What should I upgrade?

Hey Al,

Wow, that's great stuff, I really enjoyed your post!

I forgot about the Dipole Effect.

Hi Devon,

Keep im mind that if you move your speakers out into the room more, than you may have to move your listening position backwards if that's possible. I don't believe side walls will effect dipoles that much because there is a null effect at the sides of the speakers.

I believe you said you have a short ceiling that slopes upward, so be aware that the further you get away from the front wall, your ceiling height will change also. Since these are tall speakers, ceilling reflections can also have an effect. I found another formula for magnepan speakers, regarding ceiling height.

I'm not sure if this formula takes into account your sloping ceiling, however it may help other people that have Magnepans. This is for a rectangular room.

0.618 x ceiling height in feet = The distance from the speaker to the front wall in feet.

This refernce formula is from George Cardas at Cardas Audio.

However, the "1/4 wave effect" will probably have a larger effect, since most of the sound is projected forward and backwards.

At least Al, gave you a really good starting point, and obviously you must go by your ears.

Good Luck,
Rich

Thanks again to everyone!

OK so I did what is the cheapest, I moved the setup to my family room (14x18)in the basement (carpet, 8ft ceiling tiles, paneling walls). I didn't rearrange anything as didn't want to do that until I heard a test. OMG! It's like an entire new system with a kickass subwoofer! Everything opened up and the bass came alive! I am going to rearrange tonight to find best positioning. I'll post back later. It's great when a solution costs $0 although I'm sure I'll start tweaking the room with acoustic treatments. I guess the main level room was just too big and hard. Whoever said the room is 50% of the equation is absolutely correct! If anyone reading this wants to hear a different sound from their setup, move it to another room that is most different than current room. You'll find a large difference either good or bad. Stay tuned!