A Night At The Opera

[haraldo]

This is not about Queen and their famous album ) This is about Oslo Opera House, Official opening today, as we speak..... (or to be more precise, write)

Finally!!, in this country, we get an opera with an architecture that doesn't look like a grey ugly stone brick!

I wonder if there's even more thought going into the acoustics here than Gene's high end room?

They say that they've spent 40Mill $ on the only on the toilets, I can't wait to use them, wonder how many subwoofers they managed to squeeze in there?

Nothing like Sydney Opera House, but I think this is pretty nice
Design by Snøhetta, which also designed the famous library of Alexandria in Egypt.

Regards

Harald N

 

[TLS Guy]

This is not about Queen and their famous album ) This is about Oslo Opera House, Official opening today, as we speak..... (or to be more precise, write)

Finally!!, in this country, we get an opera with an architecture that doesn't look like a grey ugly stone brick!

I wonder if there's even more thought going into the acoustics here than Gene's high end room?

They say that they've spent 40Mill $ on the only on the toilets, I can't wait to use them, wonder how many subwoofers they managed to squeeze in there?

Nothing like Sydney Opera House, but I think this is pretty nice
Design by Snøhetta, which also designed the famous library of Alexandria in Egypt.

Regards

Harald N

Looks nice! Attend often and enjoy great operas. I bet the acoustics though, won't be a patch on the opera house of old. Those modern open span buildings never are.

 

[haraldo]

To get into the serious corner

The Acoustics is said to be absolute world class, amongst the best there is.... if not the best Millions upon millions perfecting the acoustics

Gene.... Eat you heart out Technically, this claimed to be the best in Europe at this stage, with the most advanced equipment money can buy... Guess you'd love to review some of this stuff

I don't think we have Klipsch subwoofers around here :-D

 

[TLS Guy]

To get into the serious corner

The Acoustics is said to be absolute world class, amongst the best there is.... if not the best Millions upon millions perfecting the acoustics

Gene.... Eat you heart out Technically, this claimed to be the best in Europe at this stage, with the most advanced equipment money can buy... Guess you'd love to review some of this stuff

I don't think we have Klipsch subwoofers around here :-D

I have heard those claims again and again from modern acoustic engineers who have massively overspent their clients money and got everything precisely wrong. Go and hear it for yourself and report back!

 

[haraldo]

I have heard those claims again and again from modern acoustic engineers who have massively overspent their clients money and got everything precisely wrong. Go and hear it for yourself and report back!

I agree 100%, I just got carried away a bit there.......

I wouldn't be surprised if the acoustics at the local hi-end hi-fi center is better than the opera house....
The guy who runs that is a genius and he's spent 25 years improving one room, still working... The ting is. It's much better when you experience something that works beautifully than whenever an acoustics project manager claims that this is the best there is... Even before anyone listened in the room

I heard recording of The Wall at "Oslo Hi-Fi Center" that was so fantastic that I could swear it had to be a completely different master.... but no it wasn't.......
You heard Dennis Conner's statement: Well Done is better than well said.

 

[TLS Guy]

I agree 100%, I just got carried away a bit there.......

I wouldn't be surprised if the acoustics at the local hi-end hi-fi center is better than the opera house....
The guy who runs that is a genius and he's spent 25 years improving one room, still working... The ting is. It's much better when you experience something that works beautifully than whenever an acoustics project manager claims that this is the best there is... Even before anyone listened in the room

I heard recording of The Wall at "Oslo Hi-Fi Center" that was so fantastic that I could swear it had to be a completely different master.... but no it wasn't.......
You heard Dennis Conner's statement: Well Done is better than well said.

"Well Done is better than well said." The point made exactly!

 

[haraldo]

"Well Done is better than well said." The point made exactly!

And we agree, one more time again

I can try to check out if they got Transmission line subwoofers (Or anything else TL), there's certainly the real estate for it... In my mind there's nothing like a well tuned TL........

