Heavenly Soundworks Newsletter - March 2021
THE LATEST NEWS AND UPDATES FROM THE HEAVENLY SOUNDWORKS TEAM.
Insights | Upcoming News
Insights
Where Science Meets Hi-Fi
Heavenly Soundworks loudspeakers offer something unique in the loudspeaker world… full-range sound from a small, stand-mount speaker! It’s often been quoted that human hearing is from 20Hz to 20kHz, in reality, however, the average person only hears around 24Hz to 17kHz. Our small FIVE17 loudspeaker covers this range quite easily and with an extremely flat frequency response. In our industry, it is generally considered very respectable to achieve a frequency response of +/- 3dB. Our speakers measure under +/- 1dB!
In our chase for the ultimate listening experience, we couldn’t stop there! We know that the extremely flat frequency response is great when you’re listening at reference levels (~90-100dB). We also know that the majority of the time you won’t be listening at or near those levels. If you spend any time studying human hearing, you will find that our sensitivity to specific frequency ranges drops off at lower volume levels. In other words, we don’t hear all the music.
With a background of designing and building passive speakers, designing active loudspeakers has been quite the journey! The photo you see here is one of our Co-Founders, Kevin working on an early prototype speaker that eventually turned into the FIVE17.
Equal Loudness Presets
To combat this inefficiency in our human hearing, our loudspeaker systems come with 3 unique presets or tunes programmed into the powerful Digital Signal Processor inside our speakers. These presets were developed using the above-mentioned research. A visual representation of this phenomenon can be seen here, called the "Equal Loudness Contours".
The first preset is what we call Pure Signal and is the flattest frequency response curve ever attained in the industry. This preset is intended for critical listening for short periods of time (to preserve your long-term hearing). The second preset is for semi-loud listening up to ~85dB (at your listening position). The third preset is for listening at anything under ~82dB. Preset 3 tends to be the most used by us here at Heavenly Soundworks and based on customer feedback seems to be most preferred.
So, armed with these presets, you can feel free to listen all day and not miss any of the music (without the risk of hearing damage)!
Excited to Attend/Exhibit
The upcoming audio shows in North America are an exciting next step in our journey as loudspeaker manufacturers.
Here at Heavenly Soundworks we are passionate about music and reproducing that music in the best way possible. Well, we call it passion, some might call it an obsession. Whatever term you want to use, it’s what keeps us laser-focused as we strive to create the perfect speakers.
We were bummed at the sudden shutdowns last year that prevented us from exhibiting and showcasing our hard work. We can say, however, that the extra year of development has turned out for our good. More time means more progress in our pursuit of the best possible sound, gaining critical feedback from our initial customers and more time in the lab fine-tuning our systems has taken our loudspeakers to the next level! We are more excited than ever to share our loudspeakers with those that share our passion!
The Problem with
Audio Shows
So, as we gear up for the shows this year (which will hopefully go off without a hitch) we are excited to start making plans. This year's shows will be a first for us, we have been to many shows in the past but always as attendees… as fans. Our experience at audio shows are probably not all that different than most and we’re well aware of the problems with Hi-Fi tradeshows. The top two that come to mind... The poor acoustics of the rooms and the poor choice of music. While the room acoustics is a tough one to tackle in some cases, the music selection shouldn’t be.
Our viewpoint is that a tradeshow is about an experience, not for us as the exhibitors, but for you the attendee. You’ve paid money to come to a show with hopes of auditioning some great equipment and hearing great music. Whether you are deciding between a few components for your next purchase or just enjoying the experience of hearing so many different setups, it’s your experience that matters.
If that is the case then playing music from a pre-determined setlist with no idea what type of music you are into doesn’t really meet your needs.
So, as we trade in our attendee badges for exhibitor ones, what can we do about it?
Our Ideas
As we mentioned before, we’ve experienced the typical tradeshow demos that have left us less than satisfied (It’s a total bummer to walk into a room with a particular piece of audio gear that you’ve been looking forward to hearing and then the salesman spends 10 minutes talking about what great synergy they have between the cables and pre-amp only to finally play a piece of music that makes you want to go to sleep). Now that we have the opportunity to improve that experience, we’ve sat down and brainstormed some ideas.
With most of these there are pros and cons, but here’s the list.
We ask what music you’re into. This seems like a no-brainer, right? You enter our demo room and we say, “Hi, what kind of music do you want to listen to?”.
We have a setlist queued up in Roon with a screen somewhere that shows what’s playing and what’s coming up next. We then encourage attendees to take a look and let us know what they would like to hear (or suggest some new tracks to add to the list).
We post a sign on the door with a schedule that has the day split up into 1-hour segments. Each segment features a different musical genre. Allowing the attendee to come back if they would rather hear a different style of music.
Give us your thoughts
If one of these ideas hits home with you or if we've completely missed a great idea, let us know about it!
Email us at info@heavenlysoundworks.com with your feedback.
Regardless of what we land on for our demo, if you’re as passionate about music as we are, we can’t wait to share our system with you!
See you at the shows!
Upcoming News
Upcoming Review
Next month a brand new review is set to publish about our FIVE17 Loudspeaker! This time including full acoustical measurements from an Anechoic Chamber! Keep an eye out for it Mid April. We'll be sure to link to it in the newsletter's next issue!
Audio Shows
As you probably could tell from the Insights piece above, we are working on our plans for the upcoming shows! No new information to share yet, but stay tuned. We will announce more details when we can!