Sonarworks establishes a new studio reference sound standard “Sonarworks Sr” for speakers and headphones

Sonarworks has established a new digital sound standard, to be included with the latest update of company's Reference 4 sound calibration software launching in early June. The standardization technology, called Sonarworks SR, aims to resolve the age-old industry problem of disparate sonic reference points for audio professionals — delivering the same accurate studio reference sound on speakers and headphones.

By using patented, research-driven digital technologies, Sonarworks SR sets the frequency response to be like completely neutral speakers in a treated room. The calibration of headphones is done using a calibration profile pre-measured in Sonarworks lab, while speaker calibration profile is produced by a user on-the-spot using Sonarworks measurement software.

Solving an age-old problem for a new generation.

"The entire professional audio community is acutely aware of the fact that every room and every headphone invariably has the effect of coloring sound. This has had an enormous negative impact on both costs and productivity — not to mention creative workflow. We estimate that at least one-fifth of the effort in the music industry is spent dealing with translation issues," said Martins Popelis, VP and co-Founder of Sonarworks. "By establishing Sonarworks SR, we have an opportunity to align the entire audio industry on a common audio reference that works with unprecedented accuracy across different locations, devices and operators. We want to liberate music creators from monitoring translation issues so they can focus on musical decisions rather than working around the physical limitations of their room and gear, " he added.

Starting with the latest update to Reference 4, Sonarworks SR will be included in all of Sonarworks software products, reducing the need for professionals to check their mixes on different listening systems while dramatically improving workflow and production times.

A new standard with professional ingredients

The Sonarworks SR standard is comprised of patented sound measurement technology and professional grade signal processing. The result is accuracy (+/- 0.9 dB) among different locations, playback devices and users. The standard works equally well on both loudspeakers and headphones and is simple to set up. Sonarworks SR also employs an innovative speaker measurement methodology that captures sound from 37 data-source points — which was determined by Sonarworks researchers to be the optimal point count providing accuracy and measurement repeatability.