Oh, man, I'm never gonna sleep tonight!

 

Okay, that is NOT shattering a sound wave, you confused all of us with your vocabulary. That is the principle of REFLECTION, and it doesn't quite "spread out" across the reflective surface like water would.

You have to manage the REFLECTION, because lots of it becomes known as "REVERBERATION". The angle of the smooth sufrace is what will control the REFLECTION of the wave, and without treating that carefully, the REVERBERATION will create interference with your own waves and it will muddle the quality of the sound. Enough of it being out of phase and you can even cancel some of your own sound out.

Sound against glass for the most part will directly reflect and have some absorption/transmission. It will be alot easier to aim a tweeter to get the sound to come to you then to hit yourself with maximum water stream.

--Daniel

 

All this talk about reflection and refraction sounds eerily familiar to a lecture I had in class.......time to stop reading this thread...

 

I agree with your analysis of Bose. Pure junk. The 901 -- the Bose that really started it all -- was a revolutionary speaker, though, and with orchestral works and a live room, sounded suberb for its time.

But there are many, many other speakers that are well regarded and intentionally use reflections to enhance the sound -- electrostatics, omnidirectionals, magnaplanar, and, most recently, bipolar. My Definitive Technology BP2000s (bipolar) are stunningly good, especially for only $2K.

And also consider that Pro Logic and THX work best with dipolar or bipolar surrounds.

But my point was that reflecting sound can actually be a good thing or a bad thing. Depends.

 

I'm okay with the "shattering" of the high frequencies (i.e., uncontrolled dispersion), but I still have not heard any explanation for "shattering" of the "wave length."

To wit, "bouncing a tweeter frequency off a hard object (such as a windshield) shatters the wave length," "Whereas, that was about 10 years ago, sound wave lengths never change," "That is what a wave length would look like for a low signal (bass)," "by bouncing that off a windshield you shatter that wave length," and

"A los wave length (bass) doesn't shatter becuase you have to be a 1/4 wave length away to hear it. That is why with low bass, you fel it, but to actually hear it you ahve to go stand 15' in front of your truck. Becuase that is where a 1/4 wave length would be."

When the sound is "shattered," be it 20KHz or 20Hz, it may go into a zillion directions, but the wavelength remains constant.

And you do not have to be 1/4, 1/10, or even 1/1,000 of a wavelength away from a sound source to hear it -- at any audible frequency. If'n you don't believe me, come stick your ear right up to my 18" subwoofer and let me hit you with a 120 dB 20Hz tone. Well, actually a couple of inches away, becuase the damn cone moves so far it would knock you over.

P.S., guys -- I am only beating up menace on this one because he is a law student. It's kind of an inside joke. This is the kind of abuse that he suffers every day at the hands of his professors. Say one stupid thing (and we all do), and you are now the prof's whipping boy for the remainder of the hour.

 

Yeah that's OKay.... I'm pretty use to it.

Right now I get to beat up on defense attorneys as they come crawling to me (a law school intern in the prosecutor's office) for some type of deal....

As for the sound. perhaps shatter wasn't the "correct" word.

 

There is alot of good stuff out there these days for the $$. I use Axiom Speakers in my Home Theatre, except for the sub which is HSU.

 

Reflection can't be that bad or this wouldn't for so well:


--Steele