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In the Forum: Audio Discussions
In the Thread: Audio Sonar Acoustic Levelling (radical new approach for room treatment)
Post Subject: Audio Sonar Acoustic Levelling (radical new approach for room treatment)Posted by atilsley169 on: 8/14/2012
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Audio Sonar Acoustic Levelling (ASAL)
As an engineer, I’ve been intrigued by the various room treatment systems out there…most of which are sound (excuse the pun). My own 4-way front-loaded playback system is very dynamic…and suitable room treatment is required to bring out the best in the system.

Of late, I’ve been collaborating with an acoustics engineer to merge two applications to obtain the best possible acoustic outcome for my listening environment. This is radical…and as far as I can see, a world first.

The standard application for assessing room acoustics is to run audio sweeps using a mix of software packages….some commercial, some free-ware. These applications will show peaks, troughs, nodes etc. All good stuff. The outcome of such assessment would be to tailor the audio output using either passive or active input. However, the primary function of this approach is to ‘tame’ the output…which may or may not be desirable ultimately.

This is where it gets interesting.

Running a parallel pseudo-military spec sonar signal will provide an intimate acoustic image of the listening area, down to the nearest out-of-place book, cushion or chair. Sonar sweeps use microscopic detailed analysis to map the very imprint of the room. The outcome of this process, is that minor object relocation (or MOR) can dramatically level out the audio signal, thus reducing or minimising the need to alter the output at the source.

I have been dabbling with this now for 6 months…and I have found the acoustic improvements staggering, compared with the standard room acoustic treatments. There are possible patent and IP issues to consider here, so there’s only so much I can say in relation to the various algorithms and devices used…but I’m wondering if other enthusiasts have considered alternate room treatment solutions…?

Andrew

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