Propeller Head Plaza Technical and scientific discussion of amps, cables and other topics.

---

[ Follow Ups ] Thread: [ Display  All  Email ] [ Propeller Head Plaza ]

---

[ Alert Moderator ]

---

Re: Euphonic Compression

Posted by RandyB (S) on November 11, 2002 at 21:36:30

In Reply to: Re: Euphonic Compression posted by Art J. on November 11, 2002 at 20:02:03:

Hi, Art:

Thanks for the link, interesting article. The euphonic compression I'm thinking of would prevent only the top 1-2% of the loudest peaks and transients from being too loud when the volume is turned up to comfortably loud levels for all but these loudest peaks.

An example: 95dB sensitivity speakers being driven by a single-ended tube amplifier with lots of headroom, no clipping, turned up to realistic SPL's, but the loudest transients peaks are too loud for comfortable listening. Is it ever permissible to limit these peaks to reduce discomfort so that the rest of the program material can be played at a higher volume setting than would be possible if the peaks were not limited / compressed?

Reverting back to the magnetic tape example, where the recording engineer in pre-digital days would set the gain to +3dB so that the highest peaks would be compressed due to tape saturation, I was wondering if there are any amplifiers or loudspeakers that have this characteristic, whereby only the very highest 1-2% SPL levels of transient peaks are compressed to permit a higher volume setting for the 98-99% of the rest of the program material.

Does anyone know if there known coefficients of compression for coil, capacitor, and resistor materials and configurations for various frequencies and SPL levels? If there are any treatises on this topic, links would be greatly appreciated.

This is a phenomenon I have observed on some high-efficiency loudspeaker prototypes, 95-97dB sensitivity, some of the peaks are too loud when the volume is turned up to realistic levels, the rest of the SPL range below these highest peaks is fine. I'm trying to "tame" the sensitivity of the speakers on the 1-2% of the loudest peak levels, I guess, so that these peaks are not too loud.

Thanks, rdb :-)

Thanks, rdb :-)

This post is made possible by the generous support of people like you and our sponsors:

VH Audio

---

[ Top of Page ] [ Contact Us ] [ Support/Wish List ] [ Copyright © 2024, Audio Asylum, all rights reserved ]

---

[ General ] [ Speakers ] [ Tubes ] [ Vinyl ] [ Digital ] [ Hi-Rez ] [ Video Asylum ] [ Cables ] [ Tweaks/DIY ] [ Music ] [ Films ]

---