Learn

The care behind the Kissahane listening room, explained. Explore how it works, or plan the sound in your own space.

Or click in an empty room and watch the sound spread, reflect and die away.

How this room was tuned

  1. Room modes

    Why the walls of a room this size shape its bass more than the speakers do, and where each low note peaks and all but vanishes.

  2. Active bass absorbers

    How the two PSI AVAA C214s in the rear corners take in the bass notes the room exaggerates, with electronics rather than bulk.

  3. Room correction

    How the system was measured across the whole sofa and how Dirac Live corrects its tone and timing, with Dirac’s own demo to listen to.

  4. The Uni-Q driver

    Why the LS50 Wireless II plays its treble from the centre of its cone, and what absorbs the sound behind the tweeter.

  5. Sound in the room

    The room from above, with its sound worked out as you watch: how the bass, the mids and the highs spread, reflect and fade.

Hiring and planning

  1. Three problems, three fixes

    Why how a room sounds, how its sound system plays and how much sound escapes are three different problems, each with its own fixes.

  2. Hiring an acoustic consultant

    What a proposal for a room’s acoustics and sound system should contain, what to insist on, the red flags, and what the work costs in Lisbon.

  3. Glossary

    Plain definitions of the acoustics and sound-system terms the guides use, from room modes and RT60 to flanking and commissioning.