Oh how nice it would be to have a room that offered options for speaker placement. One day. Right now there is the credenza where they have to go so we do our best.
Speaker placement and soundstage
I've been thinking and that is not usually a good thing. The recommended speaker and listening position roughly forms an equilateral triangle. This positions the speakers 30° to the leaf and right for a general sound stage of 60°. Sure, some recordings have a very rich sound stage that can go beyond that 60°, but in the music I listen to, that is few and far between (progressive rock, arena rock, symphonic rock, etc.). The birds in Even in the Quietest Moments register a solid 60° to 80° left and right so my system can present a wide sound stage, but the "normal" 60° feels like sitting in row Z at a concert. I'm tempted to explore toeing the speakers in more and getting closer to create a wider field between the speakers knowing it might blow up that sensitive "beyond the speakers" sound stage. Has anyone gone down this rabbit hole?
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There is no such thing as "pressuring" the room. Sound waves are a combination of alternating high and low pressure regions. "Pressurizing" a room usually means enhancing rather than decreasing the effects of room resonances. One needs to decrease the effects of room resonances, not increase them. The geometry of the room dictates where these resonances are. Placement of furniture, rugs, wall tapestry, fiberglass absorbing "traps" does not change the resonances, those are fixed by the room resonances. All one can do is to decrease the effects of the room resonances, both the peaks and the nulls. Physical traps are very effective, but not the only solution. Proper placement of the traps with respect to the optimized listening and speaker locations, combined with judicious use of equalization (analog or digital) is the way to create a bass sound that is not boomy, but smooth, treating all frequencies equally. |
@toddsyr, thanks for those links. They came in very useful with my speakers. Altec 311/60s on top of LaScala bass bins. Now my horns are dialed in correctly. |
@danmar123 You're welcome but I learned about it right here on Audiogon. The method makes a nice difference for sure and it's free! Once placement has been done then you do the room treatment. It then gets even better. |
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