What makes the perfect (concert hall) acoustic, according to science?

[jp4573]

German tenor Jonas Kaufmann at France 2 TV
Teatro Colón

 

[youngho]

Don't they have full time, in-house staff who should be experts?

No, Harman does not include an architectural acoustics firm among its audio, electronics, and services subsidiaries. I wonder if it's possible that it was originally intended to resemble typical consumer room sizes (like along the lines of 18-24' long, 10-14' wide, 8-9' tall) but constructed with isolation from neighboring spaces in mind. WSDG does have "name brand" cachet, and their work seemed to be limited in this case to surface treatments (last graphic https://wsdg.com/projects-items/harman-flagship-store-listening-room/#), so absorption on the front and side walls, tuned absorption on the rear wall (https://www.realacoustixllc.com/harman). Harman's International Reference Room (http://seanolive.blogspot.com/2009/05/harman-international-reference.html) seemed to measure well across the frequency spectrum, though the Powerpoint slides are no longer available, so good performance had been attained in the past. However, I would surmise that the cosmetic appearance of the IRR, much less the MLL, would not be acceptable for much of the intended audience for Mark Levinson amplifiers.

 

[dasdoing]

https://wsdg.com/projects-items/harman-flagship-store-listening-room/#),

why do mainstream audiophiles always narrow down the stereo triangle? I guess to make the sweet spot bigger? but it destroys stereo

 

[youngho]

why do mainstream audiophiles always narrow down the stereo triangle? I guess to make the sweet spot bigger? but it destroys stereo

Is it really that narrow, in your opinion? Or are you looking at the photos, likely taken with a lens that wider than "real"?

 

[dasdoing]

Is it really that narrow, in your opinion? Or are you looking at the photos, likely taken with a lens that wider than "real"?

the drawing meassures 24.5 degrees in Gimp.
doesn't seam much, but in terms of stereo image, if you don't hit 30, you better overshoot then undershoot

 

[youngho]

the drawing meassures 24.5 degrees in Gimp.
doesn't seam much, but in terms of stereo image, if you don't hit 30, you better overshoot then undershoot

Ah, I meant that I was questioning whether the angle was so narrow so that it "destroys stereo," which seems like a bit of an overstatement. Also, the couch/sofa could be moved for individual preference for anyone using the room. Anyway, not much more to say.

 

[youngho]

Interesting article with lots of references: https://acousticstoday.org/the-art-...ons-in-research-and-design-kelsey-a-hochgraf/

 

[youngho]

I just enjoyed a concert at Symphony Hall where Midori played the Tchaikovsky violin concerto with the BSO. I noticed that the pre-concert tour guide made a few minor errors (Sabine's first name, also what Sabins are actually a unit of), and I was motivated to read a little more about the acoustics of Symphony Hall, which was discussed briefly in my last link and more here: https://asa.scitation.org/doi/10.1121/1.4944787. There is some overlapping material between the two, and it's also interesting how Beranek's discussion of Symphony Hall concertgoer seating preferences echoes Lokki's research regarding classes of concert hall preferences.

 

[youngho]

Here's a follow-up post regarding concert hall acoustics: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/...ustics-links-and-excerpts.51487/#post-1853376

From the linked Hochgraf article, "Pfeiffer (personal communication, 2018) noted “there’s a range of performance in any of the given parameters that’s acceptable, and a range that’s not” but that the “mythical holy grail of perfect acoustics” does not exist."

 

[Cbdb2]

Harman's listening room

Even Harman repeats the snake oil BS. "“We know how Mark Levinson preamps, amplifiers and CD/ASCD players are supposed to sound". There not supposed to "sound" like anything.
And why would changing the room acoustics include "complex rewiring"?

 

[Justdafactsmaam]

There have been preference studies that run a bit contrary to what this article claims. You have two conflicting parameters. Clarity and reverberation time. The ideal reverberation time is between 1.8-2.2 seconds. The greater the clarity the better. But clarity generally starts to decline well before the reverberation gets up to the ideal. So one can argue that the best acoustics will belong to the halls that fall into the reverberation times of 1.8-2.2 seconds with the highest clarity.

 

[youngho]

There have been preference studies that run a bit contrary to what this article claims. You have two conflicting parameters. Clarity and reverberation time. The ideal reverberation time is between 1.8-2.2 seconds. The greater the clarity the better. But clarity generally starts to decline well before the reverberation gets up to the ideal. So one can argue that the best acoustics will belong to the halls that fall into the reverberation times of 1.8-2.2 seconds with the highest clarity.

Hochgraf: "There is growing consensus among acousticians that although many of these parameters are useful, they do not provide a complete representation of concert hall acoustics...the limitations are largely attributable to differences between an omnidirectional sound source and an orchestra and between omnidirectional microphones and the human hearing system." She then compared some average measurements from Boston Symphony Hall (RTocc 1,9, C80 -2.6) and Philharmonie Paris (RTocc 2.5, C80 -0.7 so higher Rt and also higher clarity score compared with Symphony Hall).