Ethan Winer playing the cello doing what he enjoys most

An esoteric concept like room modes may hold the key to better sound not expensive electronics

The article referenced Is 44.1 kHz CD sampling as good as we can hear in music? contained the interesting claim that a better listening experience can result from moving your head a few inches one way or the other.

Paul D. Lehrman quotes Ethan Winer who is an iconoclast in the sound and music business.

Ethan is a very generous man who, along with owning Real Traps a company that makes sound treatment products, is very active on the Internet educating and discussing accoustics. He seems to be everywhere spreading the gospel of better sound.

In an article on his Website (www.ethanwiner.com), Winer points out that in a typical room, moving one’s head or listening position as little as four inches can result in huge changes in the frequency-response curves one is hearing. What could be a 10dB dip in one spot at one frequency could be a 6dB boost a couple of inches away. These wide variations are caused primarily by comb-filtering effects from the speakers and from the various reflections bouncing around the room, which are present no matter how well the room is acoustically treated. Winer blames this phenomenon for most of the unquantifiable differences people report hearing when they are testing high-end gear.

He writes, “I am convinced that comb filtering is at the root of people reporting a change in the sound of cables and electronics, even when no significant change is likely. If someone listens to their system using one pair of cables, then gets up and switches cables and sits down again, the frequency response heard is sure to be very different because it’s impossible to sit down again in exactly the same place. So the sound really did change, but probably not because the cables sound different!”

I have been reading Ethan Winer for years but never quite figured what he meant until today. Ethan believes the bass must be trapped and deadened in a room for good sound.

We have been conditioned to believe that more bass is better. That is why we purchase sub-woofers. Actually what we are hearing is louder bass that sounds thumpy but not musical, that it’s harder to distinguish the actual notes and harmonics of the bass.

It clicked with me yesterday when I was listening to Bob Dylan’s Blood on the Tracks.

The bass seemed to have great definition, like I could hear the bass string buzz. The note were articulate not thud thud.

The difference in my listening environment was the double doors were open making the TV room and studio one big 12 x 29 foot room, not a little 12 x 13 room.

With a simple act I had changed the acoustics of the TV room for the better.

Tomorrow – Better sound room with modes for dummies