Transcript of the podcast “Sound”: Home acoustics and answers to questions

This is a transcript of the ninth release (April 29, 2014) of the Sound podcast. In it, Timofei Shikolenkov and Dmitry Kabanov answer questions from podcast listeners on the acoustic preparation of home rooms, bi-wiring and bi-amping, 5.1 music and the difference between a sound card and an external DAC.

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Timofei Shikolenkov: [Answers the question of how to prepare the room for listening to music] if the room is completely empty, you can easily check [how suitable it is for listening]: go in and stomp, pat your hands, and everything will be immediately clear. There will be re-reflections. When the music is played, everything will be much worse, because the music is multifaceted, there are many different frequencies, and all frequencies will begin to “walk”. Naturally, they are reflected differently, and as a result, instead of music, there will be cacophony. Of course, the room, one way or another, must be "jammed."

Why don't people think about this? Because usually something is already in the room. And this is something quite a lot. In our Russian realities, acoustic systems are usually placed in a room ... or this is a bedroom, now it is very fashionable to make a movie theater in the bedroom. The equipment can be hidden all in the pantry, the TVs are now quite flat, hung on the wall - it does not take up space, the speakers are built-in. It turns out a movie theater.

Despite the fact that the bed occupies 80% of the entire room, still this “sleeping cinema” is a very fashionable topic. If it's a living room or a hybrid room, anyway, there is something there. This is furniture, carpets or carpet, wall decor. It turns out that all this dampens the room, catches reflections. Sound from walls does not bounce so actively, and not from all walls. The global problems that arise when a room is completely empty become smaller.

Dmitry Kabanov: It seems to me that sometimes people just demolish a wall, a ceiling. And the problem arises because of too much space, even if there are upholstered furniture or carpets, they are not enough.

Timothy:Oh sure. Each situation is unique and individual. I want to set the acoustics in the wrong way. Because there is still the opinion of a woman who has an aesthetic component in the first place. This was already one of the issues about the ecosystem , and it is really very important when the speakers need to be put in one place according to the technique, but the wife does not agree with this, because they spoil the view, block something.

There are two ways to solve this: if you do not take into account the installation of additional upholstered furniture or something else, there are special sound traps, from the point of view of aesthetics they are even worse. If a woman lives in the apartment with a specific vision of how the room should look, then this option immediately disappears.

Dmitry: What about the size of the sound trap?

Timothy: The size of a floor speaker, or maybe more. Traps come in different configurations: both rectangular and angular. Some can trim the wall from top to bottom, some are mounted in the corners. They are very noticeable. You can make them invisible, but then the effect will be less or you will have to process and close the entire wall.

But this is already an excess towards turning the room into a studio, where there is no re-reflection at all, so you may feel as if it is “crushing” your ears, this is bad. If you do not plan to make a studio in this room, this is definitely bad! A comfortable sound is when you don’t put pressure on your ears, when you can relax, in fact, for which they buy speakers home. Listen to music to relax, enjoy in your natural environment, in a natural atmosphere. And when we drown the whole room, it [the atmosphere] will be unnatural. The feeling of unnaturalness will crush. But here you always need to keep a balance: the room also imposes certain restrictions, and the fact that this is in the room.

For home use, there is another way, unfortunately, little known in the domestic sphere. But very widely used in the professional field. These are special acoustic correctors, devices that are placed between the signal source and the amplifier, that is, between the network player, the CD player, the computer and the amplifier. A microphone is connected to such a device. And it "listens" to what is happening in the room. The source signal is supplied to the input, the music itself, and it “listens” to the microphone, which is the result. Based on what happens, it corrects the signal.



Example: DSPeaker Anti-Mode 8033S-II Digital Acoustic Corrector

They are sometimes called equalizers, but this is wrong. This is not an equalizer, there is more complex logic, and the devices are very different. There are those that are designed only for low frequencies. A common, basic problem is to “collect” low frequencies so that you can hear the instrument, and not just the hum. There are devices that work with the whole spectrum, of course, and their prices will be different.

As a result, it turns out that such a device is not able to eliminate all the flaws of the room, but it can very well reduce them to a minimum. Then listening will be as comfortable as possible. In the professional field, these devices have long been used and cost crazy space money. Household devices have appeared on the market recently and cost from twenty thousand rubles. The price depends on how scrupulously you relate to this issue.

