What kind of speakers, room placement, acoustics to reproduce Queen's music with HiFi?

[DanielT]

Listen at 18:35 into the interview when Brian May explains how they placed the microphones during their recordings. Many mic placements were tested and if I understood correctly mics were placed a bit all over the place when recording. If it is the recorded sound then shouldn't more omni sound radiating speakers be used for playback? If you want it to sound the way Queen wanted it to sound, or am I thinking wrong now?

The whole video is interesting, so I can recommend it.

The brown sound that Brian May mentions is described here:

Roland - What is the brown sound and why do guitarists love it?

What is the brown sound and why do guitarists love it?

www.roland.com

Even IF it were possible to reproduce Queen's music as closely as possible then it could lead to another problem, or challenge. When you then listen to other music, which is recorded in a different way it would be incredibly difficult and expensive to keep changing speakers every time you changed a song.

 

[MaxwellsEq]

It was mixed down to stereo, so that's all you need.

All recordings work like this. The producers are aiming for a "sound".

 

[DanielT]

Yes aimed at "a sound", I agree with that.

But if we it in general. Are certain loudspeaker principles more suitable for certain recordings?Or vice versa, are certain speaker principles unsuitable for certain recordings? For sound reproduction of home HiFi, that is.

 

[MaxwellsEq]

Yes aimed at "a sound", I agree with that.

But if we it in general. Are certain loudspeaker principles more suitable for certain recordings?Or vice versa, are certain speaker principles unsuitable for certain recordings? For sound reproduction of home HiFi, that is.

No. The producers mix it down to stereo.

Their mix is based on the assumption that you listen to your speakers arranged as an equilateral triangle with you at one of the vertices.

 

[dasdoing]

the less you hear of your room, the more you hear the ambience in the recording

 

[Hipper]

The sound you get from a stereo recording is speaker plus room.

Whilst there is some discussion about how to get the best stereo (ambiophonics, trinaural processor are two that spring to mind) my view is that you need to remove the sound of the room so you hear just the speakers. This is because, assuming you have a good source to speaker arrangement, the sound coming out of the speakers will be what was intended. Unfortunately, as it travels to your ears at your listening position, it also reflects off walls, maybe ceilings, and the room will be excited by the bass frequencies so giving you boomy bass. You have to control all this to get to the true sound.

To do this, first, you need a quiet symmetrical room ideally Then the speakers and listening position need to be set up for the best sound - this helps controls bass and reflections, but usually not enough. Then add any, perhaps best both, of room treatments and DSP/EQ, and perhaps also subs. Use measurements to get all this right.

There are many different speaker drivers (e.g. conventional cones, electrostats, ribbons) and various driver and speaker arrangements that affect sound and behave differently in rooms. They may also behave differently to room treatment but the same problem of removing the room applies.

https://www.audiosciencereview.com/...-speakers-and-room-acoustics-treatment.32841/

The issue of variable quality of recordings is a problem. Maybe it's about recording/mixing compromises or the tastes of the engineers/producers.

I play CDs. Some have strong bass, others good percussion. Very few are perfect but most of the ones I have - mostly pop studio recordings - sound pretty good on the set up I have. I use an equaliser and just have one setting. With DSP/EQ it is usually possible to have different settings stored on the machine so that you can use them for the different qualities.

Generally, this whole problem is described by Floyd Toole in his book 'Sound Reproduction' when he discusses the 'Circle of Confusion'. There are so many variables that go into delivering the sound played by our heroes in the studio to our ears in our listening room:

https://seanolive.blogspot.com/2009/10/audios-circle-of-confusion.html

 

[DanielT]

Okay. I was mostly interested in whether any type of speaker was better at reproducing any type of recording, in the studio or live recording. Or for that matter type of music. Then it becomes a little easier, if you like bass-pumping techno music, you need speakers that can pump bass in a good way, for example.

I remember reading that there are those who prefer dipoles to classical music. If that in itself would be any advantage?

Speaking of reducing reflections of the sound:

Listening in an Anechoic Chamber - a report

not very detailed, but intresting https://augene.blogspot.com/2020/10/listening-in-anechoic-chamber.html

audiosciencereview.com

Saxophone in a room acoustically untreated room (with for the sake of the comparison, the experimentl lousy conditions for sound reproduction) vs
Anechoic Chamber. Clear difference, of course:

(If you can dampen, reduce reflexes too much, remove them altogether, and it is perceived as the best sound reproduction, well..? ...)

Omis, dipoles are apparently popular at this year's meeting. Duke:
I think Perry Marshall's controlled-pattern fullrange dipole speaker is BRILLIANT.
Page two of the thread starting at #32, Duke and Perry Marshall are discussing. I found that interesting:

2022 Parts Express [Speaker Design Competition] - Over $300 Category

Fun, inspiring video. Good variety of different types of design principles and sizes of speakers.:) That passive crossover filter, a speaker in the video, doesn't look very cheap, so to speak::) I would have been curious to listen to those:

audiosciencereview.com

 

[Hayabusa]

So just rebuild their mixing studio with the same speakers

 

[MaxwellsEq]

You are trying to reproduce what's in the recorded medium, so a good speaker will be able to "explain" to you: the subtle intricacies of a chamber orchestra; the energy of a 64 foot organ pipe; the compression used to get techno bass; differences between nylon and wire-strung guitars; whether a kick drum pedal squeaks; the size of a venue; the background acoustic as the choir walks out at the end of Neptune the Mystic; the music.

In practice, all speakers are a real compromise. Many people love Quad ESLs when listening to chamber orchestras, but they are poor at 64 foot organ stops and techno. There are many very dynamic speakers which are poor at subtlety.

 

[MaxwellsEq]

... and before you ask. In the recording control room there are at least 3 different monitor sets: Aurotone ("oriible-tone") types to mimic small/cheap radios; medium sized monitors close to or on the bridge of the desk and main monitors sometimes built into the walls. The producer switches between them to check how things sound.

Studio C

www.thisismetropolis.com