Post by Steve Deckert on 09/25/23 at 02:11:40
Not the recordings usually, instead it's the acoustics of the church and the organ itself.
What?
I had an experience today that reminded me that in the past I often found myself wondering why I don't care for at least 90% of all the pipe organ recordings I've listened to...
I've come to the conclusion that it's not the recordings, but probably everything else that is ruining it.
I know of really few pipe organs short of having trumpets pointing down which they never are, that create direct energy in the high frequencies. Virtually everything you hear is reflected energy. It crawls from the boundaries toward you. This gives the sound immense scale. Relative to where anyone sits the pipes are high up in the air projecting .
So today I was listening to some pipe organ music on headphones and stumbled into something that was so texturally and tonally perfect I was having eargasms from $120 headphones plugged into a computer. As I marveled at the sound my mind drifted to what it would sound like in the listening room on any of the speakers in there and knew it would be wrong. Wouldn't sound like this. That of course made me wonder what it would take to get it to sound sound like this!
It can really never work with conventional speakers because they are sound sources pointing at you trying to simulate sounds that point away from you. Only little teasers of placement are available for high frequencies against an absolutely massive backdrop of girth and giant power. The interior space of the church IS the speaker. The room is the speaker. Imagine if you were in the sanctuary and instead of hearing the organ - someone has shrunken it down to the size of a large pair of speakers and placed it into the center of church and then played it...
So the plan was to get the largest speakers we have and pair them with the smallest speakers we have. The largest are the Imperial SO horns that are built into the west wall of the Decware listening room. These were designed as subwoofers. The SO stands for Sub Only. However the response was designed to be usable out to 500Hz or so and then roll off across a large shelf determined by the driver used. Hooking these up to the Zen Torii Monos and playing them full range without a crossover just about nailed it. The highs were a touch recessed as you would expect.
All we needed was more mids and highs. I tried various speakers and was unable to get it perfect. Then that little voice in my head gave me the urge to do the most ridiculous thing ever... use a pair of Tiny Radials! I know it sounds like I've lost my mind but the amount of sound has to be tiny and fast and omnidirectional so it can't be localized.
See the white marble tiny radials sitting on top of the house speakers?
That's funny because it is so true.