We experimented with binaurally recording the sound of some of the exhibit rooms at last November's New York Audio Show using a pair of Sony lavalier electret mikes suspected in front of Herb Reichert's ears. The results were positive but the binaural "you-are-there" effect was not as great as we had hoped, due to the fact that mikes were a little too far away from the the ears' pinnae.
So, for our coverage of the 2018 Consumer Electronics show in Las Vegas, we purchased Sennheiser's "Ambeo" binaural system, which mounts microphones on the outer surfaces of a pair of earbuds, thus allowing the pinnae to influence each mike's pick-up pattern. The Ambeo connects to an iPhone and its output can be recorded with the iPhone Camera app. JA scrupulously kept his head still while recording, so if you listen to the soundtrack of this video with headphones, you will hear what he heard without getting motion sickness.
In this report, John Atkinson visits the Lamm, Vandersteen, and VTL rooms, talks to the exhibitors about their systems and their thoughts on the show, listens to some of his recordings, as well as some chosen by the exhibitors, and offers his thoughts on what he had just heard. But first, Michael Fremer shows off his Karaoke skills!
