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General Asylum General audio topics that don't fit into specific categories. |
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General Asylum General audio topics that don't fit into specific categories. |
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In Reply to: Please explain "listener's fatigue" posted by newbie on May 11, 2000 at 07:12:16:
As Pat D observed, midrange peaks in loudspeakers are particularly likely to be a source of listening fatigue. Unfortunately, a frequency response curve doesn't always reveal a midrange peak - it could be a time-domain anomaly (resonance) rather than a steady-state frequency response anomaly.Fortunately, these midrange peaks can be detected fairly easily by a simple test. Turn the volume way, way down until the speakers are barely audible. The last sounds to fade away will be the midrange - or, more to the point, the midrange peaks. If the sound is still enjoyable at extremely low volumes, then chances are you don't have audibly significant midrange peaks.
Another source of listening fatigue is the discrepancy between the tonal balance of the direct sound and reverberant field. When the two sound significantly different, the brain has to work harder to integrate them, and this is literally tiring.
Stop and think about it - live music sounds live whether you're sitting down, standing up, moving around, or even in the next room. How many of our killer stereos can do that?
So to isolate and listen to the reverberant field only, turn the volume up a bit louder than normal and walk into the next room. Is there a convincing illusion that live music's happening back in there? When you walk back into the room does the music suddenly "come to life", or was it already alive and just gets louder?
In my experience, speakers that do well on these two tests are less likely to be sources of listening fatigue. If you can find a system in a store that passes these quick tests, invest a few hours to see if it becomes fatiguing over time. If not, you might want to start moving in that direction with your own system.
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Follow Ups
- Some speaker thoughts - Duke 21:51:18 05/11/00 (0)
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