRO audio technology after two weeks listening I developed sellers remorse, the firsrt 2 weeks audio nirvana. If
ML811 or a larger custom model proves viable based on sound dissipation calculations,
MEG could design bespoke units shown here on a concept design cancelled due to unxepected B-1 Visa situation. The number of
high-frequency domes in each coaxial speaker would vary to compensate for response inconsistencies at
2.3 kHz, the frequency range responsible for
DISTANCE FINDING in spatial perception at the Reference Listening Position.
- Front channels: Coaxial 12-inch with five domes
- Wide surrounds: ML811
- Side/rear surrounds: Optimized coaxial units with reduced tweeter count
I have not heard the
Black Swans, but several
Ascendo owners report that
smaller domed coaxials are
more musical than the 10" and 12" compression models. In my experience,
Ascendo’s 10-inch compression drivers are the least fatiguing I have encountered in a 20-minute session due to their coherence. This highlights
TIME SMEAR FATIGUE, a
critical issue in the West Coast Compression Driver Industrial Complex at CEDIA. Unlike videowall assessments, which provide immediate feedback,
speaker fatigue accumulates over time creeping up exactly at 2 weeks, making long-term exposure unbearable.
For optimal room integration,
seating risers must be acoustically transparent to waveforming while fully damped and rattle-proof.
Peter Aylett of
Oficina Acústica, known for designing
Trinnov’s demo rooms, is the leading expert in this area.
On projection, having
modified and installed the first three DCI cinema projectors in 2007, 2008, and 2009 and introduced
higher contrast units to CEDIA, I strongly advise against
traditional cinema projectors. The
upcoming Christie Eclipse Generation 3 is
vastly superior, featuring a
large square projector head,
true green lasers (unlike Series 2, which derives green from red),
99% Rec. 2020 color, and a
1,000,000:1 contrast ratio—far exceeding the
10,000:1 contrast of modified current cinema models. However, it requires a
chiller unit.
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From an
architectoacoustic ergonomic standpoint,
high-back chairs must be avoided, as they
unnecessarily block the soundfield, whether direct or reflected. For a room of this size:
- Mid-high frequencies should decay at ~400 ms
- Bass RT requires expert tuning between the upper limit of waveforming and 750 Hz
Instead of
Keith Yates or Paradise Theater,
Peter Aylett’s waveforming expertise is the best option for
time-domain control in the>120 to <750Hz range.
Seating should be
four rows of five, with the four center seats designated as
primary, secondary, tertiary, and quaternary listening positions.
Focus the design on just two reference rows and
place your ceiling speakers a la Dolby Burbank.
Position the rows of ceiling speakers over the left shoulder of seat 2 left and over the right shoulder of seat 4 right. That way, I guarantee that—just like at the
2013 Gravity premiere—you will experience
“Houston, Houston” encircling your head at varying but spooky proximity, exactly what our
DNA ordered, just like in the sacrificial stone circles—case in point: Stonehenge.
No one else has amassed the
specifically egocentric-focused content to replicate this feature found only in the room where Atmos was invented like our
little pet project since 2013.
Easily proved: The unmistakable superiority of Egocentric Music and Film immersion.
www.l-acoustics.com
