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All About System Design
Audio Systems create the illusion of real musicians
performing in an acoustic space. A well-designed 2-channel ("stereo") audio
system presents remarkably-lifelike, almost palpable
images that are located correctly in three dimensions. A 5.1 channel ("surround")
audio system, when playing a multi-channel recording,
surrounds the listener with music, even from behind. A Home Theater combines a
high-quality 5.1 channel audio system with an appropriate
video system: either a direct view television or a video
projection system.
High quality audio needn't be limited to one room. Multi-room systems can surround you
with music as you walk through your home. We custom install multi-room
and other systems so that they blend harmoniously into
your home.
Properly designed, a state-of-the-art system can do
startlingly good job of recreating a musical performance.
Properly installed, a well-designed system enhances the
aural and visual aesthetic of your home.
In a well-matched system:
- Synergy between the particular components in the
system yields higher performance than quality of
the individual components would suggest, and
- No one component dominates the performance
limitations of the system; every component is of
roughly comparable quality.
In choosing components for your system, we suggest
that you try to avoid products with highly colored
tonality. Sometimes these products can be successfully
matched in a system by choosing other products which have
offsetting colorations. You will probably find it very
difficult to upgrade such a system however. If you change
one component, the tonality will swing wildly away from
neutral, just as one person hopping off a balanced
teeter-totter will make the other person fall to the
ground. Instead, we prefer to choose products with highly
uncolored (neutral) tonality, so that a component can be
readily upgraded in the future without disrupting the
system's balance.
Avid audiophiles sometimes end up with a
collection of components bought either impulsively or
because "they were a good deal." A lack of
satisfaction at the unbalanced system then drives
another cycle of hodge-podge buying to fix the
system's deficiencies. As a hobby, this product
swapping can be fun. However, if your goal is to
attain the highest possible performance level for
your given budget, then we have found that it is best
to purchase components strategically, not tactically.
Buy components only if they fit into your long-range
system plans, and resist tempting diversions.
We often use the metaphor of a chain to describe
system performance. The weak link in the chain, i.e.
the poorest performing component, will dominate the
performance limitations of the system. When upgrading a
system, you will achieve the largest performance gains by
upgrading the least good component first. When buying a
whole system at once, make sure that you are not
overspending in one area and underspending in another.
Sometimes we intentionally mismatch the components in
a system -- a least for a little while. High performance
systems can be too expensive to buy all at once. In this
case, we suggest buying one component at a time. While
the system won't achieve it full performance potential
until the last component is purchased, this strategy
minimizes the total cost of the system and insures that
the final system is well planned and evenly balanced.
A well matched system will very naturally
reproduce the music you love, with the highest
possible performance for your budget.
How you setup your system will greatly affect its
performance. This section contains setup considerations
and techniques for realizing your system's maximum
potential.
Room Design and Acoustic
Treatments
The acoustics of your room will heavily influence the
sound. Articles in the Room Design
section of our website expound on the importance of room dimensions, room construction,
and acoustic treatments.
The acoustic treatments article discusses the value of
controlling bass room resonances, slap echo, and early
specular reflections.
System Break-in
Very often new components will improve considerably
with use. The break-in period varies considerably
depending upon the product -- from as little as a hour to
as many as hundreds of hours. Your owner's manual may
have specific break-in instruction; if so, we suggest
that you follow them. You can accelerate the break-in
period by playing your system while you're not home.
Using a tuner or a CD-player set to repeat, just start
the system when you leave. Listen periodically to the
system and stop the break-in when you notice no further
improvement.
For speakers, the volume that you use will be
important. For the first few hours, keep the volume low.
For the next dozen hours or so, use a moderate volume.
From then on, use a higher volume with music contains
wide dynamic contrasts. If you are in a hurry, you can
accelerate the speakers' break-in with a special
procedure:
Rapid Speaker Break-in: Place the
two speakers face-to-face. Disconnect one speaker
from the amplifier and reconnect it out-of-phase by
reversing the speaker wires. The speakers will now
cooperate with each other in a push-pull fashion,
which and will break in the surrounds on the drivers
more quickly.
Bass Reinforcement
Independent of the room dimensions, materials, and
resonances, the position of the speakers and the
listening position within the room will influence the
audio performance in the bass region. This phenomenon is
referred to as bass reinforcement.
The wavelength of a sound is inversely proportional to
its frequency; lower frequency notes have longer
wavelengths. At very low frequencies, the wavelengths are
much longer than the distance between the speakers and
the walls. The sound radiated from the speakers reflects
off the walls and arrives back at the speaker
substantially in phase with the original sound. This
reinforces the sound wave and increases the efficiency of
the speaker at that frequency. As a result, the bass
response in the room may be elevated in volume and
extended in depth when compared to the response if open
space (or a true anechoic chamber).
As the frequency rises, the reflected wave becomes
increasing out of phase with the original wave. This
results in cancellation at a certain frequency. This
frequency depends solely upon the distance between the
speaker and the boundary (wall, floor, ceiling) in
question.
