Tweeter below mid-woofer

Kind of a funny question for me. I was recently thinking of starting a thread about imaging, soundstage and driver arrangement. Your question obviously touches on all of these subjects. This can be a very complex subject, so we'll try and keep it simple and go from there.

If the drivers are on a flat baffle and the designer has taken no steps to simulate "time alignment" in the crossover, placing the tweeter below the mid-woofer will result in imaging that wants to project upward. As such, these type of speakers will typically work best if the tweeter is slightly below ear level. The opposite is true when using a more conventional tweeter above mid-woofer approach that we usually see. That is, the tweeter should "typically" be placed at or slightly above ear level. In a three way design with the tweeter mounted between the woofer and midrange, things can get pretty weird due to comb-filtering.

When using stand mounted monitors, buying a cheap pair of "adjustable" stands will help you to find their optimum height, but you also have to remember that height affects frequency response / tonal balance. As such, trade-offs are involved much like the rest of audio.

As far as your specific situation with the floor-standing PSB Bronze's, you might want to contact the manufacturer and discuss your thoughts. Otherwise, if you are happy with the Paradigms but just want more "oomph", have you considered subwoofers ? Sean
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Marakanetz: When "auditioning" various tweeters, what do you do about the tweeter trying to reproduce out of band information ? Sean
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What i was asking was "are you doing anything to reduce the tweeter from trying to reproduce notes outside of the usable bandwidth for that individual driver" ? If so, what approach are you using i.e. passive or active crossovers ? If you are not limiting the bandwidth of the tweeter, you're not really hearing what the tweeter is capable of. Sean
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It is "possible" that they could "image higher", but some of that will depend on how the drivers are laid out on the baffle, the spacing between them and what the crossover points are. I looked on PSB's website but found very limited info on these speakers.

Given the fact that you are going from a stand mounted monitor to a floor mounted box, my guess is that the sound will appear to come from a lower point than what you are currently experiencing. This has to do with the larger baffle acting as a sound board. As such, the sound will tend to be concentrated closer to the ground. Once again though, the layout of the drivers on the baffle and crossover points come into play here. Without more info, i can't help you.

Have you tried talking to someone at PSB ? If you get Paul Barton, tell him you know NOTHING about speakers and tell him to keep it simple. He has a hard time communicating his ideas from my past experiences listening to him speak. Sean
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