opaqueice wrote: > pfarrell Wrote: >>The bad part is that the number of feet required is about 5 feet, >>and unless you are single, the WAF of having speakers 8 feet >>from walls is near zero.
> My speakers just disappeared, and Patricia Barber (at the moment) is > standing in between them, with the bass and drumset behind her and the > trumpet to her right. > > Thank you very much, Pat! What a great new toy to play with... You are welcome. Its all about physics and human hearing. The speed of sound is about 1100 feet/second, altho I usually use 1000 feet/second because it makes the math easier to do in my head. Humans have a well developed sensitivity to phase differences, it is how we could tell where the tiger was before it ate the slow ones. But really small differences can't be heard. So the question is what difference can we hear? The answer is it depends on the person, room, sound (music, tiger growl) etc. But measurements seem to say it takes about 15 milliseconds to become important. Time differences of less than 10 millisconds just aren't clearly interpreted. Since the speed of sound is about 1000 feet per second, and you want 10 milliseconds, you need about 10 feet. This works out to five feet from the wall to the speaker, so some sound comes direct, and some goes backwards, hits the wall, and gets sent forward where your ears hear it 10 milliseconds delayed. Differing speakers, people, rooms, change the numbers. But the beauty of small "BBC" style monitors is that they get put out in the room. Of course, things like Quads and other electrostatics also are designed to be out in the room. The difference between wacko audiophiles and real people isn't that the wackos can spend $40,000 for speakers amps and cables, it is that they can talk the wife into letting them put the $40,000 speakers out in the middle of the room. My Sonus Faber Concertos sound wonderful when my wife is out of the house. They only sound good back where the WAF is acceptable. -- Pat http://www.pfarrell.com/music/slimserver/slimsoftware.html _______________________________________________ audiophiles mailing list audiophiles@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/audiophiles
