John Meyer to give 'loudspeaker' talk at AES
September 10, 2018

John Meyer to give 'loudspeaker' talk at AES

NEW YORK CITY — Sound reinforcement pioneer and innovator John Meyer will deliver the AES New York 2018 Convention’s Heyser Memorial Lecture on Friday, October 19th, at 6:30pm. Speaking on the topic “Taking the Room Out of the Loudspeaker: New Tools for Transparent Reproduction,” Meyer will share his expertise on loudspeaker design and applications from his 50-plus years of experience in the industry. The 145th AES International Convention (aesshow.com) is being held October 17th through 20th at the Jacob Javits Convention Center in New York City. 

Established in 1999 by the AES Technical Council and the Board of Governors, in conjunction with the Richard Heyser Scholarship fund, the Heyser Lecture series, featured at each AES Convention, brings eminent individuals in audio engineering and related fields to speak on a relevant topic of choice. Meyer, who is also an AES Fellow and recipient of the AES Silver Medal award, offers the following abstract of his presentation:
 
“With few exceptions, loudspeakers are not used in a free field environment but rather in an enclosed acoustical space. This is inherently problematic, as an acoustical space behaves in a manner similar to that of loudspeakers, making it difficult to separate the problematic characteristics of each using common measurement tools or subjective listening tests. This lecture will review the history of loudspeaker measurement tools as used both in the free field and in acoustical space, including Richard Heyser’s pioneering TDM methods and Meyer Sound’s own SIM (Source Independent Measurement) systems. A key focus will be on a new multi-component studio monitor that exhibits absolutely flat amplitude and phase response from 27Hz to 20kHz. Because this system effectively ‘takes the room out of the loudspeaker,’ it opens up possibilities for correlating new objective testing techniques with subjective listening observations. The lecture also will discuss a new test signal known as M-Noise, which effectively mimics the dynamics of music and avoids inherent weaknesses in the use of pink noise with third-octave analyzers when testing loudspeaker systems used for music. The retrospective will touch on other benchmarks in the quest for linear sound amplification, including the early Glyph large-horn systems, the Grateful Dead’s ‘Wall of Sound’ and the HD-1 high resolution studio monitor, a trusted near-field reference that remains in Meyer Sound’s product line 29 years after its introduction.”
 
The AES New York 2018 Convention will offer four days of Technical Program presentations, workshops, discussions and panels. The 145th AES Convention will feature the largest-ever offering of free-to-attend workshops and tutorials on the exhibition floor and throughout the convention’s demo room areas. Complimentary Exhibits-Plus badges are available to AES members or by using VIP promo code AES18NOW during online registration (aesshow.com).