2. misc-audio
  3. 161049-141440

1st Post Intro & Ramblings

Hi all, I have been a member for about 10 years and never posted anything although I do read a lot. Figured at some point I would, 10+ years later......

 Profession, Audio Visual Tech 22 years. I mostly work in house corporate, conventions and trade shows. Spent some time building clubs, worked a few concerts and home audio has been more of a hobby for a very long time and I have designed and built a few very high end setups years ago. I always hated working professionally on home audio, the customers and sales people are either to cheap or knee deep in marketing and cannot take advice from professionals. My experience has led me to be more aware of the budget, a vast majority cannot spend $10-20k on a stereo and yet some of us spend that on a just 1 component. 
I think that will suffice as an introduction, next I will post some of what I have learned along the way. Keep in mind, most of my recommendations come with a budget mindset instead of $$$ all out performance $$$.
kreapin
kreapin OP
42 posts
 
Tuberculin
i haven’t tried the Jim Smith method yet, since I’ve been home for 6 months and it looks like I’ll be here for a while, maybe I’ll take the time to try something different ;-)
audio2design
1,351 posts
 
There is nothing "golden" about an equalateral triangle at least for sound. There is not a lot to justify it. So much is dependent on speaker dispersion, the room, etc. that using it as a starting point can have you hopelessly away from ideal that you will never get there. 



How many recordings are mixed with speakers in an equalateral setup?
kreapin OP
42 posts
 
Using the steps I described are basics that apply for a majority of homes. The equilateral setup is about timing and alignment of the sound waves from the speakers. The recording is done in a studio and fine tuned later on in a dedicated space which is setup either using triangle, cardas or some other method.
audio2design
1,351 posts
 
Timing will be "aligned" as long as the two speakers are equal distance to the ears. There really is no other alignment. Most of it is a balancing act between direct/reflected, and shadowing function of the head to the other ear.  The first heavily impacted by speaker and room, the second by speaker, and angle.


Mixing studios are such a mish-mash of near-field, close to near field, and other setups, that trying to match it with your home setup would be pointless, and most wouldn't know what Cardas configuration was in that world. Pointless, but admirable goal. Most mixing rooms are deader though than the average home setup.  The point here is the setup is artificial, so using rules such as equilateral triangle, golden rule, Cardas, etc. really makes little sense since you are not recreating the recording session nor even the mixing session. 
kreapin OP
42 posts
 
As eloquent as all that sounds, you offered up nothing to help any person reading this. On the other hand, you take a measuring tape and use those simple triangle steps, stay 2-4ft away from walls and toe in a little at time. Something I recommend frequently to people, go to the local high end shop and spend some time listening to a properly tuned system. Chances are we cannot afford it but now you have a reference, you now know what stereo actually sounds like. The next thing is to get it at home at a price point that you’re comfortable with. Even with semi decent speakers (Polk, Boston, Q etc) and a quality amp, you will get results using those basic steps.
More to discover