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Speakers sound best facing wall????

Should I complain? - After months of tweaking and testing various components, I found my perfect sound. It really sounds beautiful and genuine (I listen only to classical; and authenticity is paramount), and the stereo image is there, when speakers are turned away from me, facing the wall at 135 degrees. I am looking at their backs when listening,

So, I am really happy. Or should I? With that very odd speaker position, something must be very wrong somewhere???

Ever since I took on my old hobby again (it had been in neglect for 30 years), bought 2 different solid state amplifiers (a powerful and very well balanced Sony TA-FA3ES, and a lower quality Technics), 2 different cd players (Arcam and Cyrus), 2 different sets of loudspeakers (Heybrook Heylo and Tannoy Revolution), a Velodyne subwoofer, a power conditioner (Belkin) and 2 sets of shielded IEC power cables and interconnects, I have been battling a problem:

*****an ear-piercing treble*****

No matter how low I would adjust the treble on my amplifier, and no matter the combination of amps, cd players, speakers etc., their position, my armchair's position, that problem was still there... until I turned the speakers away from me.

Room acoustics? - Well, all my equipment is in my living room, which has a normal height, and an odd, asymetrical shape. See plan. The house is made of timber, and the walls are painted plaster panels, with 2 dozens glass covered pictures in wooden frames. The room is carpeted, and slightly emptier than an average living room (3 armchairs, 2 wooden cabinets and audio rack). The wall which the speakers are facing has a curtain. The speakers are 130cm / 4ft away from the wall.

If not the room acoustics, what may be causing the ear-piercing treble when speakers are turned towards me? - Dirty power that the power conditioner cannot cope with? Faulty tweeters (on 2 different sets of speakers???)? Should I worry, since I have my perfect sound with the speakers facing the wall? - Any advice appreciated!
waryn
kirkus
502 posts
 
Hi Waryn . . . what I'm trying to get an idea of is if your perception is based on some combination of the following:

- sensitivity to an ultrasonic peak or diaphragm resonance in the speakers' tweeters - in this case I'd expect a soft-dome tweeter to sound better to you than a metal dome, or metal horn diaphragm

- the relationship between the frequency of sound and the directivity of the tweeter - here, I'd expect you not to have the same issues with headphones

- early room reflections . . . again, headphones would eliminate this

Anyway, your case is an interesting one. At least you're finding some solutions . . .
sounds_real_audio
1,014 posts
 
Waryn

This is really scary. An audiophile who has good hearing!.. This could be unique.

One answer could be that you are hearing distortion which even at a low volume can really make you crazy.
mrmitch
359 posts
 
What you want to do here is turn your listening position around to face the wall behind you, and then everything will equalise out. Inserting my own LOL here so I wont receive 100 flame replies.--Mrmitch
gawdbless's avatar
gawdbless
1,235 posts
 
Mrmitch, do you have first hand experience about facing the wall from your school days? Was a corner also involved? lol.
mrmitch
359 posts
 
Gawdbless, Yes, I seem to recall spending a little time in the corner facing the wall in my younger school days. As far as i can remember, this position made the teacher's voice (a woman) much deeper but a little bit boomy-with some basstraps it might have been different. Maybe this explains why I took up the electric bass in my teen years! LMAO-Mrmitch
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