The large lab at Ambiophonics Institute houses the initial experimental no- compromise, high-end, 3D Ambiophonic system featuring front and dual rear full range SoundLab electrostatic Ambiodipoles, and electronics for the system's 30 speaker channels. Shown are some of the 24 SoundLab Surrstat electrostatic ambience speakers being driven by convolvers using real stored concert-hall impulse responses, thus allowing Panorambiophonic reproduction of most existing stereo CDs or LPs. A video projector and parabolic screen allow 5.1 operas, concerts and movie soundtracks to likewise be reproduced Ambiophonically with full circle localization of direct sound dialog and effects.

Getting Ambiophonic's psychoacoustic benefits even on a budget in a small room.  The affordable listening room at Ambiophonics Institute uses Bose AM-5 satellite front Ambiodipole/subwoofer, and LCD display. Not shown are the two AM-5 satellites used as the back Ambiodipole for full surround true 360 degree localization of all movie direct sound sources.

Introduction

The home stereo and 5.1 reproduction arrangement that we are all familiar with is psychoacoustically flawed.  There is simply no way conventional stereo or 5.1 can recreate the panoramic spread and depth of sound we hear in concert halls, churches, theaters, or rock concerts.  With Ambiophonic sound reproduction, however, you really can be there.

For example, 2 microphones spaced 7 inches apart will capture a time difference of about 700 microseconds for a side source and this is what will be stored on the LP or CD; but when played back stereophonically this time delay will be reduced to about 220 microseconds and such a source will no longer be heard at the far side. Siimilarly, the level differences picked up by mics or pan and stored on disks or in files is similarly reduced during stereo reproduction so that a sound originally recorded at 90 degrees is now heard at 30 degrees.

Recovering this hitherto hidden localization data in ones existing library is what makes Ambiophonic listening siuch an adventure.

Tabs are provided to assist users with any degree of technical sophistication or lack thereof.  Whether you are component oriented or are skilled in the use of PCs or MACs, we hope you will want to try Ambiophonics.  Use the technology you are most comfortable with.  There are also sample music and movie clips that you can listen to and/or watch to get a bit of an idea of how Ambiophonics compares to stereophonics.

We hope that when you do have your own Ambiophonic system going that you will let friends, manufacturers, media outlets, blogs, and forums learn of your experience.

Getting Started

The Ambiophonic method achieves exceptionally realistic reproduction of staged, acoustically or electronically generated music especially from the existing library of two-channel sources such as CDs or LPs.  Ambiophonic reproduction of most such existing recordings will outperform any existing or proposed surround, multichannel recording or reproduction system for music, video, or games.

The material here should lead to a better understanding of some under-appreciated characteristics of the human ear and provide a better sense of what binaural or concert-hall sound fields consist of, so that listening rooms can reproduce sonic events with consistent and unprecedented realism even when using the vast library of already existing two-channel recordings. The authors anticipate that not everyone will want or be able to implement all of the Ambiophonic paradigms but even employing one of these suggestions will increase the perceived realism of the reproduced sound. It is hoped that, over the years, audiophiles, equipment designers, sound/video recording engineers and magazine editors will come to better understand the goals and acoustical principles involved and apply them in the future to their own products, systems and reviews. Click here for a quick start tutorial.

What is Ambiophonics?

The Ambiophonics method combines an exploitation of seldom applied, but well documented, psychoacoustic principles with the basic rules of good musical performance space design to create believable concert-hall sound fields in dedicated home listening rooms. Ambiophonics moves the listener into the same space as the performers, by accommodating to individual external ear and head characteristics, minimizing interaural correlation at the listening positions, abandoning the traditional stereo loudspeaker equilateral triangle, recreating early reflections and reverberant fields via computer, and eliminating front-loudspeaker crosstalk. The Ambiophonic sound reproducing technique is a worthy successor to both stereophonic or surround-sound listening configurations, in that it can consistently generate a "You Are There" sound field even from standard LPs, DVDs or CDs that the ear-brain system will accept as real.

Ambiophonic Recording

Recording engineers should note that an Ambiophone 2/4 channel mic array has been designed to make 2 or 4 channel recordings that can reliably provide 180 degree or 360 degree direct sound localization anywhere in the horizontal plane. See RecEngineering Corner for details.

Protopype of new 4.0 Ambiophone

First Commercial Product!

Ambiophonics by TacT

TacT Audio has released this ready-to-ship 4-channel (5.1 home-theater compatible) digital processor with two RACE DSP engines and four speaker/room correction capability.  It can be used in the reproduction of both 2-channel stereo and 5.1 compatible surround sources. Click here for product details and purchasing information.

Free RACE Ambiophonic Audio Player and Ambiophonic Transcoder for PC/MAC/LINUX

At Stephan Hotto's website you can download two free programs with control panels that use the RACE equations to cancel crosstalk. Both these Ambiophonic player programs run under Windows, Mac or Linux. The secret is that these are Java enabled and thus are not OS dependent. You need to have JRE (JAVA Runtime Environment) installed or get it here: http://www.java.com/download/manual.jsp.

The Ambiophonic Transcoder is similar to the above but a listing allows you to select both inputs and outputs such as a CD player and an external reproduction system.

The Ambiophonic Audio Player has a center sound boost control to allow Ambio reproduction to sound more like the stereo loudspeaker triangle which doubles the lower frequency sound level for mono or central sound sources. This accommodates stereophiles who prefer this boost. An optional high frequency bypass feature avoids processing high frequencies where no audible crosstalk exists avoiding unpredictable HF level and polarity errors for some arrangements or settings. This player can only play .wav files stored in the computer.

VST plug-ins available

Noach ATC At The Crossing

Noach software has developed a VST plug-in for PC users and recording engineers based on the RACE equations. It works with multimedia players like WinAmp, Media Monkey, Foobar2000 or Windows Media Player, and with other types of dedicated hosts, like ffdshow (a codec pack), Audiomulch, Plogue Bidule, Cubase, Reaper, Pro-Tools and Minihost. On the Noach website, there are several video demonstrations of what Ambiophonics and RACE can do for movies and music, using just two PC speakers. Please note, however, that the audio quality of the average PC system can unfairly limit the audio quality of this demo. The Noach plug-in itself does not compromise the audio quality of audio formats, from mp3 to the HD sound formats offered by Blue-ray.

This is a very sophisticated version of RACE which includes a variety of novel adjustments to cope with unusual recordings, loudspeaker arrangements, or just personal preferences. A user guide and ordering information can be obtained by going to www.electro-music.com Some non-vanilla RACE algorithms include Pop, Electro/game, Jazz/acoustic, Classical/movie, Wareing, and Bypass. Wareing is an example of nonrecursive crosstalk cancellation and was used extensively before RACE became feasible. A Zentrum control allows central soloists to be made louder or softer and a Space control boosts ambient content if desired. There are also memory locations to allow custom configurations to be stored and recovered. Two instances of this plugin can be used in surround sound applications or to enhance stage width and realism even when playing 2.0 media.