Has anybody tried using a studio reverb unit, or other processors,
with a hi-fi system? I have found some recordings, especially
classical ones, are a bit dry, which is why I'm thinking of trying it.

www.studiospares.com

have a selection at reasonable prices, which units has anyone used
here?

Some models have a digital input, which could be used with a CD
player's digital output.

On Thu, 05 Jul 2007 14:36:49 -0700,
wrote:

Has anybody tried using a studio reverb unit, or other processors,
with a hi-fi system? I have found some recordings, especially
classical ones, are a bit dry, which is why I'm thinking of trying it.

www.studiospares.com

have a selection at reasonable prices, which units has anyone used
here?

Some models have a digital input, which could be used with a CD
player's digital output.


I added reverb to a recording once. Then I got well and never did it
again

Abbedd

I added reverb to a recording once. Then I got well
and never did it again.

There is a difference to adding to the recording, and playing it through
additional speakers. A huge difference.

"That's too much echo... echo... echo... Turn it off... off.. off..." --
Stan Freberg, "Heartbreak Hotel".

Twenty years ago, JVC and Yamaha made consumer reverb units whose programs
were modeled after specific churches, concert halls, and other performance
venues. If you're trying to produce a natural sense of reverbererberation,
this sort of device is what you want.

You should be looking for a Yamaha DSP-1, DSP-3000, JVC XP-A1000, XP-A1010.
I don't remember if the DSP-1 has a digital input; the other models do. The
DSP-1 requires its remote control and is useless without it. The others can
be operated from their front panels but it's a bit clumsy and inconvenient
to do so.

All offer four outputs, two rear and two side. The programs are adjustable,
to match the sound of the synthesized reverb to the ambience of the
recording.

They sometimes show up on eBay. The Yamaha DSP-1 is fairly common, the
others less so. I recently bought a JVC XP-A1010 as a backup to the XP-A1000
I already own. (I also have a Yamaha DSP-3000 and Lexicon CP-3plus.)

You should always run the ambience through added speakers. You should
_never_ mix it with the original. It screws up the sound quite badly.

William Sommerwerck wrote:
"That's too much echo... echo... echo... Turn it off... off.. off..." --
Stan Freberg, "Heartbreak Hotel".

Twenty years ago, JVC and Yamaha made consumer reverb units whose programs
were modeled after specific churches, concert halls, and other performance
venues. If you're trying to produce a natural sense of reverbererberation,
this sort of device is what you want.

You should be looking for a Yamaha DSP-1, DSP-3000, JVC XP-A1000, XP-A1010.
I don't remember if the DSP-1 has a digital input; the other models do. The
DSP-1 requires its remote control and is useless without it. The others can
be operated from their front panels but it's a bit clumsy and inconvenient
to do so.

All offer four outputs, two rear and two side. The programs are adjustable,
to match the sound of the synthesized reverb to the ambience of the
recording.

They sometimes show up on eBay. The Yamaha DSP-1 is fairly common, the
others less so. I recently bought a JVC XP-A1010 as a backup to the XP-A1000
I already own. (I also have a Yamaha DSP-3000 and Lexicon CP-3plus.)

You should always run the ambience through added speakers. You should
_never_ mix it with the original. It screws up the sound quite badly.

I agree about not mixing any additional reverb into the main
channels. There will usually already be enough recorded
reverb already.

The later DSP-A3090 and DSP-A1 integrated amps work well,
too, as does the still later RX-Z1 receiver, although having
their own amps built in kind of limits their flexibility
with complex audio set ups. I assume that the latest RX-Z9
version also does well, although I have never reviewed the
unit. I reviewed the other devices in issues 65 (Sept/Oct,
1997), 72 (Nov/Dec, 1998, and also reviewed the Lexicon DC-1
in that issue), and 93 (Dec, 2002/Jan, 2003) of The Sensible
Sound.

The three Yamaha units mentioned above have a
"Classical/Opera" mode that I find superior to the various
"hall" and "club" simulation modes. While those do not
include a center feed, Classical/Opera does, and it gets the
center info via the usual Dolby Surround, L+R "derived"
center circuitry in the units. Normally, I find the center
feed a tad too loud when it comes to producing a faux center
from a two-channel source, but backing off the center level
about 3 dB widens the soundstage back up and the result
works particularly well if the listener is sitting somewhere
but the sweet spot.

The hall-simulation surround ambiance generated by the
Classical/Opera mode varies in loudness between the three
units mentioned, and with both the DSP-A1 and RX-Z1 I find
it best to back off the surround effects levels by about 3
dB, compared to what the set-up menu offers for the global
movie-sound set-up level. The units make this easy to do,
and the settings can be fixed for any of the surround modes.

