Hi everyone, Dennis Foley from Acoustic Fields. Today we're going to talk about signal noise
ratios. We're going to expand on the term a little bit so you can get a little bit more
understanding. Our systems, speakers, amplifiers, cables, it's all a system. All systems have
noise, all systems have signals, right? So our goal with amplifiers, speakers, cables, and
room is to create a system where we're minimizing distortion. and improving resolution. That's
the goal, right? So there's a synergy that occurs. We have speakers, we have our amplifiers, we
have the cables, we have the chair, we have our room, all of these things combined to produce
the sound that we want. So there's a synergy there. One plus one equals three, right? So
let's just for… purposes of discussion let's assign some noise levels to each one of our
components so we can get a feel for what we're looking at here. So we have a power cable let's
say 5 to 10%. I'm just trying to illustrate this. These are not exact numbers but we're
trying to illustrate a point and a concept here. So please don't email me and say well how did
you come up with that number? I didn't. I'm trying to illustrate a point here. So 5 to
10% for power cables, let's say amp noise 5 to 10%. That's probably really high. Today
the total harmonic distortion on amps is very, very low. Speaker noise, 10 to 20%. The speaker
is the weakest link in this whole chain next to the room. Okay, and we're going to talk
about that. Speaker noise, 10 to 20%. But look at room. The room noise, pressure and reflections.
causes 50 to 60 percent distortion in the signal. So it's the highest of all of our components
and it is a component. If you don't think it is, come to my studio here and listen. You'll
know immediately the power of the room and you'll know what you've been missing all these years.
What do we got? We got room noise, we got pressure, low frequency and reflections, reverberation.
That's what we have to balance out. Low frequency pressure, mid and high reflections, right?
Fundamental and harmonics defined. We must have the resolution high enough in the room that
we hear both the fundamentals and the harmonics. Remember the emotion, the attachment to our
music is in the harmonics. And most rooms destroy harmonics with their size, with the distance
from the speakers to the room boundary surfaces, the walls. And just a whole host of issues,
improper material types in the room, there's just hundreds of ways to produce distortion
in rooms. So the room, it's the largest distortion producing component of our system, yet we pay
very, very little attention to it. Why is that? There's a lot of reasons. Marketing, amplifier,
speaker companies, they've done a good job at convincing people to buy this speaker or this
amplifier. We see it all the time in the pro world. We see this example all the time in
the pro world, which is complete nonsense. Buy our speaker system to manage your reverberation
in your church. What a lie. An out and out lie. And people don't understand the physics behind
the lie. So they buy into it. We're working with a church now that's bought four PA systems
to solve a six second full range reverb time. Think about that. Over a million dollars in
PA systems and they still have a six second reverb time. Think about that one. Okay. So
what are we gonna do? We got to think the room as gear. It's part of our system. It's the
major part of our system. It's the one that produces the most distortion. So we have to
treat it. Okay. Let me give you an example. Got a call from a client the other day. He
asked me what I thought of this interconnect cable and these speaker cables. I added them
all up. It was $23,000. I said for $23,000 you can treat your whole room, all the frequencies
of the room. For $23,000 you can fix all the distortion here. Okay, not just here, here.
Why would you spend that much to go after a little bit of distortion when you could spend
23 to 25,000 and fix the whole room? and enjoy everything. Once again, not seeing the forest
for the trees. Not looking at each individual component without looking at the synergy of
all the components together to get the resolution that you need. So look at your system as a
complete system and include your room in that system because it accounts for most of the
distortion that you're going Our cables and amplifiers today are wonderful. I haven't bought
gear for 20, 25 years. Of course, with new studios, I have to. So I've noticed the changes in the
last 20 years. Speakers are still the weak link in the chain. I think they always will be.
But power cables, amplifiers, interconnect speaker cables, DACs, they all have very high resolution.
In fact, the distortion I don't even think is audible in most cases. So start stepping back,
look at the whole situation. Don't look at the tree, look at the whole forest and try to come
up with a budget that works. I will tell you this, if you spend 20, 25,000 to fix your room,
you won't spend $20,000 on cables. You won't need to. Most people when they're debating
between spending money on room treatment, or new gear, if they choose the room treatment,
they keep their existing gear. All the reasons they bought it come back because they hear
all those reasons again. So treat your room. It's the biggest signal to noise ratio issue
in the whole system. Hope this helps. Thank you.
So please do that because we offer special price discounts to only those on our newsletter.
And then don't forget about our forum. We have started a forum on our own website where people
ask questions and I usually get a chance every couple days to look at it. There's an interchange
between people on the forum and we'll give you real answers on a regular basis so that'll
help you. Thank you.