Interesting thread, sorry I just joined in. Only a few comments, which I'll keep brief.
1. I agree in theory that the fewer room reflections the better, IF one only wants to hear what the microphones heard. However, many people want to hear more than that, and that is their prerogative. Subjectively, if added room reverb makes it sound more 'live' to you, then that's what you should be after. It's still a free country, after all.
2. The closer the listening room is to the size of the recording venue, the more 'real' the reverb is going to sound, because the reverb delay times match. Trying to recreate a full-blown concert hall sound in a den is not going to work, no matter what speakers you're using. Unless you happen to have a den the size of a concert hall, in which case you can use whatever speakers you damn well please.
3. Most people haven't ever studied room acoustics, and think that adding absorption to a room willy-nilly will make it sound 'better'. Not the case, unless you just happen to be very lucky, and often it will make it sound worse. What is really important is to (1) diffuse the reflected waves, and (2) make the in-room decay time the same at all frequencies. A much harder task, and one which requires some actual measurements and math before pasting acoustic foam all over the walls.
4. In typical small rooms, one of the biggest improvements you can make is to kill the first reflections from the side walls, back wall, floor, and ceiling. It isn't nearly as good as a dedicated room, but it's a lot better than nothing at all. Anyone who has done it will agree-- it makes the soundstage open up dramatically and vastly improves the clarity as well. Strong, early reflections are a very bad thing, far more so than diffuse, later ones.
5. As a longtime fan of the Ohms, I would say that IMO, what makes them so special is not necessarily their radiation pattern, but that they approximate the theoretical ideal of a full-range monopole transducer. Their natural spatial coherence and time/phase alignment is likely the main reason they sound so "right", far more so than their radiation pattern.
Best,
Karl
1. I agree in theory that the fewer room reflections the better, IF one only wants to hear what the microphones heard. However, many people want to hear more than that, and that is their prerogative. Subjectively, if added room reverb makes it sound more 'live' to you, then that's what you should be after. It's still a free country, after all.
2. The closer the listening room is to the size of the recording venue, the more 'real' the reverb is going to sound, because the reverb delay times match. Trying to recreate a full-blown concert hall sound in a den is not going to work, no matter what speakers you're using. Unless you happen to have a den the size of a concert hall, in which case you can use whatever speakers you damn well please.
3. Most people haven't ever studied room acoustics, and think that adding absorption to a room willy-nilly will make it sound 'better'. Not the case, unless you just happen to be very lucky, and often it will make it sound worse. What is really important is to (1) diffuse the reflected waves, and (2) make the in-room decay time the same at all frequencies. A much harder task, and one which requires some actual measurements and math before pasting acoustic foam all over the walls.
4. In typical small rooms, one of the biggest improvements you can make is to kill the first reflections from the side walls, back wall, floor, and ceiling. It isn't nearly as good as a dedicated room, but it's a lot better than nothing at all. Anyone who has done it will agree-- it makes the soundstage open up dramatically and vastly improves the clarity as well. Strong, early reflections are a very bad thing, far more so than diffuse, later ones.
5. As a longtime fan of the Ohms, I would say that IMO, what makes them so special is not necessarily their radiation pattern, but that they approximate the theoretical ideal of a full-range monopole transducer. Their natural spatial coherence and time/phase alignment is likely the main reason they sound so "right", far more so than their radiation pattern.
Best,
Karl