My Ambiophonics Setup

[William Lemmerhirt]

Not a fan of the free Spotify. Half of why I never purchased the pay version.
Pandora was seemingly less (for lack of a better term). . .greedy. Thru Linux, I didn't have any ads through the free Pandora. Don't remember why now. But mostly it sounds fine.

As far as entire albums, I can typically find the HD version on youtube if something strikes me.

I can say, I HATE the ads on Spotify free. Getting what I pay for I guess. Lol

 

[STC]

This is a follow up. To those with 2 channel HiFi setup can use JRiver multi zones for Convolution channels. IMO, this is the easiest way to improve the SQ of your system.
.......

With less than $500 upgrade to my main stereo system for the convolution, I am getting a believable ambience.

First video is the 2L Lindberg sound playing with my system and the second one is Norah Jones with two speakers and current sound. Usually, I would turn the level of the convoluted surround for studio recordings but many visitors actually prefer the sound with the surround speakers. It also depends the sequence of the tracks I use for demos. The videos meant to show the difference. Don't judge it for the SQ even though I think the SQ is acceptable.

And this one. How my sound changed over one year.

Thank you for viewing.

 

[Pogre]

Okay, I watched them both for about 20 seconds. First of all, it's not the same song in both videos , second (and most important) I don't hear anything "different" or ambienced any better from one to the to the other because they're both YouTube videos!

 

[William Lemmerhirt]

Okay, I watched them both for about 20 seconds. First of all, it's not the same song in both videos , second (and most important) I don't hear anything "different" or ambienced any better from one to the to the other because they're both YouTube videos!

I don't know what you're talking about pogre. It changed so much it doesn't even sound like the same song!

 

[MrBoat]

What is the end goal of the ambiophonics in a nutshell? I mean, is there really 20 speakers?

 

[STC]

Okay, I watched them both for about 20 seconds. First of all, it's not the same song in both videos , second (and most important) I don't hear anything "different" or ambienced any better from one to the to the other because they're both YouTube videos!

It is amazing that you can hear two songs within 20 seconds when each sample was at least 30 seconds.

 

[STC]

@william. +1. It actually changed so much even I was surprised when I checked the earlier sound sample.

Thanks.

 

[STC]

What is the end goal of the ambiophonics in a nutshell? I mean, is there really 20 speakers?

The convoluted surround is not only for Ambiophonics but can also be used with your current stereo setup.

Basically, you are transforming your room to another venue. I am using St.Cecelia IRs each of them are about 2.1s.

You don't need 20 speakers. Ideally, I should add 8 more speakers but my room is small so I have stopped for now.

The most important convoluted sound is the 90 degree reflection from the side. Even with two, you would experience better ambience with your current setup.

OTOH, Ambiophonics is only confined to the main speakers.

And yes there are 20 speakers in the room. Except for my main speakers - Sound Lab electrostatic the rest are cheap HT speakers.

And the amplifiers to drive these speakers are small digital amps that you can buy for $40.

And the DACs only cost about $9 each. These are for the surround speakers. I use Mytek and CrownXLS2000 for my main speaker.

Cheers!

 

[MrBoat]

The convoluted surround is not only for Ambiophonics but can also be used with your current stereo setup.

Basically, you are transforming your room to another venue. I am using St.Cecelia IRs each of them are about 2.1s.

You don't need 20 speakers. Ideally, I should add 8 more speakers but my room is small so I have stopped for now.

The most important convoluted sound is the 90 degree reflection from the side. Even with two, you would experience better ambience with your current setup.

OTOH, Ambiophonics is only confined to the main speakers.

And yes there are 20 speakers in the room. Except for my main speakers - Sound Lab electrostatic the rest are cheap HT speakers.


And the amplifiers to drive these speakers are small digital amps that you can buy for $40.

And the DACs only cost about $9 each. These are for the surround speakers. I use Mytek and CrownXLS2000 for my main speaker.

Cheers!

Thank you for the explanation.

We have different goals. I'm not a fan of immersive sound, perfection, or surround sound. My goal was to replicate a stage forward presence. All that is required is that the instruments sound right with very low mechanical speaker distortion, without cleaning up the distortion that is actually intended or was present otherwise for whatever reason. There is times when I actually want to hear the speakers. I walk up to them sometimes just to hear what's coming out of them and it's great. I'll even wheel my chair between them and give each ear a treat.

Actually, the trend of surround sound, the equipment being fashioned for that realm, is half of what turned me away from the social aspect of the hobby. The nerds had managed to sterilize it to something ultimately clinical.

