Hi-Rez Highway: RE: Tommy did you try the Wadia 581iSE in system 1 or 2? by Yoav New high resolution SACD releases, players and technology.

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Posted by Yoav (M ) on March 28, 2009 at 19:32:35

In Reply to: RE: Tommy did you try the Wadia 581iSE in system 1 or 2? posted by Interested on March 21, 2009 at 17:59:43:

Dear Teresa,

This is Yoav Geva, designer of the YG Acoustics Anat Reference II Professional. Please allow me to elaborate on the issue of anechoic response versus in-room response:

First, you are absolutely correct in that a speaker with a flat anechoic response may not have a flat in-room response. Every room has its own acoustics.

However, anechoic response is nonetheless critical. When listening, we first perceive the direct sound, before any echoes arrive. This is the signal that provides our brain with most of the soundstage and tonal information in the recording. A signal with a flat frequency response and no relative phase deviations will provide us with a lifelike experience in these aspects.
Next, the first reflections arrive. These have hit room surfaces only once, and therefore are "colored" once by the room, and also by the speaker's dispersion. After all, the signal for these echoes leaves the speaker at an off-axis angle. Please note that a musician playing live music in the same room would cause the exact same effect - the direct sound is neutral, and the first reflections are "colored" once by the room. The first reflections are used by our brain mainly to determine the size of the room, and also have some (but less than direct sound) contribution to the tonality of the speaker. Therefore a more neutral room is still superior to a heavily "colored" one.
Last, more echoes arrive. These later reflections have hit room surfaces multiple times, and are far more "colored" by the room than the first reflections. They "tell" our brain mostly about the room, and less about the musical performance.

A good speaker, therefore, must have both a flat anechoic response and uniform dispersion. But even with those two, its in-room response will heavily depend on the room. And while heavily "colored" rooms may affect the perceived tonality in some respect, the direct ("anechoic") sound is mainly responsible for our perception of tonality, which means that even if the in-room response is not flat when averaging direct sound and echoes without looking at timing (which is what in-room measurements typically do), it may be perceived as completely flat if the time until the echoes arrive is long enough, and the speaker's dispersion is uniform enough to make sure that only the room colors the echoes, rather than the speaker.

Last but not least, there is one thing which I don't know whether you have paid attention to (if you have, please accept my apologies): you are comparing the in-room responses of two speakers, measured in two different rooms. It is important to note that in-room measurements of two speakers can only be compared if the rooms are identical. The Burmester B25 was measured in LG's room, whereas the YG Acoustics Anat Reference II Professional was measured in WP's room. While I cannot clearly state at this time which room is "better" (I would need to look at measurements with timing information to know more), it is quite clear that they are very different.

If you have any additional questions, please feel free to contact me. Please use the "Contact Us" screen on my website, or this forum.

Best,
Yoav Geva
President
YG Acoustics LLC
Yoav Geva (Gonczarowski)
YG Acoustics

• http://www.yg-acoustics.com   (Open in New Window)

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