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Crazy? or Temperature, Humidity, and Speaker Sound Matter
- Thread starter watchnerd
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Yes, there are, including the effects of forest width from highways for bird songs with various main frequencies. I don't have the cites off hand tho.
If interested a Google Scholar search would be easiest, or visit the science library at a research university and use the databases there.
Temperatur has an effect tho it is small. I forget re humidity...
Maybe the next avenue for Harman's techs to explore once they've perfected preferred FR? Spend big bucks on a room that can change temp, humidity and air pressure, slap the speaker-swaper machine in it and continue blind testing.
New model lines for sea level and high altitude?
Great video. I think this is the audio version of a fata morgana, having the same cause (hot layer of air close to the ground) and mechanism (bending waves).
Here is one of my references, from a grad class long, long ago... https://www.amazon.com/dp/0471847895?tag=duckduckgo-d-20&linkCode=osi&th=1&psc=1 It was somewhat more challenging than I expected, I just wanted to know how to use T-S parameters.
I wouldn't dismiss the effects of pressure, temperature and humidity, though I think the main effect of them on our hearing will be biological rather than sonic. There's also how much sleep you've had and various things ingested: alcohol, caffeine, sweets, dairy, NSAIDs, etc.
When it's real hot outside and you don't have AC inside and that it gets hot inside too, you hit the beach, @ a lake or the ocean for a swim.
Inside the fridge is working harder. The sound system too.
You turn up the thermostat inside the fridge to its highest position...#9.
Does it affect the sound in combination with the high temperature?
It depends. Can you hear the fridge from your listening position, can you hear the fan(s) in your amps, can you feel the heat on top of your amps, are you sweating because it's over 90° in your chair, or are you in the clear of it all.
And if your amps have tubes in them ...
If you have AC inside, is it silent like a limousine? How many watts is it consuming, your electrical grid is regulated, you're all set for enough current and proper grounding?
The pressure @ 5,000 feet and plus isn't the same as @ sea level.
Subwoofers and some TVs are affected the higher you live.
The views too.
Inside the fridge is working harder. The sound system too.
You turn up the thermostat inside the fridge to its highest position...#9.
Does it affect the sound in combination with the high temperature?
It depends. Can you hear the fridge from your listening position, can you hear the fan(s) in your amps, can you feel the heat on top of your amps, are you sweating because it's over 90° in your chair, or are you in the clear of it all.
And if your amps have tubes in them ...
If you have AC inside, is it silent like a limousine? How many watts is it consuming, your electrical grid is regulated, you're all set for enough current and proper grounding?
The pressure @ 5,000 feet and plus isn't the same as @ sea level.
Subwoofers and some TVs are affected the higher you live.
The views too.
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The speed of sound varies directly with temperature and inversely with density (both are square-root functions) but the interaction gets complex. But the sound generated from a speaker is set by the source so environmental factors have little if any say. The change in propagation speed will shift things like room nodes and such but in practice it's not enough to matter. Too many other things swamp out the changes, usually by orders of magnitude.
Temperature is much more a concern when I am playing; temperature changes how I adjust my trumpet's slides to play in tune. It is a resonant tube and changing the speed of sound changes the wavelength which in turn means I have to adjust the tuning slides to resonant at the right wavelength for the note I want to play. This is not the same thing as driving a speaker at a given frequency -- the speaker outputs what goes in and such things as temperature, humidity, etc. are very minor players that impact things like output level and distortion but not the frequency of the tones.
HIgher altitude, lower air density, affect electronics in a minor way because cooling (heat transfer) is not as efficient. One obvious exception to "it's don't matter" is disc drives, which rely on enough air density to keep the head above the disc's surface. Take a hard drive too high and it can crash, e.g. the head physically crashes into the drive platter because there is not enough air to keep it up. There are some specialized drives for high altitude (and other) applications that are sealed and pumped full of nitrogen or something (not my field, used them but have not designed them). These days you'd use SSDs, natch. Humidity can lower the arc voltage, affecting HV devices like ESLs and such. Etc.
Temperature is much more a concern when I am playing; temperature changes how I adjust my trumpet's slides to play in tune. It is a resonant tube and changing the speed of sound changes the wavelength which in turn means I have to adjust the tuning slides to resonant at the right wavelength for the note I want to play. This is not the same thing as driving a speaker at a given frequency -- the speaker outputs what goes in and such things as temperature, humidity, etc. are very minor players that impact things like output level and distortion but not the frequency of the tones.
HIgher altitude, lower air density, affect electronics in a minor way because cooling (heat transfer) is not as efficient. One obvious exception to "it's don't matter" is disc drives, which rely on enough air density to keep the head above the disc's surface. Take a hard drive too high and it can crash, e.g. the head physically crashes into the drive platter because there is not enough air to keep it up. There are some specialized drives for high altitude (and other) applications that are sealed and pumped full of nitrogen or something (not my field, used them but have not designed them). These days you'd use SSDs, natch. Humidity can lower the arc voltage, affecting HV devices like ESLs and such. Etc.
Yes
Hipper
Addicted to Fun and Learning
I don't think it is the speed of sound that is the important factor here but its attenuation (loss of energy/volume).