All rooms have these effects; they are not a defect of
the room or the speaker, but rather an unavoidable
consequence of listening in a room. Carefully choosing
the distances between the speaker and the room boundaries
will minimize the unevenness of the bass reinforcement
and cancellation effects. Some speakers designers provide
setup recommendations for their speakers in the owner's
manual. We suggest that you at least try these
recommendations to see if they work well in your room.
For imaging reasons, we recommend that you position
the speakers symmetrically so that the left and right
speaker are mirror images of each other. As a good rule
of thumb, also position the speakers so that the distance
between the speakers and the side walls differs from the
distance from the back wall by about one third. For
example, if the speakers are 6 feet from the side walls,
try positioning them 4 feet into the room. Take your
measurements from the center of the woofer.
Speaker Toe-In
Toe-in refers to the angle between the speakers main
axis and the side walls of the room. A speaker placed
squarely in the room, firing directly ahead, has zero
degrees of toe-in. For convenience, sometimes toe-in is
measured not in degrees, but in percent, with 100%
representing a speaker rotated so that it is firing
directly at the listening position. The amount of toe-in
needed depends upon the particular speaker involved, the
geometry of the listening position, and the acoustic
treatment in the room.
Experimentation will help you determine the optimal
toe-in for your situation. As a starting point, please
feel free to contact us with our recommendations; we have
a tremendous amount of experience in setting up the
speakers that we sell. The owner's manual may also have
some concrete recommendations for toe-in (and other setup
parameters as well).
When setting the toe-in, focus your attention on the
size and position of the images. Generally speaking,
smaller, more focused images will require somewhat more
toe-in than larger, more fleshed-out images. Let your
personal preference be your guide here. Also, rooms with
highly reflective side walls may benefit from a setup
with somewhat more toe-in, in order to reduce the
amplitude of the sound reflected off the sides.
Turntable Tips
We still love analog--and we have set-up countless
turntables over the years.
Regarding Basis turntables--if you ever put a new belt
on, the duller side goes towards the platter. And if you
wish to further improve the pitch stability, you may
lightly rub talc into the belt, then wipe off the excess
by running the belt through your fingers. This will
introduce slippage upon start-up, but don't let that fool
you. The wow and flutter are always measurably
better in this scenario. And this is not
irrevocable. If you don't like the slippage upon
start-up, simply wash the talc off the belt with warm
water and pure soap (one which leaves no residue).
In terms of the various tonearms that we have setup,
we particularly like the Graham tonearm because of the
ease of setup. By removing the wand you can work on the
cartridge upside down where you can more easilty see what
you are doing.
And please remember, if you ever move your turntable,
you must treat the bearings properly so as not to damage
them. And anytime you move your turntable even a fraction
of an inch, it must be checked with a level.
When selecting a new stereo system, we usually suggest
that you start with the speakers. Speaker preference is
highly individual. No speaker, no matter how expensive or
how good, is perfect, and different speakers excel in
different performance areas. By thinking about your
priorities, you can choose the speaker that performs best
in the areas most important to you. You might consider:
- tonal balance -- how evenly the speakers
reproduce the audible frequencies. Often this is very
important to our clients.
- bass extension -- how well the speaker reproduces
very deep bass (pipe organ foot pedals, big drum
whacks, and the like).
- resolution -- how much musical detail the speaker
reproduces.
- transparency -- how much the speaker
"disappears," or how lifelike the sound
is. Also, the illusion that the instruments are
right there in the room with you.
- soundstaging -- how the speaker presents the
images of the instruments, including image width,
image depth, image size, and image height.
- dynamics -- how well the speaker plays loud
passages appropriately loudly, and soft passages
appropriately softly.
- width of seating area -- some speakers have wider
or narrower "sweet spots" where the
imaging is best.
- optimal position within the room -- some speakers
excel only when placed farther out into the room,
either from the rear walls, from the side walls,
or both.
- efficiency -- how much amplifier power the
speakers needs.
- visual appeal -- how attractive the speakers will
look in your home, including:
- size -- how dominant the speakers will
look (can be good or bad, depending upon
your perspective), and how easy the
speakers are to move.
- shape -- how appealing the speaker's
shape is to you.
- style -- some speakers are more
contemporary; others are more
traditional.
- finish -- the available wood veneers
and/or colors for the speakers.
- and of course price range.
We suggest that you listen to speakers in an
acoustically neutral room, such as we have in our Waltham
listening facility. In-home listening evaluations can be
very helpful too, particularly if you have either a good
sounding room or a room that you won't be changing for a
while. If you might be moving or improving the room, be
careful that you don't choose a speaker which minimizes
the problems in your room, rather than maximizes the
speaker's potential -- you might regret your choice
later.
Tip: When
listening critically to a 2-channel system, choose a
seat centered between and equidistant from the
speakers in order to hear the best imaging.
With the speakers chosen, you can next turn your
attention to matching a power amplifier to them. The type
of music that you listen to, how loud you listen, the
distance from you to the speakers, and the size of the
room will influence the power requirement that the
speaker will impose on the amplifier. For most
situations, 50 to 100 watts / channel (RMS, 8 ohms, both
channels driven, low distortion) will suffice, although
often larger, more expensive amplifiers have more heft,
control, and refinement to the sound. You may find that
amplifiers sound remarkably different from each other.
