Joseph Audio Pulsar placement and tips

So sad to see you got roped into that Master Set BS. What a load of baloney! Speaker setup is so simple. Leave it to this clown to make it IMPOSSIBLE! lol!   

There are two separate yet related aspects to speaker setup. First is to find the location that gives you the best balance of bass response. This means moving them closer to or further away from the walls in order to find the smoothest/deepest response in your situation. This involves zero listening for imaging, it is all about smooth response. 

Next is what you want, imaging. Use a tape measure to ensure the speakers are precisely equidistant from, and symmetrical to, your listening spot. This all by itself will give great imaging.  

Finally, adjust toe in to achieve the desired balance between image focus and sound stage width and depth. Pointed directly at your ears image focus will be max, super solid, and deep, but not very wide. The less toe in the more the stage will widen, but there will be a tradeoff with depth and focus. 

It really is that simple. Do not get distracted by BS claims of imaging all over the room. Physically impossible. The best that can be said of this baloney is the imaging can be equal all over the room- equally bad!  

By the way, none of the stuff you are talking about matters. Someone tells you how many feet apart their speakers are, that means nothing in your situation. Your amp, cables, music- irrelevant. All that matters is your location relative to your speakers. When that is equidistant and symmetrical you will have the best imaging you can get with your setup. Period.

Thanks @rlb61 I'm now experimenting with different toe-in angles.


@millercarbon, thanks for your thoughts: I started with a measuring tape and a laser, got everything perfectly symmetrical but the imaging was off. I thought I have channel imbalance issues, tried to measure the amp, sources, etc. That's when I stumbled upon the "master set". It made sense to me since no room is equal, nor perfect, and the reflections will not be equal either. On the left, I have big windows covered by heavy curtains, on the right I have a door. There is a desk in a corner and a shelf in another, so it's quite difficult to get symmetry. Now it sounds quite good, but I wanted to get specific input from other Pulsar owners to dial in the last millimeters :)

The reason I'm interested in the experience of Pulsar owners with specific songs is to figure out if the low bass issues are speaker-related or something else, like amp, room, cables. A few songs that have these notes: Bird on a wire, the big drums on the left have a long reverb that lingers and causes constant vibrations that I feel in my chest and feet. In Paula Cole's Tiger, it's quite similar, the bass comes in around 45 seconds in the song and sounds a bit muffled/muddy to me, but I haven't heard it on another system so I can't compare. Another slightly annoying sound is in Paint it Black by the Rolling Stones, comes from the center, really low and really not nice, sounds more like someone hitting a wall. But maybe this is just in the recordings/mastering.
By the way, the Ballad of the runaway horse sounds perfect all the way, even with high volumes.
So if anyone is in the mood to listen to these songs and give their subjective feedback might help me get on the right track :)

I have the Pulsars (with a REL T7i sub) and use all genres of music for tuning. I would discourage you and from using a very limited song selection. This will provide a very narrow window regarding your systems potential overall performance. And I basically agree with millercarbon’s recommendation. For example, get a jazz piano disc with a well recorded acoustic bass. This will provide a good test for linear bass response. The piano will provide much information regarding the overall speed and tonality. Use a well recorded female voice and listen for the transparency and dimensionality. Listen to some classical music to determine how the sting section sounds. Various recording labels (like Chesky, Opus and other audiophile labels) have "compilation" discs that will include all of the above.

My rule of thumb for tuning a system is to maximize the ability to "hear" the recoding venue on all types of music. By the way, the REL significantly improves the overall Pulsar performance in weight, saturation and dimensionality. Good luck.

I'm in a smaller bungalow. Our living room is my listening room, 13' x 18'x 9'. There's an adjoining 11'x12' room attached, so really very little symmetry to my set-up. Pulsars are stand mounted, 7' apart C to C with just the slightest toe in. They bookend a recessed fireplace, which works well in that while the rear of the speaker protrudes only 8" off the support columns of the wall that is their home (wife factor), the monitors are for the most part physically 4' into the room, giving them some breathing space and providing a since of air while remaining tolerable to the Significant Other. Generally listening from 10-12' away.

Source is typically Qobuz thru a Lumin driven by Atma-Sphere's LMS-1 pre and  M-60 amp pair. Audioquest cables. As bubinga mentioned, a lot to be said for integration with a sub(s). My sub(s) are just a DIY project probably 30 yrs old now. Nothing fancy at all. They're driven by an outboard sub amp whose make I don't even recall. The subs are given very little juice. There's seldom any floor rattling, regardless the volume. But they do certainly add to the Pulsar's presence, even at low listening volumes. Beauty of the Pulsars (no doubt with help of Atma-Sphere) is that there's no specific sweet spot one needs to find. In our smaller room setting, always sounds pretty damn impressive and stereophonic regardless of where one sits/stands, even w/o being a truly symmetrical space. Pulsars are one of better listening decisions ever  I've made. Have fun and enjoy.  

Thanks so much for the replies!
I downloaded the MA Recordings samplers, and I also have the HD Audio set-up disc, I try to listen to all, also the Chesky sampler. They mostly sound amazing, I just picked out those songs which have some disturbing frequencies to better understand if it's just how it is, or am I doing something wrong.
It seems that a sub is highly recommend, I will do more testing with my Dali EF-12 from my home cinema system, thai lot for all the tips, I appreciate you folks taking the time! Cheers