Humidity is definitely a factor in hearing in general. If you have a railway or road in the distance, you can hear it more clearly on a humid day. I assume this is because sound travels further in water then in air because it is denser, and humid air is more dense then dry air (this density argument could also be used for temperature (more dense the higher the temperature as the air molecules are moving around faster) and pressure (including altitude).
From this I guess that the denser the air in our listening rooms, the further sound will travel (the less attenuated it would be at any particular distance from the source), meaning that the sound will have different volumes at your listening chair with different air densities. Is it louder overall, or just for some frequencies? Overall I'm guessing.
Whales (notably the Humpback Whale) make 'songs' of varying frequencies. The lower frequency sounds can travel hundreds if not thousands of miles, the higher frequencies less so. Apparently because the ambient noise in the oceans has increased because of man's activities, it seems whales have both increased the volume of their sonic emissions and also changed some frequencies. This is an argument that reducing ambient sounds in your listening room will have an impact on what you hear from your speakers. I did this with an extra piece of glazing which gave me a 6dB reduction in the 100 - 1,000Hz region (I should say that I live on a busy High Street).
This also connects to the idea of seismic waves travelling long distances through the ground (a very dense material) and into buildings and therefore our listening gear. Seismic waves are low frequencies (say 10Hz) caused by traffic, railways or building works for example (you can feel them on a railway platform as a train passes).
Humidity is definitely a factor in hearing in general. If you have a railway or road in the distance, you can hear it more clearly on a humid day. I assume this is because sound travels further in water then in air because it is denser, and humid air is more dense then dry air (this density argument could also be used for temperature (more dense the higher the temperature as the air molecules are moving around faster) and pressure (including altitude).
From this I guess that the denser the air in our listening rooms, the further sound will travel (the less attenuated it would be at any particular distance from the source), meaning that the sound will have different volumes at your listening chair with different air densities. Is it louder overall, or just for some frequencies? Overall I'm guessing.
Whales (notably the Humpback Whale) make 'songs' of varying frequencies. The lower frequency sounds can travel hundreds if not thousands of miles, the higher frequencies less so. Apparently because the ambient noise in the oceans has increased because of man's activities, it seems whales have both increased the volume of their sonic emissions and also changed some frequencies. This is an argument that reducing ambient sounds in your listening room will have an impact on what you hear from your speakers. I did this with an extra piece of glazing which gave me a 6dB reduction in the 100 - 1,000Hz region (I should say that I live on a busy High Street).
This also connects to the idea of seismic waves travelling long distances through the ground (a very dense material) and into buildings and therefore our listening gear. Seismic waves are low frequencies (say 10Hz) caused by traffic, railways or building works for example (you can feel them on a railway platform as a train passes).
Speedskater
Major Contributor
John Atkinson did this page thirty years ago:
Under Pressure: Loudspeakers at Altitude
John Atkinson | Nov 13, 2005 | First Published: May 13, 1990
https://www.stereophile.com/asweseeit/590awsi
Under Pressure: Loudspeakers at Altitude
John Atkinson | Nov 13, 2005 | First Published: May 13, 1990
https://www.stereophile.com/asweseeit/590awsi
Great point, I’ll have try that. I noticed during a run I can smell what each house is cooking - and a few of the lawn artifacts as well. No surprise it should affect hearing too. I’ll have to try after rowing.
dasdoing
Major Contributor
I think the most important factor is ear fatigue. note that ear fatigue can be caused by a varity of sources. after 90min of driving in heavy traffic the last thing you probably wanna hear is bass heavie music.
Also diferent loudness will result in diferent FR https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Equal-loudness_contour
Also diferent loudness will result in diferent FR https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Equal-loudness_contour
Sgt. Ear Ache
Major Contributor
Mood affects sound quality WAY more than cables or many of the other things audiophiles obsess over...
I notice better sound in a small room (~12ft x 12ft) when humidity is 10% higher than usual (> 60% or so with RH meter), this system is LS-50s, with SMSL-A300 amp, streaming Roon, or vinyl from turntable. Can't explain easily with words, the speakers seem to come alive, and the vocals and instruments are as if the musicians were in the room. No DSP, all settings flat.
Speed of sound is quite dependent on temperature and (less) humidity.
I could imagine deep zero's in FR caused by cancellation effects could change/move with audible effects as result.
(This is worth an experiment
)What I did: REW's room simulator and changing room size by 1% and 2% corresponding to a temperature change of 5 and 10 degrees celcius
Could this be audible?
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I thinks it’s mostly in the mind .
But I do wonder what really high altitudes does to you box tuning especially bass reflex speakers ? Do you need a special version if live in Peruvian Andes ?
But I do wonder what really high altitudes does to you box tuning especially bass reflex speakers ? Do you need a special version if live in Peruvian Andes ?
Neumann KH80 DSP Monitor Measurements #3
Seems that if you want to create a riot in the streets of ASR, all you have to do is show a non-ruler flat response of Neumann KH80 DSP professional monitor (speaker). Not knowing that, that is precisely what I did in my first review of KH80 DSP: This was one of the earliest speakers I...
www.audiosciencereview.com
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