Audio_Empire wrote:
Again, as you say, binaural is close, but
binaural recordings are thin on the ground. Even though high-end
headphones have become very popular of late, they are still used
mostly for private listening as most people would rather listen to
speakers. There are several reasons for this. First of all, even the
most expensive headphones are not all that comfortable for long-term
listening, and headphones lack the visceral involvement with the music
that you find when attending live musical events and that one gets
somewhat with speakers. Thirdly, while binaural sound does a very
decent approximation of the soundfield, the real thing doesn't move
with you when you move your head, but with binaural, through
headphones, it does. This is so unnatural, that for binaural to give
a realistic illusion of instruments playing in real space, one simply
cannot move ones head, and that requirement makes listening to
binaural uncomfortable with even the most comfortable headphones. The
best way to make binaural work, (IMHO) is with a chair, specifically
designed for the purpose. Do you recall the so-called "egg chair"?
This was a hard plastic egg-shaped shell, sitting on a pedestal,
with a cutout for a person to sit in it. The entire interior was
upholstered, either with vinyl or leather and when one set back in
the chair, they were almost completely enveloped by it. Some had
speakers at ear level on each side of the head, but they weren't very
good. Now, if someone were to make such a chair and install a pair of
very good near-field monitors (self, powered, of course) and supply a
self powered sub-woofer to place in the room with the chair, then
binaural, would I believe, work quite well and be more than
adequately comfortable to listen to.
I don't hold out that much hope for "the chair" (sounds like a sentence for
high end magazine reviewers) but I sure would like to experience Ralph
Glasgal's Ambiophonics system. He has about six large planars set up in his
large room with crosstalk cancellation on the front two and some surround
processing on the side and back pairs. This description may not be exact but
the idea is that it is loudspeaker binaural, in a real room, with surround
processing to help out. There is probably a sweet spot, but at least you
could turn your head and I believe the performers would stay put where they
belong. There would be a strong sense of being there and hearing the full
acoustic space of the original if it was a binarual recording.
http://www.ambiophonics.org/
With the chair it just seems to me that it would be more like the headphone
experience. I think that your ears might just go into and out of the best
listening position, and not externalize well.
Gary Eickmeier