How much impact for perceived sound - direct sound and room sound

[Tangband]

It seems most of us in the voting believe that the direct sound coming from the loudspeaker is the most important for perceived sound quality . I agree.

I guess that we all will be more critical when looking at spinoramas and frequency responses from different angles and distances, because they only tell some thruth on how a set of speakers in a specific room will sound. We always have to listen to the speakers placed in the intended room to make a valid judgement on how it will sound. However, a loudspeaker with good directivity has the biggest chance to sound good in different rooms .

Thanks for participating in this thread with comments and facts.

 

[Anonamemouse]

I once did listening tests in a dead room and it taught me how much influence a room has. My own loudspeakers were included in the test and they sounded NOTHING like they sound in my living room.

 

[Vuki]

If not desktop audio or very nearfield listening position - in a bad sounding room even rhe best speakers would sound bad. In a good sounding room average sounding loudspeakers would sound ok.

 

[Tangband]

I once did listening tests in a dead room and it taught me how much influence a room has. My own loudspeakers were included in the test and they sounded NOTHING like they sound in my living room.

Maybe all speakers should be constructed for a specific room? - the owners listening room. One could even get the baffle step correction right ( 0-6 dB ) with a DIY speaker, depending on the placement for the speaker in the room.

Impossible to get right ofcourse if selling the same sort of speaker to many people - all with different rooms .

 

[fineMen]

... is attenuated by the brain ...

I've got no brain. Man is not a machine. If you will, I've got a mind. Much of the literature in audio is about hearing aids. Your stereo is something completely different. As you refer to singled out claims from the field (precedence, effect).

With hearing aids the science is looking after the inner workings of the hearing as to trick it with microphones right at the body, even in-ear of the individual and in-ear speakers. In situ and very much on time. Maybe , nowadays, connecting directly to the related nerves. Research is ongoing, pressure is rising--because of misused stereo ...

Stereo is not hearing aid, as you might have concluded already. All you get is artificial in that the sound engineer decides on how that presentation should sound when recording and mixing it the studio. Many takes are merged, a variety of microphone arangements is used, the stereo panorama is 'panned', the tonal balance is adjusted, dynamics is reduced, reverberation gets added, artificial generated or from the venue times recorded seperately. You're basically listening through the engineer's ears to a pencil sketch of the real thing.

So, what do you expect?! The trick with stereo is performed in the studio. Your speakers, including room interaction of those, should comply to some standard and you're done.

In short, you asking for X are asking for taste at max. "If I wanted to depart from the studio standard would I go for more or less room interaction?" Most people I know would, in case they even grasp the idea, answer with "Yes!" ;-)

 

[gnarly]

A fun experiment to see how much the mind/brain/whatever does to affect what we hear in a room,
is to play something on the speakers, but listen to it via a measurement mic and closed back headphones.

Use a soundcard to power the mics signal into the phones. And compare .... eye/ear opening ime.

 

[NTK]

A fun experiment to see how much the mind/brain/whatever does to affect what we hear in a room,
is to play something on the speakers, but listen to it via a measurement mic and closed back headphones.

Use a soundcard to power the mics signal into the phones. And compare .... eye/ear opening ime.

Have you heard of the term HRTF?
Try using binaural in-ear microphones instead.

Binaural Microphone - In-Ear Microphone | Type 4101 | Brüel & Kjær

Binaural microphone Type 4101 is an in-ear microphone for sound recording and testing on a human subject without affecting normal hearing capabilities.

www.bksv.com