An Introduction to Ambiophonics

[Ambio]

Hello to all,

This is my first post and would like to share my humble "audiophile" journey and the discovery of Ambiophonics. I would like to share and invite others to try it out and provide your feedback.

Basically, Ambiophonics is a method to prevent the crosstalk between speakers which distorts the sound. Once you get the hang of it - the only thing matters in your system is the speakers.

I hope you guys would give it a try and experience a 150 -180 degrees soundstage that our stereo setup would never ever possible to achieve. You could try with your PC speakers by moving them closer about 10 to 20 degrees and place a thick divider ( like a mattress) between the speakers right up to your face. What you would hear is is the amazing soundstage and all the hidden information that were buried in stereophonics setup.

Good luck!

p.s. My Harbeth speakers are placed just 62 cm apart and I sit about 8 feet away. Instead of a divider, I use RACE to cancel the crosstalk.

 

[Tanoj]

Hi Ambio,

this sounds exciting , however i have a question, what is RACE ?

My Harbeth speakers are placed just 62 cm apart and I sit about 8 feet away. Instead of a divider, I use RACE to cancel the crosstalk

could you please upload few pics, that will really help

Regards,

Tanoj

 

[Ambio]

The conch is placed there so that you can get an idea how close they are. Previously, my setup was based on Cardas golden ratio setup for stereo but this gives me shoulder to shoulder soundstage.

RACE is actually the replacement for the physical barrier. As we all know that placing a physical barrier in the room would be awkward. Actually, I was using a Queen size mattress in the early 2000s as there wasn't RACE program. Anyway, it is always good to experiment with the physical barrier so that you know that there is no DSP trick involved in the enhancement. Then you can compare RACE with physical barrier to see that there is no whatsoever loss of resolution by using RACE.

Crosstalk is a serious problem but somehow we got to used it. To get a general idea of crosstalk, think of someone talking to you in front. A single source (voice) goes to our left and right ear. However, in stereo the single voice is now is coming out from two identical channel. It is like two person speaking at the same time. Yet, we somehow accept that to be correct. There is smearing, jittery effect but after years of listening to stereo we are not sensitive to the loss of resolution.

Pls let me know If you find it difficult to get a proper barrier. You can get samples to experiment without the barrier.

Cheers!

 

[Ambio]

RACE is just a program to replace the physical barrier which is impractical. It is good to familiarize with the physical barrier so that you know that the effect is not due to some DSP but physically preventing the opposite channel reaching the ear.

Somehow my earlier message with picture disappeared. Trying again now with pictures.....

https://onedrive.live.com/redir?resid=6CCE0C7BF9C3B1F7!10164&authkey=!AAYSYnL8ijRTnbw&v=3&ithint=photo%2c.JPG

 

[Ambio]

Third attempt...

 

[subro99]

Hi there,

Got a little confused. You said u are 8 feet away from the speakers but here in this picture, the physical barrier is not extended that much. Or is it the picture with RACE?

Long time back i had seen this topic on internet - and there were some algorithms as well. But nobody took interest and probably the website died.

Also please explain the angle stuff. If each channel will cater to each human ear, then how does it matter in which direction the speakers are facing.....

Thanks in advance.

 

[BLASTO]

You cannot prevent crosstalk with speaker setups. Dude, they are sound waves. They travel in all directions.

You need headphones for that.

IMO, You are trying to find the unicorn.

 

[greenhorn]

or maybe two seperate rooms with a man size hole in between for the listener

 

[BLASTO]

Ambiophonics - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[Ambio]

Hi there,

Got a little confused. You said u are 8 feet away from the speakers but here in this picture, the physical barrier is not extended that much. Or is it the picture with RACE?...

That's not the barrier. It is just one extra piece of rockwool which I use for room treatment. I left it there as it did help to correct a slight dip around 80Hz REW room measurement). Now, it serves me as a stand to place my laptop when I use Mytek DAC which works beautiful with Ambiophonics.

The website is still active and his multi million dollar setup is up and running for research purposes. Please visit Ambiophonics AES Paper for more info and get some insight of the implementation.



RACE is implemented in various ways. You can download the free iPhone/Android apps. But let's stick to the physical barrier for now because that is the best way to evaluate Ambiophonics. No tweaks, no DSP, no fancy cables.

Cheers!

 

[Ambio]

Hi there,

Got a little confused. You said u are 8 feet away from the speakers but here in this picture, the physical barrier is not extended that much. Or is it the picture with RACE?...

That's not the barrier. It is just one extra piece of rockwool which I use for room treatment. I left it there as it did help to correct a slight dip around 80Hz REW room measurement). Now, it serves me as a stand to place my laptop when I use Mytek DAC which works beautiful with Ambiophonics.

The website is still active and his multi million dollar setup is up and running for research purposes. Please visit http://www.ambiophonics.org/Tutorials/HowGood_1.html for more info and get some insight of the implementation.



RACE is implemented in various ways. You can download the free iPhone/Android apps. But let's stick to the physical barrier for now because that is the best way to evaluate Ambiophonics. No tweaks, no DSP, no fancy cables.

Cheers!

 

[Thad E Ginathom]

This is very curious.

It seems to aim to make speakers sound like headphones --- whilst the headphone community sometimes try to make headphones sound more like speakers, admitting that they give an artificially extreme left-right in-the-head soundstage.

I don't want to forget that stereo is not the only method or recording and playing music, but it is a miraculous creator of the illusion that a soundstage is presented before us, and the timing changes, masking of the sound by the head, etc, are all part of this. If one tries to eliminate them, are we not eliminating the building blocks of stereo itself?

Anyway, a big yes to experimentation!