My room, for some reason, is accommodating to this end. Although, it would likely horrify the true audiophile, whatever that is, these days.

 

[Pogre]

I don't know what you're talking about pogre. It changed so much it doesn't even sound like the same song!

I think he took you seriously...

 

[STC]

I think he took you seriously...

Oh., that what he meant. In that case, tell me how you could hear two songs in 20 seconds when each sample was at least 30 seconds long.

 

[Pogre]

I only listened for 20 seconds. I didn't listen any longer than that for both songs.

 

[STC]

Thank you for the explanation.

We have different goals. I'm not a fan of immersive sound, perfection, or surround sound. My goal was to replicate a stage forward presence. All that is required is that the instruments sound right with very low mechanical speaker distortion, without cleaning up the distortion that is actually intended or was present otherwise for whatever reason. There is times when I actually want to hear the speakers. I walk up to them sometimes just to hear what's coming out of them and it's great. I'll even wheel my chair between them and give each ear a treat.

Actually, the trend of surround sound, the equipment being fashioned for that realm, is half of what turned me away from the social aspect of the hobby. The nerds had managed to sterilize it to something ultimately clinical.

My room, for some reason, is accommodating to this end. Although, it would likely horrify the true audiophile, whatever that is, these days.

Our goals are the same. Surround convolution and surround sound is two different things.

The idea of adding convolution surround speakers is not create direct sound but to reproduce the ambience.

The soundstage is always at the front with Ambiophonics unless you have music recorded around you like in some 2L Lindberg recordings.

This is not an artificial soundstage but just retrieving the hidden 3D cues in the standard stereo recordings.

The soundstage and surround ambience are two different description of the sound.

 

[Pogre]

I get the point of it, and I'd love an opportunity to give it a listen even if I never plan to do it. The cost in speakers alone is enough to make me decide against that.

So, I'll say it's interesting to me and I'd like to check it out, but there's no way to tell any difference because they're YouTube videos. To me both recordings sound exactly alike. That's because I'm listening to them with my galaxy tablet's speakers. That's what your setup sounds like to me. Like the music is playing on a tiny pair of speakers. I hope your system sounds better than that.

 

[STC]

I get the point of it, and I'd love an opportunity to give it a listen even if I never plan to do it. The cost in speakers alone is enough to make me decide against that.

So, I'll say it's interesting to me and I'd like to check it out, but there's no way to tell any difference because they're YouTube videos. To me both recordings sound exactly alike. That's because I'm listening to them with my galaxy tablet's speakers. That's what your setup sounds like to me. Like the music is playing on a tiny pair of speakers. I hope your system sounds better than that.

Even with the cheap headphones and the first iPad, I am hearing the difference. Without the headphones, in HP desktop internal mono speakers the difference is not too obvious.

I do not have s Samsung product so I cannot tell the reason why you were not able to hear the obvious difference difference.

 

[MrBoat]

Our goals are the same. Surround convolution and surround sound is two different things.

The idea of adding convolution surround speakers is not create direct sound but to reproduce the ambience.

The soundstage is always at the front with Ambiophonics unless you have music recorded around you like in some 2L Lindberg recordings.

This is not an artificial soundstage but just retrieving the hidden 3D cues in the standard stereo recordings.

The soundstage and surround ambience are two different description of the sound.

I managed to use an old school approach for the ambience. Large cabinets and large paper cones. Almost entirely against the modern science and aesthetics of it all. Mostly based on what is possibly my first audiophile exposure. I had an uncle. The only hi-fi head on either side of my family. He started building his system in the early 50's. Had a huge, library sized room full of gear. Names like MacIntosh, Fisher, Garrard, Bozak etc, and another lifetime's (and likely his sons) worth of spare parts to keep it going until he passed. In spite of all that, there was this sound that first struck me when I walked into that room. He was listening to Glenn Miller Orchestra and I will never forget it.

The way that grabbed me instantly is my cue and it either happens, or it doesn't. It's been exactly that standard ever since. The large, JBL speakers I have, were almost there and I mean, just on the verge. These waveguide speakers, OTOH, nailed me the first time I sparked them up. This all based on what my uncle told me many years ago when I first started getting into audio on my own, with what essentially amounts to, if you are unsure of your surroundings or your hearing, "go large and go few." It's been the blanket cure for everywhere I have ever lived and with a lot less money and complication.