Dmitriy:Yes.

Timothy: Acoustic proofreaders are a very cool thing.

Dmitry: It really helps not to clutter up the room with traps and will give an effect.

Timofey: At narrowly targeted Hi-Fi exhibitions , and they take place in hotels, each company has a stand with the equipment that it demonstrates — installations, speakers on racks — people stand, show them. Someone comes, listens, sits down in an armchair, people may ask to put their own disc - such is the plan of the exhibition.


Artyom Faermark and Arslab Old School Superb 90 / Photo Stereo.ru

And since they are held in a hotel, that is, in a room close to reality, once a funny situation happened. We brought such a corrector, connected it. We demonstrated fairly inexpensive cool systems and an acoustic corrector. Our system, which cost about one hundred and twenty thousand rubles plus a corrector, sounded, according to visitors, better than the systems in the neighboring rooms for a million rubles. Why? Just because the room spoils the signal. There is either not enough space to equip the room and put all sorts of traps, or opportunities, for example, in a hotel cannot be hung, glued or drilled.

Dmitry: This is alien.

Timothy:Yes, therefore the possibilities are very limited. We traditionally hang fabric on the walls. Firstly, for beauty, and secondly, there is a certain damping effect, plus [then] we used an acoustic corrector. It turned out that the equipment, which is much more expensive, proved to be much worse than simple, but well-assembled things using not yet generally accepted technologies.

Dmitry: Great. The next question from the listener: he expresses gratitude to our project. He says that we have great ideas and direction and asks the following questions: the first is the myths about connecting bi-amping. The second is the myth that acoustics should stand on special spikes. Third - he asks to talk about connecting the wire to the speakers directly or through “bananas”, which is better? What to pay attention to?

Timothy:It’s very good that there are so many classic questions. When we invited engineers, I wanted them to talk about the basics that people lack and have nowhere to take. But for engineers, it is as natural as twice two, anyway, that inviting an academician to a junior school to conduct a lesson will be very difficult for him!

About the spikes: this is not a myth, a normal, natural state of acoustics. Any serious acoustics comes with so-called spikes. Why spikes? They look like this: large above, small below. Thus, all vibrations are suppressed. When the speakers are on the floor, it begins to vibrate. The floor transmits vibration to all other objects standing on the floor. As a result, not only the column plays, but everything else that is around.

Spikes allow minimizing vibration - the contact area between the speakers and the floor is very small, and spurious vibration is minimized. For the floor there are special stands for spikes, their wide variety. There are many nuances. The same Cold Ray, a company known for its anti-resonance products, relatively recently, the year before last, released Cold Ray Solutions - different stands for studs: from small to large, depending on the speakers.


Cold Ray cones [ review , other Cold Ray products ]

There is also the cheapest way - to substitute five-ruble coins under the spikes. But it is very inconvenient. There probably is no point in buying decent speakers and doing so.

Dmitry: And they seriously hold?

Timothy: Pyataks can fall out. It is recommended to use something more or less decent. But if there is absolutely no money, there are also such very cheap spike stands. Sometimes they buy something expensive from us, but they save on accessories. “I'll put it on the coins!” But at some point the coin may fall out, and then the spike will damage the floor covering. Solving the problem will be more expensive.

Dmitry: And more nervous ...

Timothy: Yes, everything is simple with spikes, they are needed. In very cheap columns there is no such story. Usually [audio systems] are compared with multimedia acoustics, and it is designed to play sounds in some toys, but not to listen to music, but this is a different story.

I answer the third question. In professional [equipment] its connectors are perfect. As for household Hi-Fi equipment, the speaker cable is usually terminated, that is, the connectors are placed: either bananas or shoulder blades. Why is it generally useful to use connectors? If you do not use the connector, but use the clamps on the speakers, on the amplifiers, then the cable that you insert there, push, will be distributed unevenly, as a result ...

Dmitry: The contact will be uneven ...

Timofey:Yes, the contact will be loose. It is impossible to twist the cable into a tube, insert it into the terminal and clamp it so that everything works out evenly. The difference may not be very noticeable, but the more expensive the equipment is used, the more noticeable this difference will be, as always. All these technologies affect the sound the more, the higher quality the source is reproduced.

When we listen to .mp3, even on a very expensive system, interference, artifacts that will be heard, will be striking, and everything else will not matter. When we take high-quality material and high-quality equipment, the more serious it is, the greater this difference.

