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Old 02-11-2011, 07:51 PM
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Michael TubeTrap Michael TubeTrap is offline
Michael ASC-TubeTrap
 
Join Date: Oct 2009
Location: Eugene, OR
Posts: 22
Default What's that sound

Quote:
Originally Posted by chessman View Post
As I mentioned in the other thread ....

5) Although I know it's not possible, it seems like the mains play an octave lower than before. I suspect they always played this low, but the uneven decay time was creating a bit of the dreaded "one note bass" which was drowning out the lower register. I actually checked to make sure I wasn't running through the DVD port, which would kick in the subs. They were not even on and I broke into a huge grin.

In short, ASC tube traps are the real deal.
Thank you for the rave review! Over the years, we have found that the result you get with TubeTraps is almost exactly your list of improvements.

I wanted to address #5, because it brings up a very good point about the world of acoustics we have discovered.

What we work on most are the attack transients, at the front of the room. A couple results of that approach:
1. the "one note bass" is a lingering tone, it really calls attention to itself. By contrast, your music is a series of transients, easily drowned out (or masked) by the one lingering tone. Get rid of the lingering tone, and the transients really shine.
2. transients are spikes of sound energy, and according to electrical engineers a spike or transient is made up of "all possible frequencies". That means when your speaker produces a transient (pick a note, any note) it is actually stimulating all possible room modes at the front of the room, simultaneously. Can you imagine a loud bass note that is briefly accompanied by a score of higher tones? That is what a normal room sounds like, the front end with the speakers rings like a bell with every note. Now, take away that ringing, and all you hear is the original note, without the ringing added. Your report that it sounds like it's playing a lower note would make sense. More accurately, your room has had the higher-pitched ringing removed, so now the ROOM is playing just the lower note.

Much of what we work on is noise that is so closely mated to the sound you want that you can't hear the noise, you just hear sound+noise. And you think, "I guess that is the limit to how good this can sound". When you remove the noise, suddenly the sound sounds much better.

Michael Adams
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