Tweakers' Asylum Tweaks for systems, rooms and Do It Yourself (DIY) help. FAQ.

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Taste

Posted by Jim Smith (P) on November 23, 2008 at 00:24:14

In Reply to: "…speakers were separated in a ratio of.83 compared to the listening distance…" posted by David Aiken on November 22, 2008 at 15:58:10:

Lee is referring to the third step in my voicing process, once the plane of the listening seat and the plane of the loudspeakers have been generally determined.

In that step, I refer to a finding that showed up fairly consistently in hundreds of installations.

In this section, I'm referring to my preference (not in any way presented as a requirement) for the overall sound quality. I never measure first, but when I do measure after the voicing is complete, more often than not, we're close to that .83 number.

The .83 is my observation of the tweeter center-to-tweeter center as a percentage of the distance from the ear to the tweeter diaphragm. Putting it another way, if the distance from ear to tweeter is x, then y (tweeter center-to-tweeter center) often ended up being about 83% of x.

In that same section, I acknowledge some listener's preferences for the wider separation that results from an equilateral triangle. I mention that I know some audiophiles and reviewers who actually prefer y to be greater than x.

While I can appreciate the sometimes uncanny imaging from wider spacing, in terms of my taste, I don't care for the thinning out of the tonal palette that occurs. I personally do not want to give up a measure of warmth, presence, and tonal density to achieve pin-point imaging. This trend began way back in the early 80s when I was doing a fair amount of free-lance recording for a NPR station and various universities and churches. Playback of the master tapes was where/when this preference began to evolve.

Assuming a certain toe-in as required for each speaker, my goal is for the speakers to disappear and the feeling is that the musicians packed up their stuff to come over and play for me in my room. Srajan Ebaen commented on that aspect when he visited me here in Atlanta for the interview he published (a excerpt of which is on our website).

The point is that I want folks to realize that tuning for one aspect can cause another to suffer. And give them an idea how to move from favoring one aspect to the other. Based on their preferences, they'll have better info as to how to pick the best compromise.

For context, the tip is called, Tip #77: Step 3. Fine tuning tonal balance and stero imaging with stereo separation and speaker placement.

Best regards,

Jim Smith

Edits: 11/23/08

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