American Scientist

January-February 2025

Volume: 113 Number: 1

Few things in life are more satisfying yet elusive than a live musical performance. For nearly a century and a half, audio engineers have designed equipment to recapture the concert hall experience, without ever fully succeeding. In The Science of Hi-Fi Audio, John G. Beerends and Richard Van Everdingen explain that part of the problem is human subjectivity. Beerends has helped develop precise standards for quantifying the perceived quality of spoken words, but no such standards exist for music because people vary so much in their individual responses. There is also the challenge of sonic immersion: Stereo systems produce too little, whereas home theater setups produce too much. Beerends and Van Everdingen have collaborated on a novel loudspeaker that addresses both issues, producing immersive sound that mimics the qualities of a concert hall, while allowing listeners to adjust that sound to their own preferences. (Cover illustration by Michael Morgenstern.)