On Mon, May 31, 2010 at 9:50 PM, Don Wilhelm <[email protected]> wrote:
> I believe the key word here is "psychoacoustics". Psychoacoustics is the study of subjective human perception of sounds. It has nothing to do with creating artificial "ear shattering bass" in boom boxes. "In the late 1960s, as a part of ongoing acoustic research, Bose engineers carried out experiments on the way people actually perceive sound. In researching a concert hall, they learned that the great majority of sound is reflected off walls, floor and ceiling before reaching your ears. This research led to the development of Direct/Reflecting® speaker technology." http://www.bose.com/controller?event=VIEW_STATIC_PAGE_EVENT&url=/popup/tech_details/learning_center/popup_3space_acoustics.jsp > A lot of non-audiophiles seem to like a lot of bass - even to the point of > distortion. > Listen to the bass-rumbling of many autos on the road - it drives me nuts at > traffic lights, but for some reason or another, "earth-shattering bass" that > shakes the earth will sell products. Dr. Bose capitalized on that in the > consumer market. I prefer sound that is as close as possible to the > original live concert source, but then I prefer acoustical instrument sounds > and classical music too. The music scene has shifted to hard rock and rap > stuff, which I somehow cannot equate with pleasing musical sounds - but each > to his own, I guess I am just a "has-been" in my choice of music - yes, > kettle drums produce a lot of bass, but it is clean notes, not > earth-shattering distortion (the "fuzz-boxes" used with electrtic guitars is > another pet peeve of mine - just not pleasant to my ears), and I do have a > sub-woofer on my home music system if that counts for anything, but it is > not turned up with the controls "full right". The following sounds like a very non-engineering non-audiophile approach (i.e. crank the bass "full right"): "In 1983 engineering graduate student Ken Jacob enrolled in Bose’s acoustics class during his final semester at MIT. Jacob planned to design sound for Broadway productions. “Within 20 minutes of the start of that first lecture,” Jacob said, “all my plans had changed. Professor Bose connected everything I had learned and put all the pieces together. I said, I’ve got to work for this guy.’” Jacob was true to his word. He became director and chief engineer of Bose’s Live Music Technology Group. In 1994 he unveiled the Bose Auditioner program, a software tool that allows acoustic engineers to hear precisely what a proposed audio system will sound like from any seat in a large venue even before building construction begins. On the day that Jacob unveiled the project, Bose admitted that he hadn’t expected it to succeed. “He let me work on that with a team of five engineers for 10 years—most of the time thinking that it was impossible,” Jacob says, shaking his head in disbelief. Bose says it’s the principle of allowing bright minds to search for answers that was more important to him. “I thought the computational power wouldn’t be there,” he says. “But the problem was tough enough and the team was talented enough that I thought their research would yield something good.” The funny thing was that Bose was proved wrong: The program works today. The program has been used to design public address systems at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, the Sistine Chapel, and even Masjid al-Haram, the grand mosque at Mecca, a challenging environment, full of reverberating marble, with a history of failed audio solutions." http://www.siliconeer.com/past_issues/2005/january2005.html#Anchor--MA-32328 Too bad Dr. Bose didn't understand engineering or acoustics as well as all the experts here (but then he might not be worth $2 Billion today or employ 12,000 people). Apologies to Eric...last post on this OT subject. ______________________________________________________________ Elecraft mailing list Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm Post: mailto:[email protected] This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html