I also find that the two front "effects" channels work
better with the front "effects" speakers not in the front
corners as Yamaha recommends, but moved further down the
side walls, and aimed across the room at each other and not
out into the listening area. Also, rather than locate the
rear surround speakers in the back corners as Yamaha
suggests, I find that they work better also mounted on the
side walls, perhaps ten degrees behind directly to the sides.

In all cases, the wider dispersing the surround speakers are
the better they perform. Also, I find that a wider room
(with a long front wall) works better than a narrow one. One
exception involves the Lexicon processor I reviewed, which
works at its best in a shoebox-shaped room, with the
main-channel speakers on the shorter wall.

Howard Ferstler

wrote:
Has anybody tried using a studio reverb unit, or other processors,
with a hi-fi system? I have found some recordings, especially
classical ones, are a bit dry, which is why I'm thinking of trying it.

This was very popular in the sixties and seventies, and there used to be
lots of commercial boxes like the Fisher Spacexpander that were designed
for the job back then. They all.. sounded pretty awful.

www.studiospares.com

have a selection at reasonable prices, which units has anyone used
here?

Some models have a digital input, which could be used with a CD
player's digital output.

I would tend to recommend something like the Sony DPS V-77, if your goal
is to have digital ins and outs and reproduce a realistic room sound. But
I suspect that you will be apt to go overboard on the effect if you are not
very, very careful. And I fear that you won't be fulfilling the wishes of
the original producers either. If they made the recordings very dry, they
must have done it for a reason, and that may tell you something about what
the artist was aiming for.
--scott
--
"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."

Scott Dorsey wrote:
wrote:

Has anybody tried using a studio reverb unit, or other processors,
with a hi-fi system? I have found some recordings, especially
classical ones, are a bit dry, which is why I'm thinking of trying it.


This was very popular in the sixties and seventies, and there used to be
lots of commercial boxes like the Fisher Spacexpander that were designed
for the job back then. They all.. sounded pretty awful.


www.studiospares.com

have a selection at reasonable prices, which units has anyone used
here?

Some models have a digital input, which could be used with a CD
player's digital output.


I would tend to recommend something like the Sony DPS V-77, if your goal
is to have digital ins and outs and reproduce a realistic room sound. But
I suspect that you will be apt to go overboard on the effect if you are not
very, very careful. And I fear that you won't be fulfilling the wishes of
the original producers either. If they made the recordings very dry, they
must have done it for a reason, and that may tell you something about what
the artist was aiming for.

Maybe the OP was thinking about a dry sound in basic two-speaker stereo,
and have a carefully crafted limited reverberated sound from the back
speakers only, attempting to (try to) reproduce some room/ambiance.


Wonder just how many NG's need to know about this, though...

--
Kind regards,
Mogens V.

On Fri, 06 Jul 2007 01:20:54 +0200, "Mogens V."
wrote:

Scott Dorsey wrote:
wrote:

Has anybody tried using a studio reverb unit, or other processors,
with a hi-fi system? I have found some recordings, especially
classical ones, are a bit dry, which is why I'm thinking of trying it.


This was very popular in the sixties and seventies, and there used to be
lots of commercial boxes like the Fisher Spacexpander that were designed
for the job back then. They all.. sounded pretty awful.


www.studiospares.com

have a selection at reasonable prices, which units has anyone used
here?

Some models have a digital input, which could be used with a CD
player's digital output.


I would tend to recommend something like the Sony DPS V-77, if your goal
is to have digital ins and outs and reproduce a realistic room sound. But
I suspect that you will be apt to go overboard on the effect if you are not
very, very careful. And I fear that you won't be fulfilling the wishes of
the original producers either. If they made the recordings very dry, they
must have done it for a reason, and that may tell you something about what
the artist was aiming for.

Maybe the OP was thinking about a dry sound in basic two-speaker stereo,
and have a carefully crafted limited reverberated sound from the back
speakers only, attempting to (try to) reproduce some room/ambiance.


Wonder just how many NG's need to know about this, though...

I think the op is a shill for the linked dealer


Abbedd

ansermetniac wrote:
On Fri, 06 Jul 2007 01:20:54 +0200, "Mogens V."
wrote:

Wonder just how many NG's need to know about this, though...


I think the op is a shill for the linked dealer

Oh well, maybe, so used to vendor/dealer links I missed it.
Whatever, sometimes some useful knowlege comes out of such posts.

--
Kind regards,
Mogens V.

I don't like to disagree with Scott, who's generally correct. But there's a
lot more to ambience synthesis than the Fisher SpaceXpander.

There are products that are specifically designed for home use, and "sound
good". Please read my previous posting.

As for ansermetniac's remarks... As he suggests, it's almost always wrong --
both acoustically and aesthetically -- to mix ambience into a recording,
even a dry one.

But that's not what these devices do. They present the ambience through side
and rear speakers, and the results are quite, quite different. You should
hear what happens to mono recordings when a bit of stereo ambience is added
to the room. The improvement is drastic.