Eric Carmichel wrote: ... > I intend to use two > hexagonal arrays of small-sized loudspeakers (a bit larger than the 3-inch > coned Genelecs, but not much more so). ... > Because four speakers can provide > adequate surround sound, my intent is to frequency-divide the B-formatted > signal and send the highs and lows to their respective feeds via > ?conventional? Ambisonic decoding. To be clearer, I will digitally filter > the B-format signal so that each of its four components (W, X, Y and Z) are > divided into a high and low-frequency signal component. The low-frequency > components will be decoded and sent to the square (and likely horizontal) > array of four subs. The highs will be decoded based on the position of > the 12 ?full-range? speakers. I use full-range loosely here because the > added bass channels aren?t for enhancement, but to alleviate the 12 speakers > from their low-end duty.
Driving your 12 speakers from only a single-band "energy" decoder may be a problem. For a conventional Ambisonic decoder, the "crossover" frequency is 700 Hz. This corresponds to a wavelength which is twice the distance between your ears, and is where you ear/brain switches from phase/time cues for localisation to amplitude cues. However, in practical domestic decoders, the transition frequency is lowered to 400 Hz to better accommodate off-centre listeners. Also, in large area decoders, the transition frequency is often ignored, and a single-band "energy" decoder used. This transition frequency is well above the typical crossover frequency used with subs. Whether this is a problem for you depends on the size of the venue as well as the frequency range of your 12 "full-range" speakers. It is possible you may have to drive the 12 speakers from a dual-band decoder. Regards, Martin -- Martin J Leese E-mail: martin.leese stanfordalumni.org Web: http://members.tripod.com/martin_leese/ _______________________________________________ Sursound mailing list Sursound@music.vt.edu https://mail.music.vt.edu/mailman/listinfo/sursound
