News / Articles

RAM School Living Room Series - Binaural Event

Sam L.

One of the things I miss most about Roger Modjeski since his passing nearly four years ago are the conversations. Often, we would be at the shop building something new, repairing something old, or just trying to organize the place so it made finding things a bit easier. However, just as often people would drop by to speak with Roger about something or another. If the topic was interesting enough to Roger, speak he would, thereby tossing a wrench into the best laid plans of the day. While most people were happy to listen to Roger’s discourses, others would be more engaging, even challenging him in some cases. Of course, a few hours at the shop never provided enough time to finish, so off to lunch, or if it ran into the early evening, Roger’s house where we’d sit around the living room and continue the discussion.

As I was trying to come up with some new ideas for RAM School of Audio events, I often thought about how we could recreate that environment where people would sit around a living room discussing topics of mutual interest while simultaneously being educated on some level. I was stumped until Lory Hawley, persistently I might add, kept asking me to do a class on listening. I first thought it to be an unusual request and was trying to come up with a not so snarky way to tell her she should just use and trust her ears. However, after a conversation with her, I finally grasped what she was really asking for. As a result, in that conversation Lory and I came up with three ideas for education events that we now reference as the “How to Listen” series.

Of the three events, it was the second event on binaural sound (an extension of the Zoom event on August 27th hosted by Gordon Hempton) that I felt would lend itself to be the perfect pilot for a living room type discussion like those we used to have with Roger. So, on Sunday September 24, 2023 in Orinda, CA in Leslie Lundin’s living room we debuted the first event in the RAM School of Audio Living Room Series. Although the focus was on binaural sound, we discussed other aspects of recording, and, in addition to me, we also had Lory Hawley, Sam Lehmer, and Gregory Morgan share their knowledge and experience on the topic.

For the demonstration, we had four listening stations set up with an array of equipment and music. Below is a list of the systems that were on display:

1. Lory Hawley brought a number of different headphones including the HED Unity Wi-Fi wireless, HIFIMAN Ayra Organic planar magnetic wired, and Apple AirPods MAX wireless Bluetooth. The source was an Apple M2 MacBook Pro 14” laptop running Qobuz and Gordon Hempton binaural WAV files.

2. Sam Lehmer brought some portable recording gear for the group to peruse including M-Audio Microtrack 24/96 and Tascam DR-100 MkIII recorders. Microphones included the Sennheiser Ambeo Smart Headset that was paired with an Apogee iPhone app, a pair of Ucho small diaphragm microphones, and Audio Technica miniature binaural microphones by Sound Professionals. Music was played back via a Pono digital audio player, a Burson Soloist headphone amp, and Sennheiser HD-6xx headphones. Source material was a concert by Eliades Ochoa y El Cuarteto Patria from the Bergen Blues and Roots Festival held in Norway in 1998 originally recorded to DAT, and a field recording from a coastal Oregon forest, 4 miles inland from Lincoln City, recorded on the Tascam in June 2023.

3. Gregory Morgan’s source equipment and amplification included an Oppo BDP-83SE, Nakamichi DR-3 Cassette deck, and Musical Fidelity X-Can V3 Tube headphone amplifier. Headphones were the Massdrop Sennheiser HD-6xx headphones and utilizing a Niles RCA Switch box, Gregory was able to switch between sources to allow the group to listen to binaural live recordings he made of King Crimson at the Greek Theater Berkeley, CA 07/26/1996, Berkeley, CA using Sonic Studios DSM-6p and Sony PCM-M1, as well as the Grateful Dead at Sam Boyd Silver Bowl Las Vegas, NV 04/27/1991 using B & K 4003 omni microphones in a Crown SASS-B baffle (Crown SASS-B (Unused/Mint) stereo mic frame - 1992 grey/black w case | Reverb).

4. Lastly, I brought Stax SR-303 electrostatic headphones and the companion Stax SRD-7 Professional energizer which allows for hook up to any amplifier, in this case a Music Reference RM-10. Sources were provided by Leslie Lundin’s system that included a VPI turntable, Esoteric phono stage, and AMR preamplifier. Source material was Lou Reed’s Live: Take No Prisoners LP that was binaurally recorded by Manfred Schunke.

