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Due to the configuration of my living room I have to sit much closer to my horns that I normally would, PLUS I'm actually sitting in one of the null points for midbass frequencies it seems.
That gives me a rather meager and midrange/treble prominent balance when the horns are what I call "normally" toed-in (firing just behind shoulders), and a precise but rather cold stereo image.
I used to artificially pad down the relative levels of midrange and tweeters, creating other issues.
So I've decided to stop messing with the levels and try a more radical positioning of the speakers instead: i know have them pushed in the corners, crossing a few feet in front of me. Left speaker fires at the right end of the sofa, and right speaker at the left end of the sofa (it's a pretty long LC3 sofa).
Such placement helps a lot, I feel, when listening to horns in near field and helps boosting ambience and warmth. It's not perfect tho and sometimes creates ping-pong stéréo effects. But all in all I think I can live with the result. Especially with my new midrange drivers which improved clarity quite a fait bit.
Is anybody else listening to their horns in such a configuration? Looking at systems online you don't see it so often yet it's a proven method and, correct me if I'm wrong, was one of the ideas leading to the JBL D55000 Everest. of course when you have a huge listening space, a more traditional positioning is probably always better.
Edits: 05/29/17Follow Ups:
I have had my altec granadas set up as an equilateral triangle with 8' sides and the apex right at the listening position for several years now. They are in my 30'x40' shop/garage and are about 15' from an end wall (short side) and facing toward it. The listening position is about 7' from the same wall. This set up gets rid of any reflection problems from the side walls (each speaker is about 10' from it's side wall) and sounds great. Picture a triangle with one speaker in each corner pointed directly at the listening position in the third corner. Imaging is great and the speakers virtually disappear. Sound stage is about 10' beyond the speakers. I am quite happy with this setup.
Edits: 05/31/17
Much/most of what you've written has to do with psychoacoustics - the science of how our ears and brain interpret and localizes the source of a sound.
You may want to look into and read about the topic.
Crossing the axes of your speakers a few feet in front of you makes perfect sense once you understand how the brain processes the received sound.
:)
I routinely use aggressive toe-in, ballpark 45 degrees, such that the speaker axes criss-cross a couple of feet in front of the listening area.The speakers I do this with are woofer/horn hybrids, with a constant-directivity horn having a 90 degree wide pattern (-6 dB limits) in the horizontal plane, crossed over to the woofer in the frequency region where their patterns match up in the horizontal plane. These are gentle waveguide-style horns, which do not use diffraction for pattern control, as diffraction horns can sound harsh.
This extreme toe-in configuration combined with this type of speaker offers at least two advantages:
1. Very wide sweet spot. The ear localizes sound by two mechanisms: Arrival time and intensity. For an off-centerline listener, the near speaker of course "wins" arrival time, but with our strong toe-en, the far speaker "wins" intensity, at least in the frequency range of greatest interest for imaging. The off-centerline listener is well off-axis of the near speaker, but is on-axis, or nearly so, of the far speaker. The secret to this working well is the pattern control of that near speaker: Its response must fall off smoothly and fairly rapidly as we move off-axis, and this is accomplished by the 90-degree constant-directivity characteristic from the crossover region on up. Listeners will still get a reasonably good soundstage from well off-centerline, and the spectral balance will hold up well across a relatively large area. Of course imaging will still be best up and down the centerline.
2. Reduced near-side-wall interaction. Because of the pattern width and approximately 45 degree toe-in angle, there is very little sidewall reflection off the near side wall. In fact, the first significant sidewall reflection of the left speaker is the long bounce off the right side wall, and vice-versa. Because of the way the ear processes reflections, this contributes to low coloration and improves sense of immersion in the acoustic space on the recording: Early-arrival same-side reflections tend to be interpreted as coloration, but later-arriving opposite-side reflections tend to be interpreted as spaciousness and ambience. Accomplishing this is often a goal of room acoustic treatment, but we can pretty much get there just with the right kind of speakers and the right kind of setup.
If you are getting a "ping-pong" effect, that is an indication the speakers are too far apart. You might try them closer together, keeping the axes criss-crossing a little bit in front of the central sweet spot.
Duke
Me being a dealer makes you leery?? It gets worse... I'm a manufacturer too.
Edits: 05/29/17
Crossed 'em in front of me and the effect was pretty good. The biggest problem (for me) with the 604Es I have is the rather tight "sweet spot" for the best stereo image.I've gone to rather extreme extremes to address the "head in a vise" image problem with the 604Es :-) With the current "FrankenAltec" configuration, I have them much less toed in (FWIW).
Edits: 05/29/17
Build some false corners, like Paul Klipsch and I did, then you can angle them however you like and even move them out of the real corners.
Claude, you reversed my question completely: I don't have Klipschorns. I have home made horns that don't require corner placement. I don't usually place them in the corners but in my current listening room I happen to like them placed in the corners with very serious toe-in :) almost like you would place Klipschorns (although they're not firing at 45 degrees from the corner) :)
oops
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