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Welcome: This area is for AV Professionals, Manufacturers, Dealers and Consultants. It is our goal to improve the sound quality of today's home theaters and audio systems. By working together toward this goal we will make the HAA logo a valuable and meaningful element in your marketing efforts. If you have just attended the HAA seminar you will be able to update your contact information and take your certification test at [Account Info]. HAA Level II Workshops are now scheduled to cover this summer: We’ll be in Austin in May and in LA in July. These are new cities for the Level II and as always promise to be highly instructional, very challenging and fun. The venue in Austin is in a residence providing some very realistic challenges and real world training. We haven’t nailed down the LA site yet but I expect it to be in the northern part of the area. If you’re nearby and have been waiting for a local site, this will be your chance. Our last Workshop in Orlando provided some real world challenges of it’s own. Located inside the International Palms Resort on International Blvd the room was nearly square, had very high ceilings and could help but vibrate on it’s own to the music. The team strategized on ways to reduce the vibration but the best strategy turned out to be calibrating subs. The reduction of resonance provided a dramatic improvement not only on clarity, smoothness and focus but on the noisy ceiling tiles. What challenges will the next room hold for the Level II team? I hope you can join us to help solve them. The HAA Level II is the elite training in the AV Industry. Limited to no more than 5 students per training room, no other training experience takes you farther in such a short time span. The three day intensive curriculum provides the "hands-on" component to your HAA education in Sound Quality Management. Each 5 person team performs a series of challenging exercises aimed at connecting the theory, technology and experience of great sonic performance. Often called a three day listening session the class calls on the best of all participants to solve complex problems within a limited timeframe. This experience is designed to prepare the student for the real-world problem solving adventure that is the HAA Level II Calibration. Successful candidates for the Level II certification join an elite cadre of industry professionals who exemplify the high performance top of our industry. Prerequisite is attendance in the HAA Level I Seminar or the Level II Prep Course. CEDIA offers 8 CEUs for the Level II. Here are a couple of snapshots of the first class: More Pictures
What is Good Sounding Bass? (from the last HAA Newsletter) One of the hardest things for me to describe in words alone is the sound of good bass. Oh yes, the terms deep, tight and fast always come up but that’s misses the mark for many non-audiophiles. Let’s face it for many folks bass is that satisfyingly loud and booming sound that keeps track of the beat. The tuning of bass becomes a combination of cranking up the bass control and pushing the sub into the corner. For many others however, bass is a painful artifact that is best minimized. Is it possible to make everyone happy? Probably not, but I believe it is possible that bass lovers and haters can both enjoy the same bass calibration settings leaving the debate to instead hinge on their choice of listening material and sound level. The key to bringing both bass “camps” together is recognizing that most bass haters are especially sensitive to bass boom. Bass boom is caused by the exaggeration of certain frequencies by resonance. This ringing effect can be particularly annoying when soundtracks become dominated by low frequency sounds that aren’t proportional. A conversation in a train is muddied by excessive background rumbling or an acoustic guitar creates an artificial thumping like a bass drum. This problem is exacerbated by the fact that fixing this problem by turning down the bass often drains the life out of the cool stuff. Music sounds thin or worse the explosions are wimpy. The key to creating a balanced result depends on two factors 1) Minimizing resonance and 2) replacing the lost boom with smooth sound power. Unfortunately, it is the boom that allows a cheap sub to play loud and therein is the real problem; good and loud bass is not inexpensive. Here’s the best reason for using high quality aka expensive subwoofers. As you tune a system to remove resonance either by speaker placement or equalization you are losing gain. This gain must be made up by the subwoofers inherent capability i.e. limited capability equals limited bass. Cheap subwoofers are a disservice because they depend on bad sound (boom) to play loud enough. One technique now touted by THX and CEDIA is to place two or four subwoofers at the midpoints of a listening room. This placement actually reduces resonance mechanically by placing the subwoofers in the nulls of many of the annoying resonances (NOTE: this technique does not eliminate all resonances thus depends on EQ as well). The downside is that these resonances actually increase the apparent gain of the sub. The thundering boom of an explosion depends now mostly on the actual power of the sub. An obvious result is that listeners that grew up associating boom with good bass must reevaluate their listening criteria. Instead of enjoying the ringing boom of their listening room they must learn to appreciate the true sound of a bass guitar or drum. The good news is that the added sense of realism delivered with the added clarity is quite seductive. An old trick to teach this appreciation to a non-audiophile is to do an A/B comparison over time. Allow the listener to get used to the calibrated sound then return it back to the old boomy uncalibrated stuff. Besides being seductive, calibrated bass can be addictive and they will want it back. This process works for bass haters as well since the annoyance is gone even at higher sound levels. An interesting sidebar is that good bass can actually improve the sound of high frequencies as well. Better clarity and focus (imaging) is always attained. Taking the time to properly place subwoofers and tune their equalization is one of the fundamental benefits of audio calibration. In addition, if one is willing to accept the reduced sound level even a lesser sub can sound better with the simplest changes. Try moving the sub to counteract one of the worst modal resonances by moving it into the null for that resonance. You might not solve all the problems but the improvement will likely be substantial. So a description
of good bass is not as useful as experiencing it but in lieu of that your
good advice should always encourage proper sub placement and EQ. In the
long run, it will assure a professional result and it might just make
the difference in mixed marriages; bass lovers versus bass haters that
is. Comment about this topic or other on the HAA Dealer Forum. Have You Allowed Your HAA Membership to Lapse?: If you are no longer on the HAA Dealer Locator, or you can't access the HAA Forum or other member services; you may need to renew your membership. It’s very easy to renew requiring only your member number, password and $49 per year. This is a small organization so the proceeds are not big money makers. Rather it is a way to finance publicizing and improving the www.homeacoustics.net web site. Please consider rejoining and keep in mind your use of logos and HAA materials requires membership. Go to the Renew Membership link. If you forgot your member number and password it can be immediately emailed to you via the Forgot Member # link. Rejoin us!! AVPro Report Suite: Calling all Level I Calibrators. If you haven't downloaded the HAA's official report writing software yet, please check out the "Trial" for free. The ADR/ACR modules of the software are specifically designed to make creation of a highly informational and complete analysis report quick and painless. Many of our current users have commented on the compliments and added credibility gained by presenting their customers with this very professional product. In addition, three more modules will be added through the next year at no additional charge over the introductory price. See Software for more details on the AVPro Report Suite. Level I Prep Course Option is important to successful HAA Level II : Of the suggestions obtained from the first Level II seminar the need for a Level I refresher was the one of the strongest. Toward that end a one day Level I refresher will be offered prior to the commencement of each Workshop. To learn more click Level II here. Sign up now to make sure you get a seat. To register go to Seminar Registration [Schedule].
HAA Level I and Level II Seminars Provide CEDIA CEUs: The HAA Level I Seminar and now the Level II Workshop are approved as a Continuing Education Unit provider for CEDIA. This means that either HAA class is now worth 8 units toward your CEDIA certification goals. For more information on CEDIA and the CEU program go to [CEDIA FAQ]. |