Dmitry: Of course.

Timothy:Not to use connectors, but to use the cable in its pure form is a bad manners. It is possible, but why? There are two types of connectors: bananas and shoulder blades. The blades are more preferable, because in them the contact is more dense. This is also a clamp, but a clamp of a different kind, the entire blade completely enters the connector and is pressed.


Speaker blade type Analysis-Plus BGS Spade Gold

This option is preferable, but not the most common, because a banana is easier to stick and peel. The banana plugged into the connector, when necessary, removed, do not unscrew anything. If you compare the quality of the result, then in the first place there is a spatula, then a banana, then the intermediate option is to insert the cable into a metal tube, insert this tube into the connector and clamp it, and the worst in quality is to use nothing, strip the ends of the cable, twist clamp them.


Acoustic connector, type "banana" Supra Combicon Banana (4 pcs.)

Dmitry: I see. Move on.

Timothy: We did not agree on bi-wiring. A very good, complicated topic, littered on the forums. Speaking about bi-amping, one cannot but say about bi-wiring, especially for those who do not understand what it is.

Let's start with a simpler option. This is bi-wiring. There is one column, there are four terminals on it. Why are four terminals needed? I will digress to explain what is inside the column and how it works. People think that there are wires inside the speaker, there are speakers in front, and behind the speaker there are connectors that lead to these speakers ...

Dmitry: Directly ...

Timothy:In general, yes. [In the understanding of the layman] something else is there, but it does not matter. But understanding what is between the terminals and the speakers is very important. People think that the speakers are different, they supposedly cannot reproduce low, medium and high frequencies at the same time, so they put several speakers in the column and make various connectors. “It is necessary to make not two pairs of terminals, but three connectors to separate the high, middle and low frequencies” - this is complete nonsense!

It is important to understand that each speaker has a range of reproducible frequencies, the range that it can give out, turn into sound, and submitting to it that range that it cannot reproduce is pointless. This is especially true for tweeters. It is impossible to give him a low-frequency signal and, moreover, is harmful to the speaker itself. Therefore, inside the speakers there is a complex passive device, it does not need power - it is a filter. It is called a crossover. The topic of crossover design is very complex and important in the engineering spectrum. This is one of the important parts ...

Dmitry: ... which allows you to make the speaker unique in its kind.

Timothy:Which allows you to generally make a column. Without a crossover, it is impossible to make a speaker system. The result depends on the type of crossover and the logic that is embedded in it, no less than on the speakers. There are very good, popular speakers on the market, a large number of manufacturers use them in their speakers, and the sound is different. How can this be? It sounds different because electric signals reach the speakers in different ways.

The main task of the filter is to protect the speakers from those frequencies that they cannot reproduce. It is important! To put it simply, the crossover can be divided into two parts: for high frequencies and for low frequencies. If we connect with one cable, and the speaker system has two pairs of terminals, the signal is distributed to high-frequency speakers and low-frequency speakers through two different filters.
At the same time, there are jumpers on the terminals at the back of the speaker system so that each unit, high-frequency and low-frequency, receives its own signal. Here lies an important thing or a terrible secret, which few people talk about. The main reason for the difference in sound when using two pairs of terminals, it doesn’t matter whether the connection is bi-wiring or the bi-amping connection is jumpers. If you disable these jumpers, throw them out or replace them, then the sound will change.


Acoustic jumper Cardas CLJP R Bi-Wiring

Dmitry: I see.

Timothy: This is a big secret, cable manufacturers do not particularly talk about it, because knowing this, you can save on cable. That is, instead of taking two cables and separately connecting high and low frequencies to the amplifier, you can take one and additionally quite expensive jumpers, and you will feel the difference.

Dmitry: Seriously?

Timothy:This is the truth that is usually silent! It is important to understand that the presence of two pairs of terminals in speaker systems does not at all make them better than those speaker systems that have only one pair. This is a different approach to design, engineering and capabilities. But this does not mean that speakers with two pairs of terminals can potentially reproduce sound better than speakers with two terminals.

Dmitry: This should be discarded as a criterion for comparison.

Timothy: This is important to understand, because sometimes people choose speakers by the number of terminals. For example, we have acoustics worth a million rubles, which has two terminals. Blaming her for the unworthiness of sound is stupid, because the sound is uncompromising! Choosing speakers in this way is simply not worth it.

