My recollection is that it is a tetrahedral array , capturing all three dimensions .
Re-birth of Ambisonics and Soundfield Microphones?
- Thread starter Bonzodog
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Correct. The 4 raw signals from the cardioid capsules are the A-format bit. The mic sensitivities are equalised across the whole spectrum and combined using simple linear combinations to produce the 4 B-format (WXYZ, spherical) signals for 3D. These signals are combined in the decoder to generate loudspeaker feeds according to their relative physical positions to reproduce the original sound field. Appropriate psychoacoustic optimisation and distance compensation at LF deal with the way humans determine directions across most of the frequency range.
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I’m with you on the ESL63s, of which I have 2 pairs in an ambisonic setup.
On the room effect, I suppose it depends a bit on whether you prefer your own listening room to fill in a sense of ambience or instead on the recording carrying the whole sound field and reproducing it accurately without much contribution from the listening room.
You were a couple of years ahead of me, my first year as an Electronics student was 1976!
Soundfield
1K Club - QQ Shooting Star
And I slotted in between the two of you, starting in 1975! Blimey, where did all those years go?
So Then the CBS Ghent mike was a better or simpler encoding microphone setup for achieving a matrix encoded program.
And In this case SQ encoded .
Also it could be enhanced (the SQ program) with the addition of "The London Box".
And In this case SQ encoded .
Also it could be enhanced (the SQ program) with the addition of "The London Box".
BTW here's a pic of a new Soundfield Ambisonic mic. From SOS Magazine Jan 2022.
The Rode NT-SF1.
So was mine , but my interest in Hi-Fi and working in the Hi-Fi shop predated that by a couple of years
I'm 64 now , guess you guys are around the same
Since most of my records are 2ch stereo , my system is set up for that ( actually , I'm between homes right now ( staying in my late mother's home which is now sold ) and my good system is sitting in the dining room , packed up in its boxes , but I get into my new house on 19th April , so I look forward to getting set up again ) . However there is no way I could set up two sets of ESLs in my new room since one end of it will be my home office , although the listening area will be something like 12ft square , at least having the back end of it open into another area should avoid standing waves , I will still need to experiment with rugs on the laminate flooring and curtains at each end to dampen it down somewhat . More important matters will include creating a driveway down the side of the house , and building a garage out back , once my finances recover from buying the place !
Yep I'm 64, graduated in 1979
scary
Soundfield
1K Club - QQ Shooting Star
No I'm only 41 (well in hexadecimal anyway).
Not wishing to hijack this thread too much further , but in preparation for the hi-fi installation in my new house , the question of getting a decent FM antenna for my tuner has been on my mind .
At my last house , I had an Antiference FM264 ( 6 element ) on a rotator ; while this worked brilliantly for BBC radio from Kirk 'O' Shotts ( latterly replaced by Black Hill ) which has an ERP of 250KW , many of the local radio stations are on much lower outputs as well as often more distance , particularly those serving the East , where I originally come from , hence noise free reception can be a problem . The new house is only a couple of miles away , but at a lower elevation , so I will need at least as good an aerial as before , if not better .
There lies the problem ; fewer people listen to FM radio these days and even fewer bother to put up decent aerials . Antiference only make up to 5 element aerials now , J-Beam or Jaybeam no longer exist , so I was hunting around . I found out about a company called Blake UK , who still make FM aerials , up to 6 element , although until recently they did have an 8 element one .
https://www.blake-uk.com/aerials-radio/6-element-fm-aerial-folded-dipole.html
But then , searching on eBay , I found someone down south selling an Innovantennas 14 element aerial , alas it is hundreds of miles away and collection only , so that isn't a good option since the price saving over a new one would be wiped out by petrol costs . However I looked them up , found the website , and they still build FM aerials up to 20 elements ! Much as I'd love to put something like that up on the gable end of my house , my big concern would be windage , given that we have recently had storms with 140mph winds here in Scotland ; however the 14 element is rated to 206mph and offers useful gain over and above the six or eight element alternatives ( up to 17.62dB at 10m above ground , which it will be attached to the gable end of the house on a suitably long mast to get good anchorage , with rotator mounted more or less at the apex of the roof and then only a short mast for the aerial itself ) .
So , if anyone is looking for a really good band II FM aerial for DX reception , these seem to be the people
https://innovantennas.com/en/shop-p...ement-88-108mhz-op-desInnovAntennas shop.html
This will be a job for the summer , when I can either borrow a scaffolding tower or cherry picker from work . I may also stick up a circular omni FM aerial for the rest of the house , and a DAB antenna while I'm at it .
Soundfield
1K Club - QQ Shooting Star
It hadn’t occurred to me that FM antennas were thin on the ground these days. It was big business at one time. Almost every HiFi mag back in the day seemed to carry an advert for Ron Smith’s aerials. Just out of interest I did a search and was amazed to see that they are still in business-
Ron Smith aerials
offering things like their monster Galaxie 23 (just £379!) -
Their stuff was always good, which is why I guess they've survived. Decades ago, whilst still living with my parents I had a Ron Smith aerial on a rotator-
FM array
Luckily I live well within the catchment area of the high power Wrotham (Kent) transmitter from which I get a very decent signal. So I still use one of the old Antiference 6 element arrays you mention, which even in the loft, is more than adequate for full quieting from my Sony and Denon FM tuners and, although theoretically far from ideal, actually also gives me error free DAB reception.
Good luck with your installation (and use the strongest brackets you can get your hands on!)
