A Zu / Tekton / Omega Speaker Positioning Thread


Friends,

I'm a couple of months into ownership of a pair of 10-inch fullrangers, Zu Omens in this case. In extensive play with positioning, I've managed to get incredible tone out of them, the best I've ever heard -- but great soundstaging still eludes me. Specifically they fail at creating images outside of the speakers. On a recording of Bill Berry's Ellington Allstars, for example, my old 2-way monitors placed a trumpet 2.5 feet to the outside of the right speaker, and a sax just to the left, still outside the speaker. Now it's just two _great-sounding_ horns emerging directly from the right speaker.

We may be up against a reality that the limitation of 10-inch fullrangers is the inability to completely disappear, but let us have a discussion of best practices when positioning these guys.
cymbop

Showing 1 response by genjamon

I have Lores. Not sure my exact dimensions off the top of my head, but it's something like 35" from front wall to rear of speakers, low-20's inches from side walls to middle of drivers, and toe-in is so that they cross about a foot in FRONT of my face. I have preferred this approach as it gives a wider sweet spot and doesn't really sacrifice on imaging as far as I can tell.

One thing not mentioned yet that I also do - tilt the speakers up a bit. I have the front spikes elevated about 1/2 inch above the back spikes (a 1/2" wood block under the front ones). I haven't experimented with different amounts of elevation, which would probably be a good idea, but the elevating completely transformed the imaging/soundstage from laser-focused and sometimes intense to the point of listener fatigue to much more natural, spacious, and still with good imaging. If the point of toe-in is to listen just slightly off-axis, it probably makes sense to do so in the vertical dimension as well as the horizontal.

Also important to note might be room treatments. I have GIK panels at first reflections on sidewalls, GIK bass triangles floor to ceiling in front corners, and a GIK panel I put in front of my flat screen TV. I also have four GIK 2'X2' diffusion panels - two at front left and front right, and two directly to the rear of listening position.