Of course, this doesn't win me any awards on internet forums or such because I don't have much to explain about my system, or lack thereof. Having such minimalist approaches must mean I have tin ears and can't possibly be experiencing all that is possible. Of course, my audio nemesis buddy, comes by and says that it's complete utter BS that I have gotten away with what I have with "BS kit speakers" and his crappy, hand-me-down AVR. lol

 

[STC]

I managed to use an old school approach for the ambience. Large cabinets and large paper cones. Almost entirely against the modern science and aesthetics of it all. Mostly based on what is possibly my first audiophile exposure. I had an uncle. The only hi-fi head on either side of my family. He started building his system in the early 50's. Had a huge, library sized room full of gear. Names like MacIntosh, Fisher, Garrard, Bozak etc, and another lifetime's (and likely his sons) worth of spare parts to keep it going until he passed. In spite of all that, there was this sound that first struck me when I walked into that room. He was listening to Glenn Miller Orchestra and I will never forget it.

The way that grabbed me instantly is my cue and it either happens, or it doesn't. It's been exactly that standard ever since. The large, JBL speakers I have, were almost there and I mean, just on the verge. These waveguide speakers, OTOH, nailed me the first time I sparked them up. This all based on what my uncle told me many years ago when I first started getting into audio on my own, with what essentially amounts to, if you are unsure of your surroundings or your hearing, "go large and go few." It's been the blanket cure for everywhere I have ever lived and with a lot less money and complication.

Of course, this doesn't win me any awards on internet forums or such because I don't have much to explain about my system, or lack thereof. Having such minimalist approaches must mean I have tin ears and can't possibly be experiencing all that is possible. Of course, my audio nemesis buddy, comes by and says that it's complete utter BS that I have gotten away with what I have with "BS kit speakers" and his crappy, hand-me-down AVR. lol

In another forum, I pointed out that Bose reflection speakers actually liked by many non audiophile music lover but the response wasn't exactly what I expected.

Music itself is not an exact science and it is possible to get away with many things.

In my earlier videos, one track was mis-timed by 36ms, I can hear it but so far no visitors actually pointed out to me. When I adjust the 36ms difference, some could tell but some actually prefer the delay.

There are many ways to add convolution to your system. Most of them actually adds it to the main speakers which make the sound a little muddy. The method in Ambiophonics pages were made after 40 years research and by respected scientific members.

It is not another marketing gimmick.

 

[Pogre]

I managed to use an old school approach for the ambience. Large cabinets and large paper cones. Almost entirely against the modern science and aesthetics of it all. Mostly based on what is possibly my first audiophile exposure. I had an uncle. The only hi-fi head on either side of my family. He started building his system in the early 50's. Had a huge, library sized room full of gear. Names like MacIntosh, Fisher, Garrard, Bozak etc, and another lifetime's (and likely his sons) worth of spare parts to keep it going until he passed. In spite of all that, there was this sound that first struck me when I walked into that room. He was listening to Glenn Miller Orchestra and I will never forget it.

The way that grabbed me instantly is my cue and it either happens, or it doesn't. It's been exactly that standard ever since. The large, JBL speakers I have, were almost there and I mean, just on the verge. These waveguide speakers, OTOH, nailed me the first time I sparked them up. This all based on what my uncle told me many years ago when I first started getting into audio on my own, with what essentially amounts to, if you are unsure of your surroundings or your hearing, "go large and go few." It's been the blanket cure for everywhere I have ever lived and with a lot less money and complication.

Of course, this doesn't win me any awards on internet forums or such because I don't have much to explain about my system, or lack thereof. Having such minimalist approaches must mean I have tin ears and can't possibly be experiencing all that is possible. Of course, my audio nemesis buddy, comes by and says that it's complete utter BS that I have gotten away with what I have with "BS kit speakers" and his crappy, hand-me-down AVR. lol

You're being modest! I've seen your "BS kit" builds and they look awesome. I'm sure they sound as good as they look too.

 

[MrBoat]

It is not another marketing gimmick.

I wouldn't say that it is unless I started reading the typical hype shtick aimed at the mentality of 10 year olds. Honestly, it does me no harm to just take your word for it. Apparently you enjoy what you are doing. That's what it's all about.

 

[MrBoat]

You're being modest! I've seen your "BS kit" builds and they look awesome. I'm sure they sound as good as they look too.

My buddy has, IIRC, over 20k invested in speakers alone. His wife walked in here and told him she wants their music to sound like mine, so he has to say that. lol


Thank you for saying that. The folks here at AH hooked me up.