 

[BLASTO]

Planning to experiment this weekend.. Using RACE.. Not barrier.. I find the barrier idea stupid..

 

[panditji]

Third attempt...

Hi, what have you placed underneath your speakers and do they make a substantial difference in sound?

 

[Ambio]

Tweeters height

Hi, what have you placed underneath your speakers and do they make a substantial difference in sound?

Hi, a few Diamond Racing Cones and another solid brass cones (cant remember their name). Well.I bought them as tweaks long long time ago in the 90s. But now they are used to bring the speakers tweeters height to my ear level. I believe in measurements and using REW Room EQ, I dont think there are any differences unless your stands are not inert and resonating. Most of the difference you hear are due to tweeters level to your ears. Moreover, my Harbeth bottom surface is not perfectly even and the cones help them to make stable.

There are many cones, Cardas Caps, XLO cables, Acoustic Precision and Hubbell plugs are lying around the room. I started my journey in the 70s and realized that if you have trouble identifying an upgrade or tweak under blind tests than they are not worth spending money on.

Sorry for being so demotivating. I learned it the hard way and it is often not well received. But that's the honest truth after building a dedicated DIY room according Cardas golden ratio, with 12 in double wall (separated by 4 inch cavity), almost all the side surface covered with Roxul Rockwool (built-in) and diffusers that help cutting the reverberation time to 0.28 second. Not to mention, paid through my nose to the electricity board to have a dedicated three phase power supply pulled from the exchange about three hundred meters away from my house with dedicated pole just for my house. All my neighbors are wondering what I do in my house. ..LOL. One phase is dedicated to my system only!! .. I could carry on maybe in another thread. Just realized stereo is just an illusion and will not bring the live experience of being there.

My apologies for being rather direct.

 

[Ambio]

Demo tracks

Planning to experiment this weekend.. Using RACE.. Not barrier.. I find the barrier idea stupid..

Good to know you are going to experiment. I have done more stupid thing then that. I actually had one time placed them in two separate rooms as suggested by the gentleman in the earlier post. ?

Do not install RACE yet. You can use the pre RACE processed audio tracks for your experiment. You can download the original unprocessed files from here and listen them in your current stereo setup. Then download the pre processed files move your speakers closer to each other (20 degrees) and then compare them. No RACE program needed!

Normal tracks to play in your current setup.

http://www.ambiophonics.org/Demos/Stereo/Ambiophone_unprocessed/DuckGoose08_xpt55s_LtRt46.wav

http://www.ambiophonics.org/Demos/Stereo/Ambiophone_unprocessed/Bth9-4_xpt4m39s_+3h_LtRt46h.wav

RACE processed tracks. Play them after moving the speakers closer. You need not do anything else as they are already processed. Some make the mistake running these files again using the RACE program.

http://www.ambiophonics.org/Demos/Stereo/Ambiophone_RACE_cancelled/Duck_Goose.wav

http://www.ambiophonics.org/Demos/Stereo/Ambiophone_RACE_cancelled/Beethoven_9th.wav


More tracks here.

 

[Shivam]

I had tried a physical barrier between closely placed speakers many years back and to me it was the worst thing that i could do to stereo.

 

[Ambio]

I had tried a physical barrier between closely placed speakers many years back and to me it was the worst thing that i could do to stereo.

You are not alone in doing it wrongly. I went through the path as well. If you dont mind could you share your experiment and let's analyze where you could have gone wrong.

Even Kal Rubinson of Stereophile was impressed with Ambiophonics. You can read about it in AVS Forum. That was in 2007 where the Ambiophonics RACE program was still at its infancy.

See here for the opinion of people about Ambio. If you are interested you also read about this year's AES paper submitted on Ambiophonics, SRS and blind test.


Cheers!

 

[panditji]

Re: Tweeters height

Hi, a few Diamond Racing Cones and another solid brass cones (cant remember their name). Well.I bought them as tweaks long long time ago in the 90s. But now they are used to bring the speakers tweeters height to my ear level. I believe in measurements and using REW Room EQ, I dont think there are any differences unless your stands are not inert and resonating. Most of the difference you hear are due to tweeters level to your ears. Moreover, my Harbeth bottom surface is not perfectly even and the cones help them to make stable.

There are many cones, Cardas Caps, XLO cables, Acoustic Precision and Hubbell plugs are lying around the room. I started my journey in the 70s and realized that if you have trouble identifying an upgrade or tweak under blind tests than they are not worth spending money on.

Sorry for being so demotivating. I learned it the hard way and it is often not well received. But that's the honest truth after building a dedicated DIY room according Cardas golden ratio, with 12 in double wall (separated by 4 inch cavity), almost all the side surface covered with Roxul Rockwool (built-in) and diffusers that help cutting the reverberation time to 0.28 second. Not to mention, paid through my nose to the electricity board to have a dedicated three phase power supply pulled from the exchange about three hundred meters away from my house with dedicated pole just for my house. All my neighbors are wondering what I do in my house. ..LOL. One phase is dedicated to my system only!! .. I could carry on maybe in another thread. Just realized stereo is just an illusion and will not bring the live experience of being there.

My apologies for being rather direct.

Wow, you sure have experimented a lot and it's great that you acknowledge most of them don't add anything....Your experiences will enable a lot of people to save time and money on expensive tweaks..

 

[Ambio]

Re: Tweeters height

Wow, you sure have experimented a lot and it's great that you acknowledge most of them don't add anything....Your experiences will enable a lot of people to save time and money on expensive tweaks..

They do add something. But if you cant tell the different out right then why waste time and money? BBBBBBBBBBBBB and BBBBBBBBBBB and BBBBBBBBBBBB Does it matter which is which? Or if I were to take one colour that and ask again after few days would be sure of the sequence?