Bleak Mid-Winter Suburbia

It's not enough to get out for a daily walk. The walk needs to be pleasant, or at least neutral, to look at. Hedges on country lanes, with an occasional glimpse across a valley, or perhaps a path across a flat moor, or maybe even along a canal. Not round the outside of an industrial estate. But we make do and carry on.

 

One Wall of the Walled Garden, Golders Hill Park

 

Golders Hill Park is a couple of stops up the hill from the station. It's well worth the visit.

Room Resonances

Room resonances are a real thing, but... a) the wavelength has to match the room dimension almost exactly.

While it looks as though there are "as many notes as we want", in Western music there are only 88 notes. But not really. There are actually 12 fundamental notes - starting with A₀ at 27.5 Hz and ending at A♭₁ at 51.91 Hz. Double those frequencies to get the next octave; double again to get the next; and so on until reaching C₈ at 4186 Hz.

So a room that supports a standing wave (resonance) at, say, C₂ 65.41 Hz, will support standing waves at all the other C's as well. The sound will be quieter with each jump up or down of an octave. However, people only worry about bass resonances. That's because notes below a limit that varies with the room, are non-directional, appearing, as it were, at once everywhere in the room. (Above that limit, the notes become directional, which is how you ears tell you that the drums are right in the middle of your speakers.) Think of the bass notes as being produced in the middle of the room and going in all directions. If one of the dimensions of the room fits the note, and if there isn't soft furniture in the way, up pops a resonance.

If you're really unlucky you might get three different resonances: floor-to-ceiling, side-to-side, front-to-back. Highly unlikely, but possible. Chances are you will get one. There won't be others, unless your room changes dimension somewhere (sloping walls or ceiling?). Most people will get one. And that's it.

My listening room is 2.5m high, so a slightly out of tune C♯₃ / D♭₃ of 138.6 Hz will cause a stomach-churning resonance. Here's the thing: the 3-octave is used for effect, not for carrying the tune. That's usually done an octave higher where resonances don't happen. Bass players famously "play the root note" (unless they are Jaco Pastorius or Jack Bruce), and C♯₃ / D♭₃ (or C♯₂ / D♭₂) are not the most frequent root notes. Also, the instrument would need to be slightly out of tune to make my room react. That's why it happens so infrequently.

That doesn't mean I don't get quieter and louder patches if I move the subwoofer around. Very much so: interference isn't resonance. Its current position was chosen because it produced the most uniform level throughout the room. It's very un-nerving moving from one chair to another and suddenly hearing more bass.

Anyway, here's a list of the notes most likely to cause resonances, along with the wavelength. Measure the room (wall-to-wall, ceiling to floor. You can ignore diagonals because corners create bass boost, but do not create standing waves) and if any of those three numbers are within 0.02m (20mm) or so (depends on how reflective the material is), you will likely get resonances

D♭₃      2.47m 

C₃          2.62m / 130Hz 

B₂          2.78m 

B♭₂      2.94m 

A₂          3.12m / 110Hz 

A♭₂      3.30m 

G₂          3.5m 

F♯₂       3.71m 

F₂           3.93m 

E₂           4.16m 

E♭₂       4.41m 

D₂          4.67m 

D♭₂      4.94m 

C₂          5.24m 

B₁          5.56m 

B♭₁      5.88m 

A₁           6.24m 55Hz 

A♭₁       6.6m 

G₁          7.0m 

F♯₁        7.42m 

F₁           7.86m 

E₁           8.32m 

E♭₁       8.82m 

D₁          9.34 

D♭₁      9.9m 

C₁         10.48m 

B₀         11.12m 

B♭₀     11.76m 

A₀         12.48m 27.5Hz

How do you stop a resonance? Only big, obtrusive, and expensive bass traps made of materials sourced in an Ardennes forest and hand-assembled by elves in a workshop outside Dusseldorf will do the trick... it says here on the PR handout.

Resonances result from room dimensions. So change the dimensions of the room. No builders needed. Nice full shelves full of absorbent things: paperbacks are always good, just don't line them up precisely. LP's or big art hardbacks may not be a good idea if the resonances are at higher frequencies. This will work for side-to-side or back-to-front resonances, but floor-to-ceiling you are pretty much stuck with. Unless you put nice thick carpet in everywhere, which will damp it a little.

Hi-Fi Lessons (2): Useful Numbers

You will wind up learning a bunch of numbers by heart:

The sensitivity of your speakers in dB / m at 1 watt 

The diameter of your speakers' woofer and tweeter 

Twice the power = 3dB volume increase 

10 times the power = 10dB increase = "twice as loud"

30dB = what you think is silence - but actually isn't 

40dB = when no-one is talking on a new train 

50dB = it's not quite loud enough 

60-70dB = about the loudness of a normal voice. Or my acoustic guitar. 

80dB = the volume audio reviewers say they listen at - until their partners yell "TURN THAT DOWN" 95dB = the volume of the taped announcements on London Underground trains

343 m/s = speed of sound (roughly) at sea level 

Frequency = 343 / wavelength in metres; wavelength in metres = 343 / frequency;

27.5 Hz = frequency of lowest note on the piano, and known to music (outside stunt instruments) 

41 Hz = lowest note on double bass 

261 Hz = middle C - literally the middle of the piano keyboard, and the note between the treble and bass clefs in the Grand Clef 

440 Hz = note the oboe plays for everyone else to tune to, otherwise known as "A440" 

4,186 Hz = frequency of highest note on the piano, and known to music (outside stunt instruments)

Hi-Fi Lessons (1)

My hi-fi journey began when I realised that some music seemed to be coming from a corner on the upper right hand wall rather than from between the speakers. if you try to solve the same problem, here are some of the things you will do or realise...

