This one is bespoke Hemp fiber woven by Vegan druids named Madge.We had exactly the same shag carpet in our living room back in the 60's, but wall to wall!
This one is bespoke Hemp fiber woven by Vegan druids named Madge.We had exactly the same shag carpet in our living room back in the 60's, but wall to wall!
View attachment 144624
Pizza crumbs optional.
Scanned through this thread and I did not see any reference to the precise matching of right and left channels/speakers. I've found any variation causes the image to wander and the "holographic" effect collapses.
The dogs did.While you were out I ate a bag of Cheetos while sitting on your carpet and I bet you didn't even notice.
Floyd Toole hasn't heard Kii 3, Dutch Dutch, Beolab. Sean Olive does not work for any of these companies, but their competitor. They have not really kept up with state of the art, ie., cardioid speakers. Their listening evaluation recommendations are not very challenging (no EDM). Maybe time for some newer thinking on what makes a good speaker?I'm a little surprised no one has mentioned a lack of resonances. That is one of the most important qualities for a speaker to avoid revealing itself as a wooden/metal/plastic box. It modifies timbre, can make a note stand out in the time domain, and just sticks out like a sore thumb.
Directivity is important for sure when it comes to the spatial presentation aspect, and I find wider directivity speakers are usually a bit more likely to have this disappearing effect, but having minimally audible resonances is paramount.
Per toole:
"If resonances exist in loudspeakers, either in the transducers or in the enclosures, they are added to those in the program, changing the timbre. These changes are monotonously added to all reproduced sounds: voices, musical instruments and so forth."
Furthermore, these resonances actually become more audible in a reflective environment, not less as some might assume. You're less likely to hear a resonance in, say, a nearfield setup with ample room treatment than you are in a typical living room:
"An interesting fact is that reflected sounds are perceived as “repetitions” of the direct sound, and the result of the accumulated “looks” at the sound is that low- and medium Q resonances become more audible. Consequently two contrasting events follow: flaws in loudspeakers are more obvious (bad), and subtle timbral cues in music are better revealed (good) (Toole and Olive, 1988). Listening through headphones or in a dominant direct sound field (a dead room) make us less sensitive to low- and middle-Q resonances, possibly explaining why some headphones with unimpressive measurements are tolerable, at least with pop music."
Edit: All from chapter 4 of Toole's book.
Floyd Toole hasn't heard Kii 3, Dutch Dutch, Beolab. Sean Olive does not work for any of these companies, but their competitor. They have not really kept up with state of the art, ie., cardioid speakers. Their listening evaluation recommendations are not very challenging (no EDM). Maybe time for some newer thinking on what makes a good speaker?
Floyd Toole is a reference, but time moves on. I cannot accept a lot of what he says given my own meager experience and prejudices, as it is based on long ago listening panels (repeatable?, newer stuff maybe?) And yes, I read his book, and saw the picture of his system, which would now be considered mediocre, at best.
Floyd Toole hasn't heard Kii 3, Dutch Dutch, Beolab. Sean Olive does not work for any of these companies, but their competitor. They have not really kept up with state of the art, ie., cardioid speakers. Their listening evaluation recommendations are not very challenging (no EDM). Maybe time for some newer thinking on what makes a good speaker?
Floyd Toole is a reference, but time moves on. I cannot accept a lot of what he says given my own meager experience and prejudices, as it is based on long ago listening panels (repeatable?, newer stuff maybe?) And yes, I read his book, and saw the picture of his system, which would now be considered mediocre, at best.
A coffe table can be good because, as you say, they block the first reflections from the floor reaching your ears.
A coffe table can be bad if there is no damping material on the table. Without a table-cloth theres gonna be lots of reflections at high frequencies and if they are within 5 ms from the direct sound from the loudspeaker reaching your ears, you get ugly colorations . Early reflections in the treble area are especially bad for sound quality.
But again, the reflections need to reach your ears. Primary reflections can be seen by using mirrors. I don't see my speaker drivers while having a mirror on the coffee table.
There is direct evidence that floor reflections help us localize speakers:
Auditory localization: effects of reflecting surfaces:
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/2130378/
So if you want a speaker to disappear to the greatest extent possible, you'll want to reduce that reflection. I anticipate Toole commenting that the floor reflection sounds "natural", and that we probably appreciate the impact it has on spectral balance. I'd suggest reducing the floor reflection and using EQ to obtain the desired spectral balance, which may not be completely flat on axis.
In addition, there is evidence that the ratio of forward to lateral sound is important for our perception of envelopment. Floor and ceiling reflections re-enforce the forward sound. In stereo, the major components of the forward sound are the direct sound, floor reflection, the ceiling reflection, and the front-wall reflection. The sidewall reflections (ideally delayed more than 5ms) constitute the lateral sound. By reducing the floor, ceiling, and front wall reflections, we decrease the ratio of forward to lateral sound, improving our perception of envelopment. This also increases the apparent soundstage width. Again, this may require deviating from the standard of flat on axis sound to some degree. Another way of improving the forward to lateral sound ratio is by exaggerating the sidewall reflections or supplementing them with additional speakers. It's my opinion that this approach has a negative effect on clarity when compared to the approach of reducing floor, ceiling, and front wall reflections.
Coffee table,,, interesting discussion.
So how do you see and think about my listening environment with carpet, coffee table and PC monitor on the carpet?
View attachment 144916
View attachment 144917
The ceiling is covered by microporous diatom panels carefully selected with proper sound absorption performance.
In this multichannel multi-driver multi-way multi-amplifier system, now the SPs always disappear quite nicely under the latest system configurations...
I have no mirror under the table... How and what can you suggest? I have 30 x 40 cm portable mirror in my office upstairs.
A properly placed coffee table (or ottoman as others have mentioned) can be an effective trap, especially when combined with thick carpet.
I don't remember you having such large subwoofers. What are those things beneath the Yamaha speakers?Yes, I carefully looked again my current setup;
View attachment 144958
My usual ear height in listening session is about 50 cm lower than the camera lens height of Photo-03 above, and the mirror position reflecting SPs from my eyes is at the PC monitor's leg position on the carpet.
Consequently, the coffee table in front of me is always fully blocking my sights to the leg of the PC monitor, i.e. the floor reflection point from the SPs! Furthermore, I have nice carpet between myself and the SPs, and also I have the ceiling covered by microporous diatom panels.
At least in terms of "coffee table and carpet", it looks that I have already established almost ideal setup for "excellent disappearance" of SPs...
I don't remember you having such large subwoofers. What are those things beneath the Yamaha speakers?
A fun and wonderful system. I always enjoy seeing it and reading about it.Thank you for your continuing attention on my project. You would please visit my post here for the physical alignment of the SPs!
The large L&R sub-woofers are Yamaha YST-SW1000.
Please refer to my most recent total Fq response in my post here.