Often the matching preamplifier from the same
manufacturer will complement the power amplifier best.
And of course, you might choose an integrated
amplifier that combines a power amplifier and a
preamplifier in one chassis. At certain price levels, a
high-end integrated amplifier may provide the best sound
because of the cost efficiencies of combining the
enclosure, power supply, and so forth. However, you may
find it somewhat more difficult to upgrade your system
later.
Next, consider your source components. Almost all
music lovers today own a high-quality CD player, as many
new recordings are available only on CD. However, many
wonderful old recordings (and even some new ones) are
available only on LP. We suggest that you buy sources for
whatever recordings you love to listen to.
Tip:
If you have an LP collection that you treasure, make
sure that you clean your records before their first
use with a wet-vacuum record cleaning machine. This
will protect your investment in your collection. Also
use a dry carbon-fiber brush to remove surface dust
from the record before each playing, and use stylus
fluid periodically to keep your stylus clean. We
recommend the VPI record cleaning machines, as they
are reliable, fast, convenient, and even fun to use.
We also recommend the Hunt carbon fiber brush and
Clearaudio stylus cleaning fluid.
In the future, you may wish to consider other sources
such as DVD-Audio or Super Audio CD. You should know that
it may be awhile before there is any real library of
recordings available for either one of these new media,
and it's possible that neither will catch on. We
currently recommend these players only if you are
comfortable being on the fringe of the edge of
technology.
Your system will need cabling to connect the
components together. Cables influence the final sound of
your system, often to a surprising degree. We suggest
that you choose your cables to complement the sonics of
the rest of your components. The best-matched cables may
make the difference between good performance and stunning
performance. With our familiarity with the products that
we carry, we can recommend well-matched cables to
simplify your search. Even if your system contains
components that we don't sell, we might have experience
with your components and be able to help.
Your system will need a home -- an audio stand of some
sort. The furniture must accommodate the width, depth,
and height of each of your components and perhaps
possible future additions. Some components require open
space around them (or forced air ventilation) to keep
cool. Overheating will shorten the life of your
components. Also, some components need a stable,
anti-vibration surface in order to function properly.
Turntables and tube equipment are usually quite sensitive
to mechanical vibration, however you may find sensitivity
in CD transports and solid state electronics. Some types
of audio furniture incorporates extensive anti-vibration
features.
And last, the acoustics of your listening room will
strongly influence your system's performance. Think of
the air in the room as the final interconnect between the
speakers and your ears. To get the best possible sound,
you'll need acoustic room
treatment. We can even help you build a dedicated listening room, if
you'd like.
A well-designed, carefully set up 2-channel audio
system will recreate a remarkably lifelike musical
experience. To those who love music, it is truly a
sublime pleasure.
A high-quality multi-channel audio system surrounds
the listener with realistically lifelike sounds from all
directions. These systems are used to:
- Playback movie and surround TV soundtracks in a
home theater (at a quality level exceeding
commercial cinemas, we might add),
- Convincingly recreate the acoustic space of the
room or hall in which music was recorded, or
- Create new musical experiences where the listener
is at the center of the performance, with
musicians all around.
The same fundamental principles of a stereo system also apply to a
surround sound system, except that you need five or six
channels of audio, rather than just two. Obviously a
surround system can be quite a bit more expensive than a
2-channel stereo system of equivalent quality.
In
addition to the usual front left and right speakers, a
surround system adds a center front (or
"dialog") speaker, rear left and right
speakers, and usually a subwoofer. Space and budget
considerations aside, you would have five identical
speakers optimally positioned equidistant from the
preferred listening position.
When cost precludes five identical best-quality
speakers, our recommendation depends upon your
priorities:
- If you will listen to 2-channel stereo music on
this system, and if this listening is most
important to you, then invest in the best front
left and right speakers, even if this means
compromising elsewhere.
- If home theater or multi-channel audio listening
is most important, then invest in a high-quality
center speaker. Use identical speakers in the
front and rear corners, even if this means
compromising a bit on quality.
- If stereo and home theater listening are equally
important, then invest in excellent front left
and right speakers and an excellent center
channel speaker. Compromise on the left and right
rear speakers as necessary.
You may have heard recommendations to use
special-purpose "bipole" speakers positioned at
the sides of the room, rather than regular speakers
positioned in the rear. With the advances in surround
technology brought by Dolby Digital and dts, we no longer
favor bipole side/rear speakers.
A bit of history on bipole surround speakers:
Commercial cinemas need to have adequate sound in
every seat in the cinema. They space speakers about
every eight feet or so around the sides and rear of
the theater to create a uniform surround soundfield.
This setup can create good environmental effects --
the chatter of a cafe, or the echoes of a cave, or
omnipresent boom of an explosion. They cannot,
however, create localized effects -- say of a plane
passing smoothly overhead from right rear to front
left. These limitations were carried over from Dolby
Surround, the older two-channel matrixed surround
format, and home theater dipole side speakers emulate
the speaker array found in commercial cinemas.
