About Us

A profile of Nyal Mellor, Founder and Chief Acoustician

Nyal Mellor is the Founder and Chief Acoustician of Acoustic Frontiers. Nyal is from England originally and moved to California in 2008 to chase his dreams of mountain biking, snowboarding and high end audio. He was educated at the world renowned Oxford University and is one of 40 or so individuals in the USA to hold the Home Acoustics Alliance Level II certification. In his spare time Nyal enjoys designing digitally crossed over, digitally corrected and actively amplified speakers. His current system is based around an Apple Mac music server running Pure Music, a DEQX HDP-3 and Bel Canto amplifiers.

The passion and philosophy behind Acoustic Frontiers

We think that audiophiles and home theater fanatics have neglected the listening room as a source of sound quality improvement for far too long

Why did we set the company up? We realized that for too long audiophiles and home theater fanatics have neglected the listening room as a source of sound improvement potential. If we are honest a lot of us, even those with very expensive (i.e. $10,000+) systems, find problems with our sound. Not having any scientific knowledge or basis for understanding WHY the sound is bad, we follow the path that the audio equipment manufacturers and dealers want us to follow - the equipment upgrade path.

Sometimes you can get lucky and find a one in a hundred balance of equipment, speakers, speaker location, room size, furnishings and listener position. These people get good sound. They probably attribute it to the money they just spent. In most cases it is just blind luck.

Change one of the variables mentioned above and they have bad sound. They move the couch - bad sound. They 'upgrade' to a pair of new speakers - bad sound. They move into a new house - bad sound. They wail, they cry, then they (guess what) - buy some more expensive equipment!

The founders of Acoustic Frontiers were in the exact situation above before we started to learn about room acoustics, room design, acoustic measurements and all the myriad of factors that impact how our equipment interacts with the room to govern what we hear. After reading many books and finding a world class mentor in Gerry Lemay of the Home Acoustics Alliance we saw an opportunity to bring music enthusiasts throughout the San Francisco Bay Area (and now via our ecommerce store the US and Canada) the improvements in sound quality that we had been exposed to.

Most music lovers do not understand the negative impact of room acoustics on sound quality. A minority have spent the time and money to look at the impact their listening room is having and have been happily enjoying the sound of their systems ever since, free from the constant upgrade cycle.

And we should all remember why we do this - the music. Each of us wants to be touched by the music, to feel the emotional connection with the artist, to be transported to another dimension for a song, an album, an evening. For too long the listening room has got in the way of the emotional connection.

Our value proposition to you, our potential clients, is to provide a world class acoustic design, eCommerce and calibration service for the 'final frontier' in the reproduction chain - the listening room. By focusing on sound quality and being scientific about using room design principles and acoustic measurements we can fix the problems of the listening room and leave you with the music.

Certifications and credentials

The HAA® is a professional training organization dedicated toward home acoustics. Its purpose is to promote the correct and most effective use of acoustical design and calibration techniques specifically for the home. According to Gerry Lemay, the founder of HAA, there are only around 40 people in the whole country with Level II certification! And one of them, Nyal Mellor, is our Chief Acoustician!

The Audio Engineering Society is the only professional society devoted exclusively to audio technology. Founded in the United States in 1948, the AES has grown to become an international organization that unites audio engineers, creative artists, scientists and students worldwide by promoting advances in audio and disseminating new knowledge and research.

Articles we have published with RealTraps and Hi-Fi Zine

The Three Acoustical Issues that Room Correction Can't Correct published on Hi Fi Zine. This article outlines that despite all its wizardry, room correction devices can't correct for speaker boundary interference, excessively long reverberation times or strong early reflections.
The "Room Measuring" Series, co-authored with Ethan Winer of RealTraps and published on What's Best Forum and the RealTraps website. This article explains why you need to measure your room, what hardware you need (soundcard & microphone) and runs through the process of taking the key acoustical measurements with FuzzMeasure for Mac OSX and Room EQ Wizard.

The history of Acoustic Frontiers

October 2009 - Acoustic Frontiers LLC incorporated within the state of California.
November 2009 - First customer, Don Jackson, he was so pleased he wrote a long testimonial!
December 2009 - Nyal Mellor, Chief Acoustician of Acoustic Frontiers LLC, awarded Home Acoustics Alliance Level II certification. Nyal joins an elite group of around 40 people in the US with this certification. We were also awarded dealership for RPG and Acoustics First products.

January 2010 - Proudly awarded dealership for RealTraps.
June 2010 - Linked up with one of the Bay Area's premier high end retailers, Music Lovers, to provide acoustic design and consulting services to their clients.
August 2010 - Now representing DEQX in the US.
September 2010 - A busy month! We were awarded dealership for Primacoustic's line of innovative acoustic treatments and XTZ's Room Analyzer in a box. Nyal Mellor, our Chief Acoustician, had two articles published: 'The Three Acoustical Issues that Room Correction Can't Correct' in Hi Fi Zine and the Room Measuring Series, co-authored with Ethan Winer of RealTraps.
October 2010 - Awarded dealership for JL Audio's superb line of subwoofers.
December 2010 - Completed installation of room treatment in Music Lovers SF problematic high end two channel room.
January 2011 - Launched eCommerce site.

Things we support

True stereophonic sound, as devised by Blumlein, is quite capable of reproducing a musical with just two channels and two loudspeakers, so why complicate the issue with more channels and more speakers? How many contemporary recordings are made using the real stereo techniques which have served us so well in the past? There is a distinction of course between multi-track recordings mixed down to two channels and stereo. The latter provides a completely different listening experience - an experience which is now in danger of disappearing if the industry believes there is little future in it. Hence TNT Audio's Campaign for Real Stereo. The objective of the campaign is to draw attention to the often passed-over benefits of real stereo and highlight to the industry the fact that many people do not want Alan Blumlein's wonderful invention to be neglected and forgotten in the relentless commercial drive for new consumer market technologies.