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In the Forum: Playback Listening
In the Thread: Be careful: Imaging vs. Compression
Post Subject: Re: Phantom pain, not missing a thing.Posted by Gregm on: 2/15/2006
 Hugh wrote:

The best advice I can give to those willing to seek out the location is to put away your calculators and measuring tapes.  Also, I'm convinced this ideal location tends to float around a little over time requiring slight speaker re-positioning from time to time.
Regarding the former, I beg to disagree specifically when dealing with multi-driver speakers. The process is painstaking and I find that having a measured starting point is useful, especially with unfamiliar spkrs.

As to the latter (repositioning fm time to time), I agree. However, I tend to attribute it to changes in the system upstream. Not to put a too fine point on it, modulations in the signal coming to the spkrs can change the phase relations of frequency bands between two spkrs -- hence the need to slightly re-position. This is just my idea...

Coming back to the "multi-driver" spkrs -- especially unfamiliar ones. It has taken me a long time to "optimise" the positioning of a pair of 4-way spkrs (9 drive-units, of which two in the back, in phase) -- and reach a level that's probably "beginner's level 4" as described by Romy above.
One difficulty in "correctly" positioning these two in the room came fm the number of frequency bands that have to be "coupled". Simply put, moving ONE spkr 1degree front tow-in with less than 1mm movement in the back will change the phase relation in 4 frequency ranges. For example, the tweets may snap into "focus" while the mid-bass recede (phase problem).
{BTW, by "focus" I mean the sound between them -- not the soundstaging & three-dimensional presentation, breathtaking rendition of detail, et alia nauseating mumbo-jumbo.}

As I am experiencing the situation now, I have reached a point where words like "dynamics" and "speed" come to mind regarding the result of the two spkrs playing together. All of this within the limitations of the spkrs and the system of course.
BTW, in order to guard against accidents, I have taped the contour of the spkrs (which are usefully floorstanding).

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