In a home theater, however, the seating is usually
confined to the center of the room. Sourced by a
discrete digital format such as DVD, very realistic
360 degree effects can be created at the central
listening position if
directional surround speakers are placed in the rear
corners. We only recommend bipole speakers in home
theaters with extensive off-center seating. If you
are unsure of which setup you prefer, we suggest that
you visit our facility for a first-hand demonstration
of what we can achieve.
The acoustics of the room will also greatly affect the
performance of the surround system. If you are custom building a room, we
suggest that you consider acoustics when you choose the
size of the room and the listening position. The primary
listening position should usually not
be located halfway back into the room as this position
has anomalies that will interfere with the sound from the
speakers.
As in a 2-channel stereo system, the electronics and
cabling that you use with the speakers will greatly
affect the system's overall performance. If you are
listening to movies, the dynamic contrasts in the loud
passages may dictate a somewhat larger amplifier than
usual.
Instead of a preamplifier, a multi-channel audio
system employs a surround-sound processor which:
- Controls which source you're listening to (CD,
DVD, VCR, FM Radio, phono turntable, and so
forth).
- Controls the sound levels and other electrical
characteristics (delay, crossover point, etc.) of
each channel.
- Performs the surround decoding (Dolby Digital,
dts, or others)
- Converts the digital signal to analog for output
to the amplifiers and speakers,
- Converts analog inputs to digital for further
processing.
Surround sound processors vary considerably in sound
quality and capabilities. In addition to the sonic merits
of the equipment, you may wish to consider ergonomics;
some processors are considerably easier to use than
others.
If 2-channel stereo listening is very important to
you, then you may wish to consider a separate
high-performance stereo preamplifier. With the surround
processor's left and right front channels connected to
the preamplifier, the system reuses the front amplifiers
and speakers for multi-channel use. With a
high-performance CD player, phono turntable, or other
source connected directly to the preamplifier, this type
of system design bypasses all the surround equipment
during stereo use. We have found that this configuration
usually provides the highest possible quality stereo
listening.
A good multi-channel system properly setup can
accurately recreate the complex acoustic space of a
music recording, and it can create stunning sonic
effects for movies and surround music.
Also see Surround Audio
Systems above for info on the audio portion of a
home theater system.
Today's variety of different video display
technologies offers a spectrum of choices, each with a
unique set of advantages. To choose the best technology
for you, consider your priorities:
- Price. Some technologies are quite a bit more
expensive than others.
- Size. The largest direct-view CRT (i.e.
television) is at most about 30" wide,
whereas a projection system can be 8 feet wide,
or more.
- Picture quality. Brightness, black level, color
saturation, color accuracy, grayscale accuracy,
uniformity, correct geometry, freedom from
artifacts, freedom from visible scan lines or
pixels, smoothness of motion, and others.
- Your room and lifestyle. Some technologies
require a completely dark room with special light
control while others are amenable to ambient room
light.
Choosing the best product for your needs requires a
familiarity with all the relevant technologies and all
the latest product models. We recommend that you consult
us early in your project. As a general guide, we've
outlined some of the options below. Note that we refer to
high-performance equipment; low performance products have
different profiles.
| Technology |
Price |
Picture Width |
Room Lighting |
Picture
Quality |
Advantages |
Drawbacks |
| High-quality Direct-view CRT (e.g. a
television) |
$ |
up to 38" diagonal" |
lots of ambient light is ok |
Very bright, great blacks, great color, quite
uniform |
Good price/performance. Available in 4:3 and
16:9 aspect ratios. |
Physically big for the picture size. Usually
(but not always) limited in resolution. |
| Direct-view Plasma |
$$ |
up to 61" diagonal" |
quite a bit of ambient light is ok |
Quite bright, good blacks, good color, great
uniformity. |
Flat; only a few inches deep. When custom
installed, looks cool even when off. |
Fixed resolution. A bit expensive for size
& picture quality. |
| Pre-built CRT-based Rear Projection |
$$ |
about 40" - 60" |
some ambient light is ok |
Fairly bright, good blacks, good color,
fairly good uniformity. |
Good price/performance, particularly for the
size. May offer multiple resolutions and HDTV
compatibility. |
Physically big footprint. Physically big to
move and install. |
| Custom-installed CRT-based Rear Projection |
$$$ |
about 72" - 96" |
some ambient light is ok |
Fairly bright, great blacks, great color,
very good uniformity, great resolution |
Best large picture in a room with some
ambient light. |
Requires a small projection room behind the
screen. |
| CRT-based Front Projection |
$$$ |
about 72" - 96" |
complete light control required |
Fairly bright, great blacks, great color,
very good uniformity, great resolution |
Excellent price/performance for the screen
size. Excellent overall picture quality. Takes no
floor space when projector is ceiling mounted. |
Needs complete light control, preferably with
non-white walls. Projector is physically big. |
| DLP-based Front Projection |
$$$ |
about 88" - 110" or larger |
complete light control preferred. |
Brighter than CRT, good blacks, good color,
great uniformity. |
Relatively bright. Best choice for front
projection where complete light control isn't
possible. Easy to setup. Projector is usually
physically small. |
Fixed resolution. Blacks not as good as CRT.
