Who wants the best improvement in their system EVER!

Two Cavalier Spaniels on your lap and a third licking your face and the fidelity will be so improved you'll be able to get through the entire Elgar 2nd Symphony.

OK.... A really smart man,Bob Gathers, once told me that "When trying to solve a problem if you don't start at the TOP, your results will never solve the problem"

If getting an involving and emotional sound from your Stereo system is what you want then the "TOP" is that your speakers need to pressurize both your ears at exactly the same time and volume,

Here is a great little exercise to see if your speakers do or don't do that.

Put on some music and turn up the volume to a "strong" volume.

The volume should be at or near the maximum volume you would ever listen to.

Now, if you have a friend or a mate try and have a conversation with them thru the sound. If you find the conversation to be labored and stressed
like the only way to continue this is to turn the music down, stop the music.

Now disconnect one of the speakers and start the music again. You can even turn it up a bit if you like, and try and have the conversation again.

You should hear an amazing thing. Suddenly you CAN EASILY chat with no sense of labor or stress.

You may also feel a sense of calm and pleasure that has eluded you when listening to "Stereo"

Try this.......it's fun and will cut to the chase as to whether your speakers are with each other or against.

Depending on how many responses I get I will post more as to whats going on and how to deal with it.

Thanks for reading......................

Ridiculous. Disconnecting a speaker will immediately lower the overall level…big deal. I prefer listening to stereo sound, and if I am having a conversation I turn the thing down…please do not consider this comment a response only because I don't care the hear anymore from you about this as it disturbs my sense of calm.

Now disconnect one of the speakers and start the music again.

Don't do this with amps that have output transformers or autoformers, of course, or damage may result.  Use the balance control if there is one, or if monoblocks are being used turn one of them off, or else disconnect interconnects (while the equipment is turned off).

Regards,
-- Al

soundings,

As has been already pointed out, your suggestion is inherently flawed.

Switching to one speaker only lowers the volume and in any case changes the acoustic relationship with the listeners. It says nothing at all about "speakers being with or against" one another. (Unless for instance speakers are wired out of phase which can cause some gross, annoying effects to the ear.  But that of course is diagnosed by having the speakers playing at the same time).

People get "emotion" from their systems in any countless number of configurations - from a laptop, to a car stereo, to all the ways different audiophiles have their systems set up. I own various speakers that I position in various ways in my room, and I, and my guests, all get in to the sound from all of them.

Now, of course low distortion vs higher distortion is associated with an ease to sound, and how loud it may be comfortable for a person to turn a system up. That’s well known and nothing new.

But your particular example doesn’t seem to offer anything helpful or illuminating in this regard.

Any more wisdom to pass along? ;-)