It should also be noted that Gregory Morgan brought for display his Kemar (Knowles Etymotic Mannequin for Acoustic Research). Kemar introduced its mannequin to the world in 1972. It was the first head/torso simulator designed especially for acoustic research and enabled the hearing aid laboratories to perform simulated in-situ measurements of hearing aids. It was also very useful for binaural sound recording and other manufacturers, such as Neumann, marketed their versions of the head/torso simulator for this purpose.

Kemar

Neuman (Fritz)

The day’s activities started out with a short presentation where I discussed the concept of crosstalk and the effect it has in both live recording and playback. Eliminating crosstalk in stereo audio reproduction is not a new fad, but rather a longstanding pursuit in the field of audio engineering and high-fidelity audio. It's driven by a desire to improve the accuracy and realism of stereo sound reproduction. The four ways of dealing with crosstalk we discussed were:

1. Stereo Microphone Techniques: Engineers have used various microphone techniques to capture stereo sound without crosstalk. These techniques involve carefully positioning microphones to create a more accurate stereo image.
2. Acoustic Separation: Some studios employ physical barriers or acoustic treatment to reduce cross talk between instruments or microphones.
3. Binaural Recording: Binaural recording uses a dummy head or specialized microphone setup to simulate human ear spacing and create a highly realistic stereo effect with minimal crosstalk.
4. Headphone Listening: In the context of consumer listening, high-quality headphones can provide an excellent stereo experience with complete separation between the left and right channels.
In addition to binaural recording and headphone listening, we also discussed how the quality of the recording impacts our listening experience. This last part tends to be overlooked by audiophiles who view their components and accessories as the primary sound influencers. However, it’s been my opinion for as long as I have been a serious listener that what goes into the recording dictates how we perceive things such as imaging, soundstage, and contributes significantly to our overall experience with the music. Crosstalk, distortion during the recording, or just plain lazy engineering (there is way too much of this nowadays) are detrimental to our experience and I’m sorry to say no amount of tweaking your system is going to make it right.

Binaural recording has been around longer than we might realize. Lou Reed recorded three LPs binaurally in the late 70’s. Street Hassle being the first, followed by the afore mentioned Live: Take No Prisoners, and then The Bells. In the distant past David Chesky made and sold binaural recordings and even today if you do a “binaural” search on Qobuz you will find binaurally recorded music. In addition, for years Gordon Hempton has been recording the sounds of nature binaurally. Unfortunately, the concept never achieved support among consumers, primarily due to the stigma that the benefits of binaural sound can only be achieved through headphone listening. To an extent this is true and so binaural recordings became a thing of the past, even though the technique was one of the best methods of recording that minimized the effects of crosstalk.

So, what exactly is binaural recording? For simplicity purposes let’s just say it is a method of recording sound that uses two microphones, arranged with the intent to create a 3-D stereo sound sensation for the listener of actually being in the room with the performers or instruments (sound familiar?). This effect is often created using a technique known as dummy head recording, wherein a mannequin head is fitted with a microphone in each ear. Binaural recording typically will not translate properly over stereo speakers, although the Neumann method adds a baffle filter in the ear canal of the dummy head that enhances playback via stereo speakers.

To demonstrate, we conducted an experiment at the event where we played Coney Island Baby from the Lou Reed LP (which was recorded live during his 5-night residency at the Bottom Line in NYC in 1978) both through Leslie’s Mobile Fidelity Source Point 10 speakers and the Stax headphone setup. The difference in presentation was clear to everyone who listened to the song both through the speakers and headphones, with the headphone experience being widely praised by attendees.

Headphones have come a long way and there are many fine options to choose from these days. I think wireless technology will greatly advance the use of headphones among consumers and I have the to say the HED Unity Wi-Fi wireless headphones I listened to do a fine job reproducing music and were quite comfortable to boot. If anything, I hope after reading this some of you who currently aren’t headphone listeners might venture in that direction. It might just get you to rethink the whole loudspeaker thing. However, don’t take my word for it. In this case a picture is worth 10,000 words as seen below with Sam Lehmer listening to a recording of Eliades Ochoa through the Stax headphone set up (photo by Lory Hawley).