Overall picture not quite as good as CRT |
| LCD-based Front Projection |
Superceded by the superior
technology of DLP. |
| ILA-based Front Projection (a.k.a.
lightvalve) |
$$$$ |
really big |
complete light control preferred. |
Very very bright. |
See column 3. |
See column 2. Also may require an isolated
projection room. |
Tip: Because
of the upcoming transition to higher definition
television, we recommend choosing a product that can
display HDTV signals. Any other choice today would be
instantly obsolete. If you prefer, you need not buy
the digital TV decoder now; you can always
add that later.
There are products in each of the above categories
than have HDTV capability. At the higher performance
levels however, CRT devices have an advantage: because
they can physically draw various different numbers of
scan lines (i.e. are "multi-scan"),
these devices are better able to display all of the
resolution in a true high definition signal (720p, 1080i,
or even 1080p). However, all of the above technologies
eclipse the picture quality of a traditional standard
definition device, such as an old-style TV.
Best Quality Products: For direct-view digital
televisions, we recommend the Loewe and the
Princeton. For the purist the 30" 16:9 Princeton
is the finest direct view picture we have seen for
displaying 720p and 1080i HDTV. For projection the
Runco DTV-1101 is the best that we have seen. And the
Runco DTV-992 and DTV-992 Ultra are our favorites in
their respective price ranges. The DTV-991RP is also
available which is a pre-built 58" rear
projection unit--and it is stunningly good.
The choice of a screen will dramatically influence the
performance of a front projection system. You can select
the screen material, size, aspect ratio, and masking. The
screen may be fixed to the wall or rolled down from the
ceiling.
Video purists tend to choose smaller screens.
Because the light level of the picture drops as the
square of the screen width, surprisingly small
differences in width yield big differences in picture
quality. An ultra-purist using a CRT projector might
choose a fixed screen with 1.3 gain, 16:9 aspect ratio,
and 72" width or smaller. This provides the
brightest, most color-saturated picture with the best
geometry. Also this setup allows the projector to
stay within the performance envelope where the tubes will
last the longest.
Many clients choose an 80" or 84" wide
screen as a compromise between larger size and brightness
when using a CRT projector. While we have installed
screens up to 111" wide, for a picture this large we
would recommend a bright DLP projector or two CRT
projectors side-by-side (i.e. a "double
stack").
Projection systems require carefully planning and
implementation to realize the high performance levels
provided by the equipment. Product specification,
configuration, installation, and calibration can get
quite technical and involved. Of course, if you
visit our showroom, we would be happy to talk to you
about your home theater design and show you the stunning
picture quality that we can achieve.
A multi-room audio system fosters a lifestyle enriched
by music. Such systems vary considerably in flexibility,
complexity, and sonic performance. The system that a
neighbor or friend loves might not be well suited for
your needs. Together we can carefully consider your home,
your lifestyle, your performance requirements and any the
needs of any family members. Then we can design a system
specifically for you.
Please consider the following questions; your answers
will help us design a system optimized for you:
- In which rooms would you like music? And in which
video?
- Consider adding music to any room in
which you spend a lot of time. Examples:
the family room, study, master bedroom,
master bath, kitchen, informal eating
areas, athletic exercise areas,
workshops, and artist studios.
- Consider adding music to your outside
spaces such as decks, patios, gardens and
pools. We have even supplied music
underwater in a lap pool!
- Consider adding music to children's
rooms, guest rooms, and public spaces
such as foyers, formal dining rooms, and
lavatories.
- Consider adding video to the
family room, playroom, kitchen, and
master bedroom. You may (or may not) also
want video in the children's and guests'
bedrooms.
- What performance level do you want in each room?
- Usually the rooms that in which you spend
the most time deserve the best audio (and
video) performance.
- Sometimes one room has an especially good
audio system for listening to music or a
high-performance home theater system for
watching movies, sports, and television.
The other rooms in the home may have
somewhat lower, or dramatically lower
performance levels, as desired.
- Should all the rooms have the same music source
at the same time?
- If so, then choose a "single
source" system, as it will be
simpler and more convenient for your
needs.
- Or do some rooms or groups of rooms
require the flexibility of listening to
different sources? If so, then choose a
"multi-source" system.
Types of
Multi-Room Audio Systems
|
| System Type |
Description |
Best For |
But Note That |
| Single-Source, Single-Zone |
All rooms always have the same music. Turning
on the music in one room will turn it on in every
room. Adjusting the volume will adjust it in
every room. (The volume in each room, relative to
the other rooms, may be adjustable when the
system is installed, but this adjustment may not
be convenient enough to use routinely.) |
A music immersed lifestyle. As you walk from
room-to-room, you can follow the music without
missing a note. |
All the home's occupants should enjoy the
same music and live a similar lifestyle. |
| Single-Source, Multi-Zone |
Again, all rooms always have the same music.