 

[stratman]

Speaking of A Night At The Opera, forget Queen, the Marx Brothers did the best A Night At The Opera!

 

[WmAx]

Best sound? Eh, who knows? Best to whom? 'Best' can really vary, it seems. There is a local college that spent a small fortune trying to get the 'perfect' acoustics for a chamber orchestra performance chamber. The result? Sounds like horse s**t, if you ask me. They diffused and absorbed the majority of room interactions. The live music playing sounds more like a good pair of mono polar hi-fi speakers playing in an over-treated listening room than it does like a live performance.

-Chris

 

[Joe Schmoe]

Although I don't listen to opera, I often admire opera houses for their architecture. The nicest one I have seen in person is in Santa Fe, NM.

 

[haraldo]

Although I don't listen to opera, I often admire opera houses for their architecture. The nicest one I have seen in person is in Santa Fe, NM.

Is this it?

I would rather cast a vote for Sydney Opera House

 

[Joe Schmoe]

Is this it?

I would rather cast a vote for Sydney Opera House

Yes, that is it. I have never been outside the US, so I have only seen the Sydney one in pictures.

 

[Swerd]

Room for optimism…

Apparently there has been a renaissance going on in concert hall design and construction in the past 10-20 years. In the lead has been a newly developed scientific method of designing and building better sounding room acoustics. In my limited experience, it beats the hit or miss methods used in the past.

At least two acoustics consulting companies that I am aware of have led the way in this. They are Kirkegaard Associates in Chicago, and Artec Consultants in New York. There may be others in Europe or Asia. I include their web sites because they have lots of photos of concert halls they have designed or help rebuild. Lot's of fun to browse. I don't know who did the acoustics of the new Oslo opera house, but I hope they used this new technology in acoustic design.

The place I'm familiar with is the Music Center at Strathmore in Maryland. It sounds much better than the more expensive and elaborate Kennedy Center in downtown Washington, which has always been plagued by dull sound. After several efforts to rebuilt and refurbish, it is still disappointing.

What little I understand of what is done is they build a 1:16 3D scale model of a concert hall design to test the acoustics. They also have elaborate computer modeling capability to speed up what is a trial and error process. The hall was intentionally designed to sound lively, even too lively. The room's sound absorption can be altered for an individual performance. If you look at the photos, the upper rear walls are covered by an open mesh, instead of wood panels. Behind the mesh is an 18" deep space that can be partially or completely filled with large felt blankets. Various thicknesses of these felt blankets are on rolls can be raised or lowered like curtains. Also note the suspended plexiglass panels over the stage. They can be individually positioned to passively aim reflected sound to anywhere in the room. The felt blankets and plexiglass panels are all controlled by a computer controlled and monitored system. So in effect, the concert hall's acoustics are easily tuned and adjusted to fit the performance.

The heating and ventilation system is powerful and SILENT. The lighting is also silent.

All I can say is that live music sounds spectacularly good there. Browse the list of sites these companies have designed, if you find one nearby, you just might be surprised at how good the acoustics are.

 

[haraldo]

Best sound? Eh, who knows? Best to whom? 'Best' can really vary, it seems. There is a local college that spent a small fortune trying to get the 'perfect' acoustics for a chamber orchestra performance chamber. The result? Sounds like horse s**t, if you ask me. They diffused and absorbed the majority of room interactions. The live music playing sounds more like a good pair of mono polar hi-fi speakers playing in an over-treated listening room than it does like a live performance.

-Chris

I Totally 100% agree !!!

Also interesting that what some people claim to be one of the best concert halls in the world is in Vienna, Austria, where there's absolutely no absorbers or diffusers anywhere (from what I have heard)........

Yes, that is it. I have never been outside the US, so I have only seen the Sydney one in pictures.

If you only seen Sydney Opera House at pictures, it looks fantastic at pictures, but in real life GODA#####...............####KINGNUNBELIEVABLE