Rapture "Room-Lock" Calibration

The concept is simple. As an example, you might have the world's best camera, but if everything isn't dialed in towards a result, that result - your picture - can never be satisfactory.

Your SYSTEM, as defined by electronics, loudspeakers, cables, supports and other tweaks, work with your ROOM ACOUSTICS - to give you their potential result.

Your ROOM ACOUSTICS, as defined by room type, materials, designs, furnishings will work with your SYSTEM to determine exactly where your loudspeakers should go.

As much as there is no substitute for a well thought-out system, there is no substitute for good implementation of these components, including loudspeaker positioning. This process is known as ROOM-LOCK.

ROOM-LOCKED sound is incredibly more enjoyable. It is integral to serious listening, however humble or adventurous your investment into your system might be.

Stereo imaging is the effect of listening to the intentions of a recording engineer in conveying a recording.

The illusion of a stereo image is created by the engineer’s placement of instruments in the recording, and how loud or soft these instruments come across. The intention is to convey the meaning of the music to you, the audience. This intention is the result you paid for - the album - and usually involves degrees of involvement from producer, engineer and band.

Realizing Stereo imaging is the least Compromise between how far apart your loudspeakers can go and how far away you can sit in a triangulated position.

Getting loudspeaker positioning right will add to the power of a performance, making music more meaningful an experience.

Room-locking your system... What used to be the weakest link in the chain.

Getting an audio or AV system to perform is similar to getting a race car to perform. There are fundamentals to address, and numerous little things to pay attention to, before which, or failing which, a system cannot “come to life”.

It is a fallacy that merely spending more money will yield better results; very often, the implementation of higher-end equipment results in worse sound - because more of your room’s own acoustic signature, is being excited.

Further, to say that everybody’s room is different is a half -truth; as a matter of fact, even the textbook example of a good room ALMOST ALWAYS HAS differing sonic characteristics on where you might place a loudspeaker... the same loudspeaker will normally sound different when placed to the left, center, right or rear of the room. This has to do with furnishings, and also, the very materials that make up the room.

The established “golden rules” of loudspeaker positioning can be useful guides, but do not take the above factors into consideration, and are therefore inadequate.

Loudspeakers are the single component that interact with the room. In spite of that, very few loudspeaker manufacturers are precise in providing instructions.

A big reason for this is they want to cater to a wide range of customers and need to be vague.

At this time, Digital calibration, even with the best calibration microphones, is best suited to home cinema. The resulting equalization does not guarantee the temporal integrity of sound waves. The lesser the time-based distortions, the more convinced the brain perceives an artificial sound as real. So how can these methods be reliable?

The Rapture Room-Lock Calibration (RRLC) uses a set of recordings to address fundamentals that are uniform to recordings. How these recordings interact with the room will allow us to let you know if anything is wrong in your system, and to tweak the physical location of your speakers so that they at once disappear and make sound more pleasurable.

Factors that affect RRLC are travel time, duration of visit, and complexity of a system. Though not typically so, it is safe to assume that charges can range up to $1000 per day. Travel charges are not a factor in the process fee, and are charged separately.

Please mail vik@rapturehome.com with questions on RRLC for your home!