Pontoneer, you are in a similar predicament as I am. Several years ago I removed my high gain FM antenna to re-shingle my roof. Despite placing the antenna off to the side, where it should have been safe it suffered damage to a couple of elements. I had planed to repair it but by that time it had suffered even more damage. I started to search for a replacement, and found out that all the good ones had been discontinued! I don't remember how many elements my old antenna had, I think maybe 9. Over the years I've owned both an Archer (Radio Shack) and a similar Channel Master antenna, most other antenna manufactures had similar models as well. All are now discontinued! I guess that few people bother with distant FM reception any more! I could only find omni-directional antennas and a few 3 or 4 element designs.
That got me thinking about building one. There was a design in "Audio Amateur" years ago, I dug out the issue and started planning a possible build. I found a supplier in Winnipeg for the aluminum rods and boom material required. The Boom was too large to ship so I was thinking of making a trip to pick it up, then Covid hit. My project was again put on the back burner. If I buy or build one I still have to decide how to mount it, I don't really want it back on the roof. I once bracketed a large TV antenna to the chimney, a strong wind storm knocked the chimney down! Bricks and mortar look strong but really aren't. A small tower is another option but they are also getting hard to find. I guess that most people just listen to their local stations or perhaps stream off the internet. IMHO The stations themselves aren't what they used to be either., which helps fuel my procrastination.
I have a Magnum Dynalab 205 (FM Signal Sleuth) antenna amplifier that works very well in conjunction with a good outside antenna, and antenna rotor.
I haven't listened to those distant North Dakota stations in long while, and the Winnipeg and Manitoba stations only now while traveling in the car. There is a country station across the border in Warroad Minnesota that I used to find very amusing, they ran advertisements to come in get your gas, fishing tackle, bait and six pack of beer for your days fishing on the lake. Although necessary IMHO, the beer part would be more than frowned upon on this side of the boarder!
That got me thinking about building one. There was a design in "Audio Amateur" years ago, I dug out the issue and started planning a possible build. I found a supplier in Winnipeg for the aluminum rods and boom material required. The Boom was too large to ship so I was thinking of making a trip to pick it up, then Covid hit. My project was again put on the back burner. If I buy or build one I still have to decide how to mount it, I don't really want it back on the roof. I once bracketed a large TV antenna to the chimney, a strong wind storm knocked the chimney down! Bricks and mortar look strong but really aren't. A small tower is another option but they are also getting hard to find. I guess that most people just listen to their local stations or perhaps stream off the internet. IMHO The stations themselves aren't what they used to be either., which helps fuel my procrastination.
I have a Magnum Dynalab 205 (FM Signal Sleuth) antenna amplifier that works very well in conjunction with a good outside antenna, and antenna rotor.
I haven't listened to those distant North Dakota stations in long while, and the Winnipeg and Manitoba stations only now while traveling in the car. There is a country station across the border in Warroad Minnesota that I used to find very amusing, they ran advertisements to come in get your gas, fishing tackle, bait and six pack of beer for your days fishing on the lake. Although necessary IMHO, the beer part would be more than frowned upon on this side of the boarder!
Thanks , I'd forgotten about Ron Smith .
I fear the Galaxie 23 would be too much of a wind loading too . My installation will be much like your linked one , on the gable end of the house , with rotator just above the apex . I'm minded to put up a long pole ( something like 20ft ) with two pairs of T&K brackets along its length , and with the upper two using threaded rod all the way through into the attic , with metal plate on the inside of the wall so there is no chance of it coming out , the lower ones will be with Rawlbolts .
Hopefully the 14 element will be enough to receive all across the Central belt of Scotland and , maybe , even some stations from NI as well .
Besides my Quad 77FM , I still have my Sony ST-S730ES tuner , which is very sensitive , and my old Sony ST-88 which I have had since the 1970s ( the matching TA-88 amplifier is still here , and has been in bits for a couple of years after one channel went down ; I decided to replace all the transistors , caps and rectifier diodes since it blows one of the two fuses , but its one of those things I started and never finished . Oh , also have my mum's old Sony system from the 1970s , which has a huge and excellent tuner , can't remember the model no , so enough hi-fi for every room in the house .
Yes , I fear a lot of the stations are not what they were , also a lot of the lower output stations are very compressed to keep their content above the noise floor ; I listen to a lot of them on the car radio as i travel around . It is also true that they are not so independent and many are syndicated , broadcasting exactly the same programmes much of the time .
Soundfield
1K Club - QQ Shooting Star
Yes, Sony made some fine tuners. I have an S505ES in daily use that has not been switched off since I got it in April 1994 (when it cost £215):
Super sensitive and remarkably quiet, with a fantastic array of display readout options, including one which I think was probably unique to Sony's ES range, the accurate signal strength meter calibrated in dBf :
Probably the best tuner I’ve ever had, better perhaps even than my ReVox B760 (which cost over three times as much some years before, but that’s another story).
I know that this thread has veered away off coarse, there should be a separate thread about FM reception but I just came upon an 8 element available antenna. ClearConX 8 Element FM and HD Radio-Antenna. Available from several retailers for about $100 CAD. It has almost 2dB more gain than the four element antenna but much better front to back rejection ratio. I still like the 14 element that Pontoneer linked to though!
https://fishermanshardwareandauto.shop/index.php?route=product/product&product_id=234&tag=Length:+30
https://essexcountyantenna.com/fm-broadcast-antennas
https://fishermanshardwareandauto.shop/index.php?route=product/product&product_id=234&tag=Length:+30
https://essexcountyantenna.com/fm-broadcast-antennas
On topic, I purchased a "Troy Ambisonic Processor" off eBay. It was intended for automotive use. I just need to get a couple of 8 pin male DIN plugs to be able to hook it up. Then to just find something that is UHJ encoded!
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