Home Speaker Asylum

General speaker questions for audio and home theater.

[ Follow Ups ] [ Post Followup ] Thread: [ Display  All  Email ] [ Speaker Asylum ]
[ Alert Moderator ]

"Correct" reproduction of live sound is pretty much a myth

It was an age-old belief that the speaker is where most distortion and change occurs with respect to re-creating live recordings. I disagree. I think the recording itself does as much or more "damage" than any reasonably competent speaker and room combo. I hear people review speakers and cite "The individual instruments were in the correct locations on the soundstage." There is no correct/incorrect answer here - this is audiophile mythology.

The closest one will get to "correct" with regard to space and time is a binaural recording done with a dummy head and head related transfer function (HRTF) equalization. And despite this likely being closest to some ideal for preservation of time, reflections, and reverberation times, nobody does it. Why? It has it's own set of problems and limitations - the first being (a) it's a recording process almost never used and (b) it requires a specialized system to play it back.

There is no "correct" recreation of a live event because the recording itself is already wrong. All we're left with is getting a room and speaker setup that does the least damage and gives a sense of being there.

Take a great speaker / room combo and replace it with an average speaker / room combo and guess what - you'll immediately understsand that 90% of that experience was already there (or not there) within the recording. I think the least damage for orchestral recordings w.r.t. "space and time" comes from a simple 2-mic over-head recording, but this is a far cry from the effect you get from an elaborate multi-mic sound stage. Some might prefer the former, others the latter.

Take a day to compare recordings and forget about speakers and it's an eye-opening experience.

And all this said, some of my favorite recordings have almost nothing to do with some idea of "proper" sound-staging. Sometimes, some intentional phase-distortion madness putting things behind your right ear can be fun.

Unholy, but fun.

That's my twenty-two cents.

Cheers,
Presto

This post is made possible by the generous support of people like you and our sponsors:
  Signature Sound   [ Signature Sound Lounge ]

Follow Ups Full Thread
Follow Ups
FAQ

Post a Message!

 Forgot Password?
Moniker (Username):
Password (Optional):
  Remember my Moniker & Password  (What's this?)    Eat Me
E-Mail (Optional):
Subject:
Message:   (Posts are subject to Content Rules)
Optional Link URL:
Optional Link Title:
Optional Image URL:
Upload Image:
E-mail Replies:  Automagically notify you when someone responds.

[ Top Top of Page ] [ Contact Us ] [ Support/Wish List ] [ Copyright © 2025, Audio Asylum, all rights reserved ]
[ General ] [ Speakers ] [ Tubes ] [ Vinyl ] [ Digital ] [ Hi-Rez ] [ Video Asylum ] [ Cables ] [ Tweaks/DIY ] [ Music ] [ Films ]