You will measure every distance in your room when you start working on speaker positioning and room acoustics.

The stereo soundstage is real. It is, however, fragile. You really do have to be in the right place, and not move around a lot.

For a given room, there's only one right place for the speakers to be, and you have to keep moving them around until you find it.

You will re-arrange the furniture in your room (I'm assuming you live alone or have a Room Of Your Own) so you can set up the Magic Triangle with your speakers and listening position.

You will download a dB meter app.

Having the speakers in phase is real. In phase, the sound comes from between the speakers. Out of phase, there's nothing in the middle, and the sound comes from between each speaker and the nearest wall.

You have a dominant ear.

Sub-woofers improve the sound of classical recordings.

Room reflections are a real thing, which is why the Magic Triangle is a thing.

Of course the people marketing expensive room treatment panels and insulation are going to say that "soft furniture and carpets are not good enough".

Acoustics as an engineering practice does not apply to "small rooms", which, unless you live in a mansion, yours will be.

As for that stuff about wires... comes from telecommunications, which uses frequencies several orders of magnitude higher than hi-fi, when stuff like insulation capacitance matters. At hi-fi frequencies the effects are undetectable.

If you think that worrying about noise from computers via the USB is silly, plug a laptop into your Boss Katana via the USB control, and turn the channel from "Clean" to "Crunch" or even "Brown". Convinced? I was. The same goes for the Scarlett 2i2 interface.

Timeless Albums

What makes a "Timeless" album? When you play it, you enjoy it, it speaks to you, and there's no nostalgia involved. It seems it could have been made today. The rules are: one album per artist, except Bob Dylan, Miles Davis and John Coltrane, because respect for the Greats. John Mayall is there twice because The Beano Album is there for Eric Clapton. Picking a timeless Beatles album is arbitrary, as is picking one by Joni Mitchell, The Rolling Stones, John Martin, Van Morrison, and probably others.

I wavered over Cream / Traffic / Eric Clapton. The Bind Faith album is an All-Time Favourite, but it is of its time, as are the Cream albums. The Beano Album is the Blues, so it's Timeless. There are many fine albums from the 80's, but many of them sound like 80's albums, and while that puts them on the All-Time Favs list, it disqualifies them from the Timeless list. Except the Loose Ends and Level 42 albums, which get by somehow. I had The Crusaders' Chain Reaction on the list for a while, until I accepted that, ATF it may be, it has that 70's sound to it. Saraya's self-titled first album was there, until, let's face it, for all it's an ATF, it's as big-hair 90's as a band can get. Thriller is a Classic, but it is of the time. Some Classics are Timeless, and some are not.

I get that a Gen Z hearing ABC's The Lexicon of Love might be blown away by it, and hear it as a contemporary album, in the same way that we now hear the Beatles as the best indie band in the world, but this is about how I hear it.

Kinda by definition of what the list is, the majority are going to be from decades very past. I have Park Hye Jin, Charli XCX, Keep Shelly In Athens, and DJ Seinfeld from the last two decades, just to convince you that I am listening to new stuff. Just be thankful I haven't put Jason Aldean's Highway Desparado on the list.

Anyway, here's the list...

Abandoned Luncheonette - Hall & Oates 70's 

After Bathing At Baxters - Jefferson Airplane 60's 

Astral Weeks - Van Morrison 60's 

Band of Gypsies - Jimi Hendrix 70's 

Bare Wires - John Mayall 60's 

Bedrock - John Digweed 90's 

Before I Die - Park Hye Jin 10's 

Bless The Weather - John Martyn 70's 

Blood On The Tracks - Bob Dylan 70's 

Greatest Hits Vol 2 - Bob Dylan 60's 

Blues Breakers (Beano Album) - John Mayall 60's 

Broken Social Scene - Broken Social Scene 90's 

Blue - Joni Mitchell 70's 

Can't Buy A Thrill - Steely Dan 70's 

Crash - Charlie XCX 20's

Dark Side of the Moon - Pink Floyd 70's 

Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere - Neil Young 70's

Genie - The B. B. & Q. Band 80's 

Getz Giberto - Stan Getz 60's 

Goats Head Soup - The Rolling Stones 70's 

Hot Rats - Frank Zappa 70's 

In A Silent Way - Miles Davis 60's 

In Love With Dusk - Keep Shelly In Athens 10's 

Kind of Blue - Miles Davis 50's 

King of the Delta Blues - Robert Johnson 40's 

Level 42 - Level 42 80's 

Live at the Village Vanguard - John Coltrane 60's 

Mirrors (Remixed) - DJ Sienfeld 20's 

Rubber Soul - The Beatles 60's 

Solid Air - John Martyn 70's 

Second Toughest In the Infants - Underworld 90's 

So Where Are You? - Loose Ends 80's 

St Dominics Preview - Van Morrison 70's 

Texas Flood - Stevie Ray Vaughn 80's 

Timeless - Goldie 90's 

Zodiac Variations - John Dankworth 60's

JD Vance to Europe: You Have Been Served

My old heart fluttered when I read JD Vance's speech to the Munich Security Conference. You can find a transcript here.

tl:dr

As far as Vance is concerned, there are three major threats facing the West:

1) Mass immigration 

2) The creeping loss of freedom in the UK and Europe, where an unaccountable administrative class with a contempt for ordinary people, has acquired legislative power and is using it to enforce what look like Soviet-era restrictions on freedoms 

3) Oh, yes, that whole Russia-Ukraine thing. And maybe China as well. And spending proper money on defence.

The USA will ally with and defend countries that share its values, and right now it's not looking much like the UK and EU are respecting those values. So should UK and EU-area politicians carry on enforcing Soviet-era censorship and treating the electorate as fodder for their projects, the USA will walk away from defending it.

Which seems like a perfectly sensible position to me.