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It is all about the ‘Room’, thinks Toole.

Is it the 'room'?

Late last year a book by Floyd Toole appeared, ‘Sound Reproduction: The Acoustics and Psychoacoustics of Loudspeakers and Rooms’. Toole’s background gives him high creditability. He knows what acoustics and psychoacoustics are really about. Hopefully you have read it since it will become the ‘bible’ of the field, just like Everest’s work’s did. I’ve read it twice so far, with many more readings necessary to get all the knowledge out of it. Don’t buy anymore ‘gear’ till you check it out.
This book is lucidly written in easy to understand language, extensively illustrated and referenced. I think it is a must read for anyone that considers themselves an ‘audiophile’. There are some good short reviews on Amazon. Stereophile has also done a short review.

I would be interested in comments of Audiogon’ers who have read the book, at least once.
buconero117

Showing 2 responses by mapman

mapman's avatar
mapman
21,928 posts
 
I haven't read but would say in general that the venue is always the first thing to consider when designing any particular sound.

In the specific case of home audio, the room is your venue and the sound comes from your system. The fast path to a sound you can live with is to first consider the room.

In my case, my system can drive 5 different pairs of speakers in 5 different rooms (one an outside deck). Each room is different and each dictates what speaker designs will work well or not, and my system has to work well with each room/speaker combo.
mapman's avatar
mapman
21,928 posts
 
That all jives with me.

I have my Walsh omni speakers within 2 feet of sidewalls in two separate rooms and this does benefit sound stage width. For more directional designs, more lively sidewalls might be needed for similar effect.

Some people do like their sound to come from in between the two speakers though.
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