Music for setting up speakers

Dear @kgveteran  : The @rodman99999  and the @murphythecat  are very good advises different but very good ones.

I agree that our ears/brain " knows a lot " but measures can tell us what in reality is happening down there even if we like what we are hearing.

About solo acoustic instrument piano is eassential and gives you excellent idea of what you are looking for.

Regards and enjoy the MUSIC NOT DISTORTIONS,
R.

" While one can use test instruments, to measure and balance SPLs and correct frequency response aberrations; they can’t replace the human ear, when it comes to ambience recovery and voice placement (whether instrument or vocal). What, exactly, would you measure, pray tell?
"
using a mic is all one need.
ambience recovery and voice placement, if one have a treated room and use early reflection panels, wont be affected by micro speaker placement.
if one have not a treated room, using music to try to find the best placement is totally useless and unreliable. acoustics are a understood science. I dont get how audiophile miss this completely and rely on some sort of voodoo: no room treatment, no proper speaker positioning nor finding the best listening position again using a mic.

No professional would ever work this way, yet a big majority of audiophile have no clue to the damage their room imparts, and rely on audiophile myths (such as put plants in the corner, a thick rug and sofa’s and your room will sound just fine, or use music to find the best speaker placement)

   

     To quote Bobby Owsinksi from his book:  The Mastering Engineer's Handbook, 4th Edition:

"The LEDR test is a substitute for about $30,000 to $40,000 worth of test equipment.

Stereophile also has an article about it, written in 1989 (!) by Bob Katz.

Luckily it's 2016 and we don't have to buy expensive CDs anymore, as there is an online version of this test here: http://www.audiocheck.net/audiotests_ledr.php

If the sound for the up image doesn’t go straight up from your loudspeaker,six feet in the air as you sit there in your position,then you’ve got a problem with your crossover or with reflections above the loudspeaker.

If the sound doesn’t travel from left to right evenly and smoothly with the left-to-right test,then you’ve got problems with objects between your loudspeakers.

And the same with the beyond signal, which is supposed to go from about one foot to the left of the left speaker, gradually over to one foot to the right of the right speaker, which detects reflections from the side wall."

 

    

@murphythecat -    

          AGAIN: what, exactly, are you measuring; to obtain information, regarding ambience recovery (recorded sound space width, depth and height) and accurate voice placement (whether instrument or vocal)?

           What are you using for a source, to produce the signal you're capturing/measuring, with your mic?

" AGAIN: what, exactly, are you measuring; to obtain information, regarding ambience recovery (recorded sound space width, depth and height) and accurate voice placement (whether instrument or vocal)?

What are you using for a source, to produce the signal you’re capturing/measuring, with your mic?"

Yes, Arta software with a cheap measuring mic. Arta have pink/white noise.

Ambience recovery, voice placement and proper soundstage quality is totally related to the speaker-boundaries relationship. ETC measuremets are what is traditionnaly used to understand ETC (rather the rate of decay at different FREQ)

a good room is a room that offer even decay at all frequencies. that can only be acheived (if you want more then a vice-in-head listening position) with treating the early reflections. once the early reflections are treated, moving the right speaker 30 cm here or 30 cm there will not affect ambience, soundstage, ect.

you have to understand that the method proposed by many here, which is to listen to music and place your speakers, can be valid for people who cannot or wont treat their rooms.