However, in this case turning the music on in one
room (or zone of rooms) will not affect the rest
of the rooms. Each room (or zone) can
individually adjust the volume. Depending upon
the system, there may also be system-wide control
from each room. |
Open floorplan homes where different music
would conflict. Good for providing background
music for entertaining. Good when one of the
home's occupants might want quiet while another
listens. |
All the home's occupants should at least
tolerate the same music. |
| Multi-Source, Multi-Zone |
Each room or zone of rooms can individually
turn the music on, select the source, and adjust
the volume. Depending upon the system, there may
also be system-wide control from each room. |
Homes where the occupants often enjoy
different types of music. |
Sources are still shared. For example, if the
system has 2 CD players, only 2 different CDs can
be played at once. |
| Multiple independent systems |
Each room or zone of rooms has a completely
separate system. Depending upon the system, there
may also be system-wide control from each room. |
Music tastes are completely different. CD or
LP collections are mutually exclusive. Often used
just for children's rooms or for an exercise
area. |
May not be able to play the same music in
every room. |
Tip: When
deciding which type of system would best suit your
needs, temporarily set aside any budgetary
considerations. More complex, flexible systems are
not always more expensive.
Recommendation: We
recommend that you choose at least one room in which
to have high quality music, a room where you can
actually focus on music listening. The other
rooms might have music in the background, and
therefore not demand as high quality.
If you enjoy watching movies, sports, and television,
consider a home theater with surround sound. Perhaps you
might make this your main room for entertainment.
If desired, video can also be distributed to other rooms
in the home, much as audio can. (The design and
flexibility considerations are similar.)
Multi-room systems generally incorporate a control
system so that functions such as on/off, volume, and
source selection can be controlled from each room. A well
designed control system will ensure that the audio and/or
video system is easy to use. We usually place small
keypads in the walls, or we provide sensors the wall or
ceilings at which to point a hand-held remote control. We
also offer radio-controlled systems that use a portable
remote to directly control the equipment using radio
waves, without any sensor in the room!
Tip: Choose
the simplest control system that meets your needs.
Unused features will needlessly complicate the
system.
A word about in-wall
rotary volume controls: These devices
dramatically degrade the sound from your system. They
waste audio power and they interfere with the
amplifier's ability to control the speakers. Avoid
them unless you just want low-quality background
music.
Once you have selected the components of the system (i.e.
the sources, the amplification, the speakers, and the
control system), we can work together to choose the
speaker, keypad, and equipment locations. We will then
create detailed specifications for the wiring of the
system, both low-level audio and video wiring, and any
new 120 volt AC wiring.
Tip: Please
bring a blueprint or a drawing of your floorplan to
your first meeting with us. It will facilitate the
design process and help our understanding of your
requirements.
Tip: If
you are constructing or renovating a home, contact us
early in the process. This will prevent costly
changes later on.
In new construction projects, the in-wall wiring is
"roughed in" while the walls are open and
before the wallboard (or whatever) is applied. We also
generally mount brackets for the speakers and boxes for
the keypads at this time. Your construction project then
proceeds as the interior is finished. Later, we usually
supply grills for any in-wall speakers to the painters so
that they will perfectly match your walls. Then when the
site is clean (and the dusty jobs are complete) we return
to mount the speakers and keypads. Depending upon your
needs, we may install the rest of the electronics at this
time, or later. Last, we program the system and
demonstrate how to use it. If you have questions about
your system, or if you need some changes or additions, we
are always happy to help.
Also See:
Custom Installations
(below) discusses how your system can be best
installed in your home.
Custom Installation n:
a harmoniously-integrated music, video, and/or
control system created specifically to meet the
client's performance and visual aesthetic
requirements, achieved through careful product
selection, clever installation design, and
meticulous implementation.
We treat custom installation as a process. Each
project begins with a careful and thorough design
interview. We determine the your needs first by
listening, then later by asking probing questions. We
suggest possibilities. We discuss your lifestyle -- daily
routine, entertaining needs, special requirements for
kids and guests. If needed we'll visit your home or
construction site. Attuned to your needs, we then design
a system and implementation plan specifically for you.
Indeed, we may design several systems, showing you the
costs / benefits of different performance levels or
system features.
A Taste of What's Possible
To an audiophile with a dedicated room, custom
installation might mean a proud display of electronic
components on beautiful award-winning "art
furniture", highlighted by halogen spotlights. Yet
to another audiophile, custom installation might mean
carefully concealing all the electronics, cables,
subwoofers, and maybe even speakers.
In a multi-room whole-house system, custom
installation might mean a music-immersed lifestyle, with
hidden in-wall speakers in every room, and
higher-performance speakers in the den. It might mean
outdoor speakers that look like rocks, or underwater
speakers for the in-ground pool. It might mean a
easy-to-use, custom programmed portable color touchscreen
control system, or it might mean simple keypads in the
walls.
In a home theater, custom installation might mean the
reproduction of a 1950's era cinema, complete with
burgundy curtains. Or it might mean a carefully concealed
theater installed in a family or game room, complete with
"James Bond" power-activated curtains, blinds,
screen, lights, and maybe a projector that descends from
the ceiling. We even have power-reclining leather theater
chairs.
