Re: OT: Personal Audio Space?

["Allan Hoeltje" <ahoeltje@best.com>]

The Exploratorium is not elliptical, it is just a long, large 
warehouse-like
hall with lots of things on display.  It is a very noisy environment with
lots of people and kids talking and moving about.  The chairs look like big
open eggs, made of concrete I think, and have an elliptical back.  They sit
some 50 feet apart directly across from each other and the space between is
usually cluttered with people and noise.  I don't know the physics but I
would guess the hard curved back surface of the chair makes a focal point
and the sound generated inside the chair is focused onto the other chair.
The noise from the hall itself is reduced significantly inside the chair
which makes it a very nice spot to sit.

The Exploratorium is a wonderful place to go and see kids (and adults) 
doing
playful unsupervised hands-on science.  They do not have a loop display per
se but they usually have some pretty cool music related things.  I usually
go twice a year and have a blast.

-Allan

----------
>From: jim palmer <jimp@pobox.com>
>To: Loopers-Delight@loopers-delight.com
>Subject: Re: OT: Personal Audio Space?
>Date: Wed, Jun 20, 2001, 4:22 PM
>

> was this room eliptical?
>
> this sounds like what happens if you position yourself
> and another person at the two focal points of an eliptical room...
> (all first order reflections arrive in phase)
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: <stanitarium@earthlink.net>
> To: <Loopers-Delight@loopers-delight.com>
> Sent: Monday, June 18, 2001 11:11 PM
> Subject: Re: OT: Personal Audio Space?
>
>
>> this is really ot but here in sf,cali there is that wacky place called 
>'the
>> exploratorium' where there all these exhibits of weird and wonderful 
>manmade
>> and natural phenomenon and one of them is these two chairs that sit 
>across
>> from each other aprox.50ft. or so(maybe not that far!) and you are to 
>sit in
>> them and talk to each other in a normal voice and thru all the 
>cacaphony of
>> the place which is more like a warehouse and echoey as hell w/ alotta 
>kid
>> and people,the person at the other chair can hear you perfectly and you 
>can
>> have a conversation as if there was no one else around-how is it done?no
>> idea-but there is a kinda acoustic cone that is actually the chair and i
>> guess that sends the voices i dont know,kinda sorry i brought it 
>up...but it
>> would be great for restaraunts of which you speak!
>>
>> stanner
>> ----------
>
>
>