Consulting
Few people would say they are neither moved nor fascinated by music. Usually, the music itself takes centre stage, whether a particular genre or a favourite artist. Playback quality becomes relevant when listening also involves analysing the sound. This means considering aspects such as realism, bass reproduction and spatial imaging.
We offer support and solutions when a particular room does not deliver the quality you are looking for. This applies first and foremost to music production, both in studios and in home setups. But it also applies to listening purely for enjoyment in different living spaces, which are subject to the same laws of sound propagation as recording studios.
Our advice focuses first on the room itself, and only then on suitable equipment such as loudspeakers or amplifiers. Often, a suggestion during the initial free consultation is enough to improve music playback without buying anything new.
Speaker Boundary Interference Response (SBIR)
In recent years, a number of fundamental problems with music playback in rooms have become more widely recognised. Awareness of room modes, reverberation and flutter echoes has steadily grown, and an industry dedicated to acoustic treatment has emerged. Yet loudspeaker placement has received too little attention as a potential source of problems.
The reason is clear: there is no money to be made from advice on correct placement. There is also a problem that even the most careful placement cannot solve: phase cancellation in the bass range caused by the distance between a loudspeaker and the wall behind it, known as Speaker Boundary Interference Response. This cancellation, or destructive interference, always occurs with omnidirectional radiation. Almost all loudspeaker types radiate signals below 200 Hz omnidirectionally. Cancellation occurs when the distance is one quarter of the wavelength. For example, a loudspeaker placed 85 cm from the wall produces a deep dip at the frequency whose wavelength is four times that distance: 3.4 m, corresponding to 100 Hz.
The closer the loudspeaker is to the wall, the higher the cancellation frequency, moving into the lower midrange. At the same time, low-frequency reinforcement occurs, which adversely affects the transient response of most loudspeakers, alongside the dip in the lower midrange. Apart from selected sealed systems mounted directly on the wall and cardioid systems, there is only one bass principle that prevents the SBIR effect: the bass dipole. Its rearward radiation is out of phase, preventing coupling with the rear wall and allowing the forward signal to reach the listening position without interference.