[Bob Lombard[_3_]]

On 5/26/2013 10:29 AM, Audio_Empire wrote:

While you are right, of course, as you say, to reproduce it with
speakers is essentially impossible (impractical, anyway). But two
channel stereo is what we've got (with occasional musical forays into
5.1 or 7.1 surround - but this experience often includes video and is
seldom done on its own.). 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.

You are /enveloped/ in an egg-shaped chair... hmm; I think that could
be claustrophobic. Well, unless you like the idea of returning to the
womb.

Seems like the same effect would result without the chair. Just have
the speakers in similar positions while listening to a 'binaural'
recording. Eh?

bl