Description

If the goal is accurate sound reproduction from two channels, then there must be an optimum set of room and loudspeaker features. Ideally, the listener is not aware of the loudspeakers or the room. This places requirements upon loudspeaker, room and listener, which are not that difficult to fulfill, but are mostly ignored, because the psycho-acoustics of the situation have not been adequately taken into account. Omni-directional and dipole loudspeakers will be discussed and how they help in the loudspeaker-room interaction. Siegfried Linkwitz’s motto has always been "true to the original" - to reproduce a recording without adding or subtracting from it either because of the loudspeakers or the room. But, the recording technique is often not optimal for creating a believable illusion in the living room. A suitable microphone technique will be discussed. In summary, there is more realism in 2-channel sound reproduction possible than most people will have ever heard. It helped that Mr. Linkwitz was rarely bound by commercial considerations or restricted by market expectations and so was free to search for the parameters that are truly important to realistic sound reproduction. He holds season tickets for the San Francisco Symphony not only for his enjoyment of music, but also to recalibrate himself frequently and to avoid drifting towards a particular loudspeaker sound.

About the Speaker

Siegfried Linkwitz received the Diplom Ingenieur degree in Electrical Engineering from the Technical University in Darmstadt, Germany, in 1961. He continued his education with postgraduate studies at Stanford University, CA, while working for Hewlett-Packard Co. For 37 years he was involved with research and product development at HP, leading engineering teams in the development of microwave spectrum analyzers, radio frequency network analyzers and electromagnetic interference analyzers amongst other projects. He participated for 18 years in national and international standards development for electromagnetic compatibility test instrumentation through ANSI and IEC and served as a US Delegate and Officer on CISPR/A. Since his high school days he had been interested in the electronics of radios, transmitters and loudspeakers. Engineers at HP often collaborated on G-Jobs such as building FM tuners, power amplifiers, or modifying commercial loudspeakers. Out of those hobby projects came in 1975 the Linkwitz-Riley crossover filter. In 1994 he pursued his love for accurate sound reproduction more seriously and became a partner in Audio Artistry where he developed a series of open baffle loudspeakers that used conventional moving coil drivers, called Dvorak, Vivaldi and Beethoven. Upon retirement form HP, now Agilent, and leaving Audio Artistry in 1999, he started to write down and publish his loudspeaker design experiences in the form of a website www.linkwitzlab.com . The goal was to educate on loudspeaker design and sound reproduction issues. Therefore detailed information is provided here for building electronics and loudspeakers according to the best practices he learned in this life long pursuit of “true to the original” sound reproduction in normal living spaces. He has written several papers for the JAES and given talks at AES Conventions, most recently in NY, 2007, under the title “Room Reflections Misunderstood?”(Preprint 7162).

Address

Classroom "C"
Ex'pression College for Digital Arts
6601 Shellmound St
Emeryville, CA 94608

Directions

  Mapquest Directions

When you arrive at Ex’pression:

Parking:
Ex’pression College’s main building is the yellow building on the right hand side as you drive up to the campus from 66th and Shellmound ST. The best parking is on Shellmound. Do not park directly across from the yellow building. It is the IRS building and they will tow cars 24/7. You may however park where the parking lot opens up on the left hand side going south towards 67th ST.