Sound Reproduction

As discussed, it is very difficult to record and transfer a sonic event. But it is equally delicate to reproduce the event so that a listener would have a similar experience in his listening room. The loudspeaker in a listening room is one element in the reproduction chain, but it is a very weak one and determines what you will hear and experience. For many pieces of recorded material this may not matter due to the highly processed material and missing sonic reference. However, an excellent loudspeaker can still convey emotions, the characteristics of live sound and beyond that, you may be able to forget all the technics around the recording and reproduction chain.

But it should not be forgotten that other elements of the reproduction chain also change the sound of the original. The following list show the most important ones:

• Loudspeakers
• Cartridges
• Turntables
• CD-Player
• Amplifiers
• Cables
• Interconnects

Some effects can be additive or subtractive leading to an impression of enhanced detail or smoothed sound. Some effects put the original timbre out of balance, emphasing particular regions of the sound spectrum. The following list show the most significant areas:

• Listening room acoustics
• Lloudspeaker position
• Frequency/Acoustic power response
• Phase response and time alignment
• Behaviour of harmonics and their fall-off under system operational conditions
• Mechanical resonances
• Ear-brain perception
• State of mind