After recording them to the hard drive and then playing through the Sandbox problem solved. This $20 plug-in and $700.00 sound card beat a $4,000.00 (with mods) SACD player.Īnother benefit: I owned a few SACD recordings that were almost unlistenable over a long period of time, a set of Beethoven String Quartets and Mendelssohn /Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto’s performed by Isaac Stern. Between the effect of the Sandbox and the quality of my Lynx L22, I sold my fancy Sony SCD 777es, which was Kern modified. Still many recordings sound shockingly better at a lower resolution (48khz) because the natural ambiance and 3-D experience has been recovered. I have not captured 100% of the ease and weight of vinyl. I record both vinyl and SACD’s to my hard drive at 24/96. Never have I been so close to live music in my living room. I have listened to a particular work, e g Beethoven’s violin concerto, Shostakovich’s 5th Symphony, Strauss’ don Quixote, gone home and listened to it with and without the Sandbox.
I subscribe to the New York Philharmonic at Avery Fisher Hall and to a series at Carnegie Hall. For some this could mean a slight drop in resolution.Īs stated, it provides very realistic hall ambiance and a sense of 3-D depth. Also, if the signal you feed it is above 48khz, it will resample it down to 48khz. If you love the sound of live music you won’t miss ASIO. Some users will probably find a very slight drop in resolution because of this. This is not for those that insist on ASIO. You might have to sacrifice a slight amount of resolution to use it. It probably took me about a week to fully “get†the controls.Ĥ. I play with the other 5 controls to optimize the sound for each recording, but have basic settings for my own personal default. I never compress the music and simply set the Speaker size to 40hz and leave it. There is a learning curve in using the effects. In the remaining 20% it makes little difference or makes the sound worse.ģ. In my experience it works well to spectacularly well in about 80% of the recordings I listen to, which consists almost entirely of classical. It does not work well with every recording. Sadly, many audiophiles have little actual experience with live music.Ģ. The Sandbox is best suited for music that is presented in a real venue, such as jazz or classical. A nice effect but impossible in a real venue. At some point a female chorus appears over his left shoulder and above his ear. As an example, I was listening to Leonard Cohen’s “Suzanneâ€. The final product has nothing to do with the sound of a live concert where the hall is an important contributor to the sound. Probably most popular music today is mixed and mastered to produce an end product that is an essential part of the artist’s intention. You must prefer live music to recorded music to fully appreciate this plug-in. This is not a plugin for those who are looking for strict signal fidelity in their music. Limiter Level- this introduces compression.ġ. SRS Definition- delivers a more lively and brilliant sound by highlighting the high frequency details originally presented in the audio source 7. Speaker size-set this to the frequency where the bass in your speakers drop off 6. SRS FOCUS optimize speaker output to compensate and reposition audio placement 5.
SRS 3D Center Control- a virtual†zoom lens that dynamically extracts and positions the dialog in the foreground or background of the audio mix 3. SRS 3D - 3D stereo enhancement for mono or stereo content 2.
Briefly, it separates sonic reflections, which are the source of spacial cues, and manipulates them in a very sophisticated way to bring out the actual hall ambiance from the venue where the music was recorded. Those who are technically inclined can learn more at the website. Generally, the Sandbox is, to borrow a phrase, is a 21rst century tone control that manipulates sound field information and frequency response in a highly sophisticated way to create (usually) a very realistic sound field/hall ambiance. I feel that it is reason enough for almost everyone to switch to computer audio. Nevertheless I have concluded, in spite of certain significant caveats and initial skepticism, that it represents the single biggest step I have encountered in simulating the experience of live music in a home environment. It is not marketed for audiophiles, but more like an mp3 sound enhancer.
It is made for a PC but a similar product is available for macs.I have no experience with the multi-channel effects.
The SRS Audio Sandbox is a $20.00 software plug-in that I have been using for over a year in stereo mode.