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Ambiophonics
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Speech Before The Audiophile Society I want to formally announce tonight that I have perfected a two channel recording/playback methodology that is demonstrably and easily capable of producing a musical reality equally as exciting and realistic as that found in the concert hall, opera house, theater or cathedral. I call it Ambiophonics. Like stereo it is now in the public domain and I am convinced that Ambiophonics in one form or another will some day replace stereophonics and its dissonant cousin 5.1. I would also add that, although I believe Ambiophonics is novel, I would not dispute anyone who wishes to challenge my priority in this technology. That there is nothing new under the sun is not as astonishing as that although many of Ambiophonics' precepts are indeed spelled out in one paper or another, they have still been steadfastly ignored. Lest you think my claim to realism is unwarranted, let me read a few short comments received from Audio Engineering Society colleagues. From John Tolve, Electronic Music Composer, The Dante Project: "If someone were to blindfold and beam me into a concert hall, followed by a like session in Ralph's home, and ask me to choose which was which, the odds would be damn near fifty-fifty I would get it wrong." From Itai Neoran, Director of R & D at WAVES: "During the AES in New York I had the privilege of visiting Ralph Glasgal's Ambiophonics lab in New Jersey. Ralph demonstrated two sound reproduction systems, one being a 5.1 arrangement plus center stereo Dipole and the other being a full Ambiophonics arrangement with loudspeakers from all directions. I must comment that the latter has been the closest experience to a true concert hall I have ever listened to. The 5.1 arrangement was also way beyond the capabilities of a regular 5.1 surround system. All this from a conventional stereo compact disc playing in the input and a processing chain applied in real time." From Robert Morein, Physicist: "I experienced the finest sound reproduction I have ever experienced in Ralph's primary system. I strongly suggest to the rest of you - hie thee ASAP to Ralph's place...it's the IMAX of audiophilia." From Robin Miller, PBS Sound Engineer: "Ambiophonic reproduction is astonishing. I think the best I've heard. As I said yesterday, beyond localization, it achieves reality by the 'believization' which we filmmakers practice every day in suspending disbelief." * * * * * I have just been reading the new and only biography of Alan Dower Blumlein, the primary inventor of stereo and I can say, modestly, that we have quite a bit in common. We both were electrical engineers. We both worked for most of our careers in telecommunications before and while doing audio work. We were both endeavoring to externalize the earphone binaural effect using loudspeakers. Blumlein with widely spaced speakers and myself with closely spaced speakers. Both of us wanted to do something about hall ambience. Both of us patented stereo dimension control circuits that expired before either EMI in Blumlein's case or RCA in mine could collect any royalties. Blumlein patented stereo in 1931 and was killed June 1942 in a war related plane crash long before stereo became commercially available in the late fifties. Likewise, I expect to be long gone before Ambiophonics is commercially viable, unless audiophiles wake up and make themselves heard in whatever way they can. When Einstein said that E=MC*2 he couldn't personally go out and build an atom bomb to prove it. Likewise, I have perfected Ambiophonic theory enough to prove its validity to the satisfaction of virtually every leading psychoacoustician in a position to appreciate the principles involved. But fortunately, as an engineering physicist, I am a little bit more of an experimentalist than Einstein. So I have been able to find enough stuff out there to modify and then use to paste together two systems, one large and one small, which do a reasonable job of indicating what Ambiophonics could ultimately be capable of. Also Soundlabs, Echobusters, and my AES colleagues from the University of Parma and Nokia have worked with me on novel software and hardware to make my demo systems a lot better. But basically, I am not in a position to build an acoustic bomb just to prove that Ambiophonic theory is valid to every critic's satisfaction. It is up to you and others in the industry to put Ambiophonic technology to audiophile use as was the case for Blumlein stereo. Just as E=MC*2 can be used to make Uranium, Plutonium or Hydrogen bombs or power plants, so Ambiophonic theory can be applied in a variety of ways. It can be used as a basis for new kinds of speakers which I call Ambiopoles and new processors, convolvers, room treatments, speaker correctors, and fabulous tweaks that even the most ardent stereophiles or absolute sounders never dreamed of in their sonic philosophies. Ambiophonics can also be the basis for new super realistic two channel recording methods to achieve unsurpassed frontal imaging using an easy to use novel kind of microphone I call an Ambiophone. As hard as it is to believe, where staged sound events such as live music are concerned, a two channel binaural technology and method, such as Ambiophonics, based as it is on proven psychoacoustic principles, can outperform any of the ad-hoc, seat-of-the-pants multi-mic/multi-channel recording methods so far proposed. As in stereo, each audiophile will be able to adapt or tweak Ambiophonics to his own taste, budget, space, video requirement, etc. Ambiophonics is scaleable and, like stereo, accommodates all price ranges but, unlike Dolby Digital, DTS or DVD/SACD surround sound, fantastically optimizes standard LPs and CDs because nobody told these existing two channel recordings that it was naughty to play themselves Ambiophonically. Many of you have heard some of my earlier pitiful attempts to demonstrate that the theory is sound. (pun intended) Obviously I had to adapt what I could scrounge to serve my experimental needs. But Soundlab has joined with me to produce two new speaker types, the Ambiostat and the Surrstat. I expect shortly, to join with the Italian Government to fund a project at the University of Parma to develop better software for Ambiopoles. The adoption by the industry of Ambiophonic sound could lead to a new high-end industry renascence involving manufacturers, publications, record companies and dealers. Our guest speaker tonight from TACT has a DSP platform easily capable of running this and other Ambiophonic paradigms. But I think TACT as well as other manufacturers would need to see a lot more interest and enthusiasm on the part of audiophiles before committing funds to any such product development. Those of you who want to enlist in the struggle or who doubt the theoretical validity of Ambiophonics or who want to hear it again, but in its present improved incarnation, should come to my studio, listen and then decide how you would make Ambiophonics work better in your own home or perhaps how you would disprove the theory. If you believe that the stereo triangle, if it can be perfected, will be the ultimate or that concert hall realism is not a worthwhile goal, then you should fight Ambiophonics in the press, on the internet, and in this club. But if you are ready to at least hope for something better than stereo or 5.1 surround sound, for music, then you can do something by writing about it, (those of you who are columnists) by writing letters to the editors, going to shows like CES and buttonholing your manufacturing friends and journalists, and by posting comments to the chat groups, etc. Incidentally, reviewing and testing products in an Ambiophonic environment is a truly revealing experience. It would be a shame if the secret were to die with me. Finally, I fervently hope that someday your grandchildren will boast to their friends that you were here when I read this little speech. Thank you for listening. |