You need to understand that there are various approaches to design. You can make two separate crossovers that will work at high frequencies and all the others, separating the sound and filtering the desired frequencies, giving the dynamics what it can “eat and give out”. Or maybe one crossover at the input from two terminals. He filters what goes. Once again: neither one nor the other is good or bad! These are just different approaches.

Returning to the question, I will say that bi-wiring connection is when two pairs of cables and one amplifier are used. There really is a difference in sound, I can’t say whether this is good or bad, because there are different cables. I didn’t want to touch the cable theme, but it’s impossible not to touch it at all - the system sounds different with different cables. Anyone who doubts this, may he come toone of our stores will ask you to connect and hear it.

We will not talk about this in detail, but we can’t touch on this topic, this is the essence of connecting the bi-wiring and bi-amping. We use various cables. When connecting to a pair of terminals, we use one cable, connecting to two pairs of terminals - to four terminals, we use two cables. The result is different. Better or worse? As we said, everything is very individual. Someone may like one option, someone may like another, and someone may like my lifehack option, using expensive jumpers instead of bi-wiring.

In the case of bi-amping, two amplifiers are used. For high frequencies, one amplifier, for low frequencies another amplifier. It all depends on what and how is connected and what is used. On the forums, I often see that they recommend using a receiver for this purpose. I would strongly recommend not at all thinking about purchasing a receiver if your goal is to listen to music. The receiver is a home theater sound system. This is a multi-channel amplifier, it is a special processor and a bunch of various additional features related to the movie.
When people compare the amplifier and the receiver, then the equally standing amplifier and receiver will give absolutely different stereo playback quality. You need to understand that at the same cost of twenty thousand rubles, the receiver will have six amplification channels, seven, or even eight. Configurations are different.

If you want to listen to music, then "playing" with bi-amping connections on a cheap receiver is stupid. It is much better to buy a stereo amplifier for the same money, connect with one cable and get the best result. Again, it’s easy to come to the salon, connect, listen and hear this difference. The receiver is relevant when the main task is a movie. We need a channel amplifier, and nowhere to go.


Stereo amplifier Cambridge Audio Topaz AM5

Returning to the topic: if you want to improve the sound quality of those speakers that are, you can buy another power amplifier and improve the sound in a similar way. This is not a myth, there is a difference, but here, as always, the question of its visibility and the amount of money that can and would be desirable to invest in it. The difference in money may be less than expected.

When we compare the sound of speakers for ten thousand rubles and twenty thousand rubles, we hear that the quality, conditionally, has changed two times, the difference is cosmic, because one sounds and the other does not sound. The more expensive the system, the less noticeable the difference. But when we talk about uncompromising sound, any means are good there, and every additional change is worth it.

If we talk about an inexpensive home solution, when you want to get the sound you like and enjoy the music you like, then you should not play these games. It is worth buying one, but a good amplifier, one but a good cable. If this is an acoustic system with the ability to separately connect high and low frequencies, then buy good jumpers, put all this on good spikes and get a much better result than when buying a cheap receiver and amplifier connected with two cables using the bi-amping circuit. The difference will be in favor of a conventional stereo amplifier.

Dmitriy:Move on. Question from the listener: “Tell us about listening to music 5.1. Which format is better? In your opinion, is it better to listen to 5.1 recordings, for example, of the same Pink Floyd: from a computer or through a DAC, or buy a separate CD, DVD player? How do you like this bundle: PSB Imagine plus Arcam 950? "That's the question.

Timofey: Regarding the bundle. I can tell you my opinion, but I have no specifics, and this is just an opinion. Take, listen and, based on this, do your conclusion, whether it is good or bad, you like, fits or doesn't fit.

5.1 surround music is a big problem. The fact that a person has a question not about where to get this music, but on what to listen to is wonderful! This means that he has this music, and it’s very cool! These are mainly live recordings. There is not much multichannel music. This question arises extremely rarely, and it's great that someone has a similar collection, selection. Although, if the question arises about formats, then there is no selection.

If you have a great desire to listen to surround sound - this is wonderful! But, according to my information, the opportunity to buy discs with real multi-channel sound is small. You can forget about free-standing DACs - this is stereo. When we talk about surround sound, DACs disappear immediately, we are talking about DACs that are built into receivers or AV processors. An AV processor is the equivalent of a part of a receiver that does not have its own power amplifier.

