Posted by josh358 (P) on August 10, 2010 at 11:17:04

In Reply to: RE: assumptions posted by MaggieLover on August 09, 2010 at 22:42:37

A friend of mine had the Hafler unit. Me, I only had two speakers, so I carried my stuff into the living room and tried it with my parents'. No adapter, so no level control. I'm not even sure I knew what a concert hall was supposed to sound like then!

I had a Phase Linear autocorrelator too, LOL. I remember the sweet spot between no noise reduction and no cymbals well. Also that even when you got it right, it still took some of the sheen off the highs. And I had the dbx expander as well, and an equalizer, not the Dyna but a BSR. Which never did anything for the sound but did teach me what the different frequency ranges sounded like. I also remember listening to Carver's crosstalk canceler, but I don't think I owned the unit, I think it was a demo disk.

Then, like you, I discovered and moved on to less-is-more high end gear, which sounded so much more like the real thing. So audio nostalgia aside, I know what you're saying.

Still, all of this stuff was primitive by today's standards. I think you can do a lot more sonically with measurement mics and minimum phase digital EQ. I've experimented a bit with modern crosstalk cancelers, the ambiophonics stuff, with intriguing results although it seemed very tweaky and I have yet to be convinced that all of the problems have been solved, that determination will have to wait until I can experiment with a carefully calibrated setup. I've heard a fair amount of discrete surround over the years with good results, but I've never tried a modern ambiance recovery setup, a matrix without delay can cause all sorts of confusion.

The reason I'm interested in trying it is because I've read positive reports by people I trust, e.g., J. Gordon Holt. And because for me, there are always going to be serious problems with two channel stereo -- both spatially, inasmuch as listening to a stereo recording is more like looking through a picture window than being at a concert, and in terms of timbre, since without sufficient ambiance recordings of orchestral material sound too bright.

I've also been intrigued by the realism of the sound when I put my speakers on edge. That was if anything too much ambiance. But it was a vivid reminder that the greatest barrier to realistic reproduction at this point is spatiality. Because despite obvious audible flaws, it sounded like the instruments were actually physically present in the room. Which is something I've never heard from conventional two channel stereo, which, even at its best, is like viewing a hologram. I've become intrigued by the possibility of recruiting the room to bridge the divide between the HRTF and interaural worlds.