> I assume, somewhere, someone has a compendium of recommended hardware for
ambisonics? Something to sanity check/inform equipment selections of someone
building My First Ambisonics Rig?
Not at all Monty. This is an important question and I am ashamed to say I
can't point you to a good answer.
In the meantime, have a look at
Permananent Ambisonic Systems from
www.ambisonia.com\Members\ricardo
Using identical speakers gives much better results, though matched phase is
sufficient.
> (i.e. reversing phase on a driver breaks it completely)
This isn't true and would invalidate about 70% of good small speakers.
My choice would be The Core on the above page. If you are using Windoz, some
old multichannel soundcards are not always in synch without ASIO. In fact some
new soundcards with WDM drivers are still not in synch. Use ASIO with Windoz.
Decoders are a problem. There are only 3 decoders which nearly meet the
definition of a Classic Ambisonic Decoder and hence perform at least as well as
the old hardware decoders.
Bruce Wiggins' WAD http://sparg.derby.ac.uk/SPARG/Staff_BW.asp
David McGriffy's VVMic http://mcgriffy.com
Fon's AmbDec http://www.kokkinizita.net/linuxaudio
WAD is the obvious answer if you are an evil Windoz user as it links nicely into
Windoz Media Player. VST version also.
VVMic is the most flexible. VST version also.
Fon's stuff is the choice for Linux. It is the only fully compliant Classic
Ambisonic software Decoder with matched phase Shelf filters and distance
compensation.
Of the hardware decoders, only the excellent Meridian decoders are still
available. But see
http://www.geocities.com/ambinutter/AMBISONIC_HOME_PAGE.html
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