Off-axis compensated for by balance adjustment


Can off-axis listening be compensated for by speaker balance adjustment?

128x128cantorgale

I use this in my office system with the Benchmark LA4 preamp. I would rather use the LA4 in my best system but the other preamp I have for that does not have speaker balance option.

I tried moving the speaker that is furthest from me a little closer to me. However, after a lot of permutations I decided to keep the speakers the same distance from the front wall and use the LA4 preamps balance control to compensate. It works pretty good with my Magnepan LRS+ speakers.

Another way to solve this problem is to use DSP. Since I am a ROON user I had a professional sound engineer make a set of Convolution filters for my office setup. He compensated for my seating position. It worked great with my Thiel CS3.7's. 

Digital Room Calibration Services, Convolver, Headphone Filtersets (accuratesound.ca)

I no longer have the Thiels and the Maggies do not need the compensation done as elaborately as the Thiel. If I were to use the Convolution filter for the Maggies, I would need start from the beginning with room measurements. I am not using Convolution filters for my office. However, as I am writing this, I am thinking that if I did get a new set of filters made, I could move the LA4 to my best system.

 

IF you do most of your listening off-axis, as I do, you might want to try more aggressive toe-in. Because of the extreme toe-in, the closer speaker is firing away from you more, while the farther is more directly aimed at you in the off-axis spot.

I discovered this as a side benefit- someone in another forum suggested that my Spatial Audio M3 Turbo S speakers might sound better with extreme toe-in. They did sound better to me at the sweet spot, but also much improved off-axis.

It’s worth a try if the majority of your listening is not in the sweet spot.