High Performance: Sounds Great,
Looks Great
Our passion is high performance. In designing a
custom-installed system, we make dozen of choices in
order to deliver the highest performance possible. For
example:
- We allocate the budget carefully, selecting the
highest-performance, most cost-effective products
possible. We don't use "cookie-cutter"
systems that were designed for some
"typical" client.
- We choose design topographies that yield
higher-performance. For instance, in a multi-room
installation we prefer to have a single channel
of amplification for each speaker (i.e. many
small amplifiers, rather than one big, overloaded
one.) Often this costs either no more, or only
slightly more.
- We carefully choose and route the in-wall cables,
thereby minimizing the interference and sonic
degradation. For high-end rooms, we install very
fine cables in the walls and floors.
- We consider room acoustics, furniture locations,
and lifestyle issues when we locate speakers.
Many of these choices are hidden. If we had skimped on
in-wall cables, you would never see the difference, but
you'd hear it. If we had placed the speakers carelessly,
you'd never experience the sound that you paid for. If we
had picked a cheap amplifier, you'd end up with elevator
music. It's ironic; the better we do our job, the less
you'll see it. Like the other infrastructure in your
home, a well-designed and meticulously-installed system
delivers carefree pleasure, even if you never look to see
how it works.
A well-designed, well-implemented control system makes
even the most sophisticated equipment a pleasure to
operate.
Imagine pressing "Play DVD Movie". Watch
the equipment turn on. Notice that the VCR, which
you're not using, stayed off. Lights flicker on the
equipment as the control system selects the right
inputs and sets the right modes. Hear the volume
adjust to your preferred listening level. The
curtains dramatically open, revealing your screen.
The light-tight blinds descend over the windows as
the room lights slowly dim. The movie begins.
But a great control system requires much more than
just the automation. A talented system designer carefully
considers what functions need automating
and how those functions should best be
provided.
The design of a true high-end control system requires
significant experience in software user interface design
and ergonomics. For example, buttons should be grouped
logically by function. Similar functions should be
provided in a consistent location on each screen. The use
of functional modes should usually (but not always) be
avoided. Colors should be chosen carefully, with an eye
toward the meaning (which varies from culture to
culture). Goodwin's High End has on staff a professional
software engineer and designer.
Often a poorly-designed control system frustrates its
user because it affords too much
control. Like a car stereo with a million tiny buttons,
providing control over unused options will hamper daily
use. At Goodwin's High End, we use the
"houseguest" criterion. Could guests in your
home pick up your remote control and listen to music or
watch a movie? Could they do it without any instruction?
Even a simple control system with keypads in the wall
can be tricky. Does "Volume Up" raise the
volume in just this room, or does it change the whole
house? The right answer depends upon your lifestyle and
the layout of the rooms in your home. Did pressing
"Radio" affect every room? What if mom is
snoozing in the Master Bedroom?
We strive to design control systems that are:
- Completely reliable,
- Automate all the necessary functions (no more, no
less),
- Convenient to use,
- Carefully designed around your lifestyle,
- Logical and easy to understand
("houseguest" criterion), and
- Harmoniously designed and pleasing to operate.
Aesthetic Integration with
Architecture and Interior Design
Most of our clients relish wonderful architecture.
They appreciate outstanding interior design. They admire
craftsmanship. And, of course, they love music and
movies. So do we.
As audio / video professionals, we form a team with
your architect, your interior designer, and your
craftsmen. Each discipline brings its expertise and
experience to bear on the common goal: create the best
space possible for you and your needs. Together the team
members propose ideas, improve them, and incorporate them
into an overall design.
Sometimes there are tradeoffs. The best-sounding
speaker might be too visually prominent. Or the room
dimensions might be acoustically unfortunate. Or
wallpaper in the home theater might tint the video green.
In these tradeoff situation, we don't advocate; we
educate. Once we've informed you of the
multi-disciplinary consideration, you can then make your
best decisions.
A few words about aesthetics. We want your room to
"feel" right. As you enter a room, you
immediately see it -- the architecture, the interior
design, the construction details, the lighting. Next,
you hear it -- the sense of acoustic space, the
reverberations, the music playing. You may also smell
it -- fresh-baked cookies or new leather chairs. You
may perceive its textures -- wall surfaces, fabrics,
flooring. Often, the non-visual design considerations
are overlooked. We help our clients create a complete
environment, one that pleases all the senses.
Involve us early
We can achieve the best results and the highest
performance when we have the fewest constraints. Often in
a project, early arbitrary choices -- where a pipe goes,
where a door is, the exact room dimensions -- close off
audio / video design options. We can achieve very
high-performance cost-effective results when the project
is still in the design phase. Once construction begins,
the cost of high-performance rises.
Tip: If
possible, involve us before your architect or builder
draws up detailed plans.
The stereo system or surround system is really only
one half of a complete music reproduction system; the
other half is the recording system. Understanding how
recordings are made will deepen your understanding of how
they are played back on your audio system. To that end we
suggest that you make some recordings yourself. To get
started, simply record a single musician playing an
acoustic instrument in a very quiet room with good
acoustics.
