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In the Forum: Audio Discussions
In the Thread: Off-the-wall playback or the 'hamster solution'.
Post Subject: Omnidirectional speakers reduxPosted by drdna on: 3/2/2009
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 el`Ol wrote:
I don´t know whether you are familiar to Stig Carlsson´s speakers. The result achieved with Carlsson speakers is a stunning spacial realism when fed with true stereo recordings. With synthetic reverb recordings the sound just sticks to the speakers and you have nice pingpong stereo.
I first experimented with omnidirectional speaker constructs in the 1980's, my concept hypothesis being that omnidirectional microphone input would be best reproduced as omnidirectional speaker output. The fundamental issues that arise are firstly that the ultimate "receivers" are your ears, that have a very specific location in space and secondly that the speakers interact with the room.

Because the music is invariably recorded in a live acoustic space, this sort of demands that the playback of an omnidirectional system be done in an anechoic setting to avoid double/ghost imaging/acoustic reflections. Carlsson's designs address this is a way, by modulating the frequency response to the expected sum of direct and indirect acoustic energy. What is revealing is that the system functions poorly with recordings with a lot of reverb. This is what one would expect of course, given the setup. Probably the best recordings to play on such as system would be the old Three Blind Mice records and such, due to their being recorded with the musicians in separate anechoic chambers. The recordings sound strange on a traditional stereo, but on a Carlsson type setup, they might be quite magical.

Adrian

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