[Andrew Haley]

ST wrote:
On Monday, July 22, 2013 10:20:13 PM UTC+8, Andrew Haley wrote:


That never happens, unless you're sitting in an anechoic chamber.

Sound comes from all over.


I don't get you. Mono sound is just sound coming out from a single
speaker just like a violin or voice. We hear reflection just as the
same whether it is coming from mono or stereo speakers.

No, we don't.

Stereo is a very poor attempt to recreate the real soundstage. In
reality we are not hearing in stereo but real sound emitting from a
single source including all the reflections. There can be many
sources. But all of them coming from various space but from a single
source.

No, they're not coming from a single source.

Imagine a small band with the piano to left, double bass in the
center and the drums to the right on 40 foot wide stage. In order to
recreate the exact recorded playback the best way should be a single
speaker and the exact location of the instruments and play back the
music in mono with each speaker reproducing just one sound of the
instruments.

Nobody is trying to recreate the exact recorded playback. They're
trying to create an illusion of a playback space.

We prefer to listen to sound coming straight to us. That's how we
hear sound in real world. We turn our head to focus on the
sound. Our head will be constantly turning towards the preferred
sound. However, in stereo we fixed our head in the centre and stare
at the empty space between the two speakers know very well that no
sound is coming from the centre but listening to the sound coming
from the side. Is that natural?

When there's a group of musicians playing there are lots of sources,
and the majority of sound may even be coming from the ceiling! Our
brains tell us where the sound is coming from, but as a matter of
physical reality it often isn't. The sonic illusion that satisfies
our brains may be far removed from the actual sound of the performance
space.

Andrew.

Recommended: Sound Reproduction: The Acoustics and Psychoacoustics of
Loudspeakers and Rooms. Floyd Toole.