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Subject: HiFi in the Home subjective comforts
Price: To Infinity and Beyond! (Buzz Lightyear, 1995)
YMMV depending on taste & budget
Author: Mark Wheeler - TNT-Audio UK
Scribbled: season 2024
Apparently Shelfies are a thing.
Shelfies, like most social media things, are yet another opportunity to “Show Off”.
Shelfies are the bibliophilic narcissism of Bookshelf Wealth, and the latest trend on social meeja. Yes, really.
“So what on earth has this to do with audio equipment or domestic music playback” inquire Plebs Chorus, stage left, perfectly reasonably
Having lots of splendid books around our homes is very on trend now.
For audiophiles who really care about sound quality, rather than just being amateur equipment buyers, this trend is a really useful one. For those of us who care what our gaff actually looks like, and those of us who share our homes with others who care, this is a blessing. For books, especially those with hardback covers with that lovely meniscus profile spine, are really good things to have in the so-called listening room.
The living room, as every listening room should be, needs to be as comfortable as possible. In a comfortable room we will enjoy relaxing to, or concentrating on, music far better. If we are relaxed, we can concentrate more fully. The acoustics of a relaxed room are also the best acoustics for audio playback. As we've noted before, the padded seating that makes lounging around comfortable also tends to coincide with room nodes and and antinodes. This renders bass frequencies more evenly distributed about the space. Scatter cushions break up flat even surfaces, thus scattering otherwise bothersome primary reflections.
Unglazed book shelves also have a scattering effect, especially at tweeter and ear height. Here the obsessive tendency to line up the book spines is a bad thing. Arranging books so that their spines line up might satisfy the obsessive traits typical of audiophiles but are inadvisable.
If someone wants to line up your books by height from the tallest at each end of the shelf to the shortest in the centre, please respond: “NO!”
If someone is tempting you to adjust the book depths so that the front edge of the spines all line up, just say, “NO!”
Be on trend with plenty of books, but delight in filing them by subject, author or title, as long as the room facing profile is ragged. If you must be obsessive, arrange them as a 2d quadratic diffuser.
Books are incredibly dense. Books are also comprised of separate sheets of paper joined only at one edge (unless you've been really unlucky). Therefore books tend to be incredibly acoustically inert. Shelves of books are useful acoustic treatment in a comfortable listening room. There are books to suit every taste.
Books are best obtained from independent book shops, just like records and cd's are best obtained from independent record shops. Walk into bookshops and ask their advice, as you might in a record shop. Attend the Wigtown Book Festival where there will be plenty of opportunities to buy all manner of books in exactly the diverse shapes and sizes to ensure a ragged edged bookshelf. There are often used vinyl and cd departments in used bookshops too.
Most importantly, remove any glass doors from bookshelves in the listening room. The specular reflections from large flat areas like glass will contribute to flutter echoes. Large flat areas also create those early reflections that disrupt the phase information important for soundstage. The books will also provide something to help you look busy while relaxing in front of the audio system.
Books on bookshelves in the listening room can be an asset to sound quality. Books are very on trend right now.
You cannot go wrong by encouraging books for domestic harmony.
Music enjoyed while writing this review |
Reference system |
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on vinyl
on cd
|
Equipment heard while typing this:
Extensive and ever evolving acoustic treatment including books, corner bass absorption, high frequency (above 2kHz) absorption at primary tweeter reflection points, high frequency diffusers at other critical points. Some low impedance, low reactance wire is used to join these components together, much of it made up by the Old Scribe from high quality components with Pixie Dust personally mined by the Old Scribe. Mains is supplied by an audio only Ben Duncan 3kVA balanced mains spur main with centre tapped Radex earth (ground) non-inductive connections to a technical earth. Crossover and power amplifiers fed by a minimum connections hydra. All mains cables are screened & supplied from a non RCD connection. |
* Bob Dylan, Idiot Wind, Blood on the Tracks, 1974
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Copyright © 2024 Mark Wheeler - mark@tnt-audio.com - www.tnt-audio.com
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