For simple acoustical recording, you'll need:
- two microphones
- a two channel microphone preamp
- a recording device
- a monitoring system--either headphones or amplifier/speakers
Microphones come in a variety of types such as
dynamic, condenser, and ribbon. There are also a
number of possible polar patterns including omni, cardioid,
hypercardioid, and figure-of-eight. In addition
they can be arrayed in various ways including spaced
(often used with omnis), X-Y, and ORTF. Without going
into a lengthy discussion here of microphones and array
selection, you could start with a pair of cardiod
condensor microphones arrayed in an X-Y configuration or a pair of
spaced omnis.
Place the microphones where you think they will pick up
the best balance of direct vs. indirect sound, relative
to the musician playing the acoustic instrument. Choose a
room or hall with good acoustics; otherwise you will
probably not be fully satisfied with the results that you
hear. Set your recording levels so that the loudest sound
does not overload any part of the recording system.
To accurately assess your progress, setup your
playback system in another room so that you can monitor
the live microphone feed. If you have really neutral
acoustics in the monitoring room with low background
noise and a well setup and warmed up monitoring system,
you'll be better prepared to make decisions about how to
adjust the microphone placement.
So you're now setup and properly adjusted; hit the
record button and capture the musical event. When the
event is complete, take the recording back to your
reference system and play it. How well did you do? What
could you have done better? Now go back and repeat the
experience again and again and again, learning a bit more
each time. You will ultimately learn that in order to make the very best
recordings of acoustic music that the following are quite important:
Attributes necessary to ensure a superior recording
Recording Space:
- A
very quiet room or hall with excellent isolation from external
noise (i.e. trucks, planes, subways, etc.) or internal building
noise (i.e. plumbing noise, people walking or talking, etc.)
- A
very quiet HVAC system
- Excellent
acoustics—ideally with adjustable acoustics
- Very
clean electrical feeds
- A
very low impedance electrical ground
- The
room should be shielded from both RFI & EMI
Recording
System:
- Excellent
microphones—appropriate for the particular repertoire,
instruments, and acoustics
- Excellent
microphone cables and connectors—with good, clean connections
- The
best possible microphone preamplifier—with remote control in
order to keep mic lines short
- Excellent
line level cable and connectors--microphone preamp to A-D
(analog to digital) converter
- For
digital recording—the absolute best possible A-D conversion
and word clocking, etc.
- Excellent
digital cables and connectors
- The
best possible digital storage in terms of accuracy, long life,
backup, etc.
Monitoring
Room:
- A
very quiet room or hall with excellent isolation from external
noise (for instance trucks, planes, subways, etc.) or internal
building noise (for instance plumbing, people walking or
talking, etc.)
- Superb
acoustics
- Very
clean electrical feeds
- Avery
low impedance electrical ground
- The
room should be shielded from both RFI & EMI
Monitoring
System:
- Remote
control of the recording storage device.
- A
very high quality analog playback monitoring system with digital
input capability that is properly setup and warmed up. The
entire system should be very tonally neutral, very phase &
time domain accurate, and with excellent transient response.
Technical aspects include such things as: very low
distortion--both in terms of relevant static and dynamic
measurements, rise time, lack of overshoot, settling time, etc.
This is extremely important as at the very core of the
art of recording is choosing, placing, and adjusting
microphones. In
order to make the best possible miking decisions the recording
engineer needs to be able to really hear accurately what the
microphone array is actually delivering.
And in order to hear that accurately the monitoring
system needs to be highly linear.
Essentially a monitoring system for analog and digital
playback consists of:
- Live
analog microphone feeds (essential for making good miking
decisions)
- Control
of digital storage (hard disk, tape, etc.) and remote
control of mic preamps
- D-A
(digital to analog) conversion
- Control
of monitoring levels, mixing, etc.
- Power
amplification
- Speakers
- Headphones
- Digital
cables
- Analog
line level cables
- Analog
speaker cables
- Word
clock cables
- Control
cables
Reliability:
- Power
should be supplied with a very high quality audio-grade UPS
(Uninterruptible Power Supply)
- For
the highest reliability built-in redundancy should be in place
for both the recording system and the monitoring system
Musicians
& Conductors:
- Ideally
musicians who have learned how to play for a recording—and are
capable of a truly breathtaking performance
- Conductors
who can bring out a truly transcendent performance
Recording
Personnel:
- An
experienced recording engineer who can think and discriminate
like a mastering engineer.
- An
experienced producer who can communicate at the appropriate
musical level with the musicians and conductor
Overall
Environment:
- A
musically conducive environment—one which allows the musician
to relax and play up to his or her highest potential.
- And
finally no distractions for the recording personnel so that they
can focus on doing the best possible job without time
constraints or any interruptions.
Of
course the preceding is a synopsis and there is more that could be
written here—but this gives a fairly comprehensive overview of
what is basically required for truly excellent recordings to be made
consistently.
There is obviously much more that can be said on this
subject. And if you would like to know more you're
invited to give us a call.
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