by Nyal Mellor
March 25, 2011
This blog post is all about how to keep up to date with what is happening in the wonderful world of two channel audio, home theater and acoustics.
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by Nyal Mellor
February 28, 2011
DEQX have released their driver for Windows computers running 64 bit operating systems. The new driver, and instructions on installation, can be downloaded directly from the DEQX forum. If you aren't already a member of the DEQX forum you will need to register> to access the forums.
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by Nyal Mellor
February 09, 2011
One of the things I get asked quite often is 'where is the best place to put bass traps and why?'. This short article will explain a little about what bass traps do and how they work before going on to discuss the three different places where bass traps can be placed.
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by Nyal Mellor
January 26, 2011
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by Nyal Mellor
October 29, 2010
This article continues the theme of the last two blog postings in whic we outlined some ways in which subwoofers can be used to improve sound quality. This week we introduce the Welti / Devantier and Geddes multi-sub methodologies. Both involve using multiple subwoofers as a way to smooth bass response and reduce the impact of modal resonances.
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by Nyal Mellor
October 26, 2010
Room modes are caused by perfect constructive interference between a sound wave traveling between two boundaries. This article provides a high level overview of room modes and their impact on sound quality.
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by Nyal Mellor
October 19, 2010
Deep nulls in the frequency response in the bass region can be caused by phase cancellation between the direct sound wave from a sound producing device and the indirect sound wave that has reflected from a nearby boundary such as the floor, ceiling or walls. This phenomenon is called speaker boundary interference or SBIR for short. This article introduces SBIR and explains how these deep nulls can be ameliorated through use of a subwoofer.
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by Nyal Mellor
August 24, 2010
Recently I
stumbled upon the great
'Home Theater Geeks' Podcast series by Scott Wilkinson of UltimateAV and Home Theater Magazines. They take the form of 1 on 1 interviews with notable individuals from the audiophile and home theater world.
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by Nyal Mellor
July 01, 2010
Much confusion still exists about what a room correction product does, what problems it can (and cannot) solve and therefore its 'place' in a modern high quality sound reproduction system. Part of the challenge of understanding room correction is that it requires a reasonable level of understanding of sound quality, acoustic science, acoustic measurement and psychoacoustics (how humans perceive sound). By the end of this article I hope that you will have learnt enough to judge for yourself what room correction can and cannot do and how best to apply it in the context of a world class music or home theater system.
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by Nyal Mellor
October 15, 2009
Since I have been offering acoustic design consulting I have come to the conclusion that there are three different levels available to the end consumer. Each level offers a certain quality and cost level. By quality I am referring to how good the room sounds at the end of whatever design process is undertaken.
I've summarized this relationship in the chart that follows.
- Quality refers to the sound quality improvement realized from acoustic design and treatment with 0 being no improvement and 100 being substantial improvement.
- Price refers to the cost of the combined services plus acoustic treatment
You will see by following the red line (the 'value curve') that a good level of quality is realized at quite low cost from the acoustic treatment companies. As the curve enters the second level, where the new-breed of acoustical designers operate a small cost increase leads to a significant increase in quality. At the top you enter the realm of the specialist design companies. There are still quality gains to be had but they come at significant cost.
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