2. speakers
  3. 132116-1973

Speaker Placement - When it's perfect!

So many audiophiles have commented that when your room treatment is completed, your electronics set up and tweaked and most importantly, your speakers are set up in your listening space correctly that you'll know it because everything just sounds so "right" and natural.  I just accomplished that feat in the last two weeks.  I say two weeks because I needed to play a wide variety of recordings to be sure that I'm there.  It is so great to have finally hit just the right set up.

I'm a bit embarrassed to admit that it has taken me well over a year of experimentation to get to this point.  It's not that other placements yielded poor quality sound its just that now everything sounds like a live event (as much as any of our systems can).

I would really appreciate hearing about your journey to the promised land of audiophile/music lover bliss.  How long did it take, what were the most difficult aspects of the journey?  And if you have yet to get there, what do  you think is the "brick in your wall"?
128x128hifiman5
geoffkait's avatar
geoffkait
23,365 posts
 
tomic601
"which does bring up a good point....ever notice all those live plants in the Vandy booths at shows all over the world ?"

Very ironic and probably one of those old wives tales audiophiles sometimes tell since any live plant or flower in the room actually hurts the sound.

Cheers

toddverrone's avatar
toddverrone
840 posts
 
Hifiman - I also have a basement listening room. I love the quiet of being underground. Mine is a walkout, so I do get some outside noise, but I also get natural light and a door to the outside where I can go light some incense. A fair trade. I definitely noticed how the sound image snapped into focus once I got my toe in correct. I’d never toed my previous speakers in as much as these. But it sounds right.

Now I’m working on the room. I just bought a calibrated mic and have been using REW to take measurements. I’ve definitely found the problem frequencies I was hearing. Now that I have some measurements, it’s time to decide on some bass management..
I can’t wait to hear it when it’s fixed. I remember how good everything above 200Hz sounded when I sorted out absorption in that range.
But bass seems more difficult
lnitm
143 posts
 
I can honestly say that a quarter inch or half inch off on toe in does make a difference. The other huge improvement that is one of the cheapest is using acoustic treatments for corners,  walls for reflections and eliminating echo. The biggest change I noticed to really make everything sound more cohesive and less bright with way more clarity and definition was treating my room. Huge difference, I'm waiting on Wavewood diffuser/absorption panels for my back wall to see the difference they make, I'm sure it will be good. 

tomic601's avatar
tomic601
13,098 posts
 
that must be why all those nice recordings i make at church sound so honked up at 15 ips....i can hear those preamp tubes telling the ribbons “ kill the plants for Jesus”

wgutz
85 posts
 
I want the empirical study, the double blind statistical results and logarithmic adjusted scope printouts before I will ever believe live plants deteriorate the sound. Especially those live and floating roses.
More to discover