If you need to improve quality, you can buy not a receiver, but a multi-channel power amplifier and a separate AV processor, you get a receiver in two blocks. This is one way. Atoll AV 50


Multichannel Power Amplifier

How exactly to listen? Put speakers, connect and listen. I do not fully understand the essence of the issue. If there is a large amount of "volumetric" music, it is better to listen to it in volume. But it seems to me that this is more for the cinema. If the question is how to do it qualitatively, these are high-quality speaker systems, including rear ones. In the cinema, the rear speakers play a very small role - when you launch a demo, fly something, rustle, explode, think: “Oh, how cool!” The film begins, and for some reason the sound is only in front. It remains to learn how to make films so that there is an effect of presence!

Dmitry: Yes.

Timothy:If we talk about multichannel music, then all the speakers will play a big role. If the question is how to improve the system, how to make it such that it reproduces multichannel music very well, then this is a separate acquisition of a processor and a multichannel amplifier. This will give a lot. It is important where the source itself came from. If the record is simply downloaded, then everything that was discussed does not make sense!

Dmitry: We need to evaluate our capabilities and our selection, how often it will be listened to, how large the collection is, and whether it makes sense to invest in it.

Timothy: In my opinion, it makes no sense. There are so few volumetric music recordings compared to the huge amount of quality music you can take. The question is very individual. I think it makes sensecommunicate in dialogue mode with our experts, and there will be some solution, because there is equipment. There must be a dialogue!

Dmitry: Great. Last question. The listener asks to tell about the difference between the sound card for the computer (external) and the external DAC. On the one hand, these are the same things, but still, as he understood from our releases, this is not entirely true.

Timothy: We spoke about this in detail in one of our issues.

Dmitry: Yes, there was a whole issue on this topic.

Timothy:It is important to understand that there are different tasks. A DAC is a device that is designed exclusively for music, to play stereo, receive it in digital and turn it into an analog. Sound cards, although I do not like this word, they are no longer any cards, they are external devices. They have several other tasks.

Given the presence of the word “professional” in the title, we say that there is a certain profession for which it is intended. For example, for audio recording. We connect a microphone, guitars, multi-channel various stories. The group plays, with the help of a sound card, cards, we record this sound on the computer, so that later we can process it. The card has a way out. Through it you can listen. But the same question arises as with receivers and amplifiers.

You need to understand that when comparing a multifunctional device and a device designed for something of the same class and for the same money, it is impossible to get the same result. It's impossible! A specialized device with a much smaller element base, designed for one thing, that is, narrowly targeted, will always win, ceteris paribus, with an equivalent comparison.

If we compare a very expensive sound card with a very cheap DAC, it may happen that the difference is in the direction of the sound card, or maybe vice versa - the inexpensive DAC will outplay the expensive sound card in terms of playback quality.

Dmitriy:People sometimes try to cheat. Save, something else to benefit yourself. It’s the same as buying a gazelle truck to drive to work in traffic jams. Just in case, you will have a large trunk.

Timothy: Maybe, but there are some traditions, that is, sound cards were before, always have been. And people are used to the fact that sound is played using a sound card. This is the usual way. DACs appeared relatively recently. To believe that there are two different devices that have fundamentally different ways of reproducing sound is not easy!

Dmitry: Therefore, people go to the store with the question: "I need a sound card."

Timothy: There is a problem because they are different shops. Sound cards are sold in computer stores because they are computer devices, andDACs are sold in stores specializing in audio.


External DAC Arcam rBlink

It turns out that there are no stores where both are sold right away to try and listen without acquiring. You can listen to the DACs with us, sometimes we give to wiretap. We have several copies that we can give home for several days so that the person listens and appreciates the difference. I repeat, there is a difference, and it is in terms of quality in favor of the DACs, because these are specialized devices and they are designed to play music. These are not multifaceted, multifunctional devices, such as sound cards. This is the main difference and advantage of the DACs.

If you really need a sound card, you have different puzzles, alright! But maybe it makes sense to buy a DAC to listen to music, because there will be a difference. On the other hand, maybe for you this difference is not fundamental. But if a person thinks about buying a serious sound card, the difference is significant for him, since he is ready to invest money, and not just connect something with a mini-jack to his computer and enjoy what happened.