@glupson @michaelgreenaudio thank you for your perspectives, I appreciate it. Yes, life trumps audio. We need to adhere to the constraints, demands, and desires of both our listening environment and other members of the household.
Still, I want to stress the criticality of loudspeaker positioning, if nothing more than to provide a target, and keep in the back of the mind in case one someday has the opportunity to realize it. With that, below is what I consider one of the most important treatises I've encountered along my audio journey, a translation of the Dead Points of Live Sound, by A. Polakov. The only thing I add to it is to make the analogy of loudspeaker positioning with focusing the lens of a camera. In proper focus, EVERY thing becomes exponentially more right and better. And outside of that incredibly small point of focus, EVERY thing else is not right
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It is know that there are many ingredients responsible for “quality”
of audio inhalation. Unquestionably one of the most important is the
listening room’s reaction to the installed loudspeakers. There are
countless solutions how to work with listening rooms and the cost of
this “working” in many cases might exceed the cost of the playback
components.
Yes, the performance of loudspeakers might be very dramatically
changed by the rooms and most of those improvements would be centered to
find a correct positioning for the acoustic system in a listening room.
Everyone knows that the positioning loudspeakers have an impact on
Sound. However, with the REAL depth and imperativeness of this impact
very few are familiar. It is pointless to perform any actions targeted
to improve performance of playback, including the change of the
component of the playback chain or the room acoustic treatment, unit the
correct positioning of the loudspeakers in a given room would be found.
There are no formulas, programs of any methodology that would simplify
this process and the only “tool” that might be use is subjective
perception of the audible result. The rules, circulations, abstraction,
approximations and the entire practice of position of loudspeakers
according to minimization of stay-waves are a juts very rudimental and
primitive approach. After the optimum stay-waves location was found it
might be considered only a very beginning.
An optimum location of loudspeakers might be called an “optimum zone”
beyond which the subjective characteristics of the loudspeaker’s
performance degrade very rapidly and very aggressively. For a typical
“box” loudspeaker and within an average 400-700 sq feet room the
dimension of the “optimum zone” usually within .5-1 inch and the
deviation form the towing-in usually within 2-3 degree. Some audio
people (approximately 15% of them) were able to determine the correct
“optimum zone”. Whoever did not do it was not able to utilize a full
potential capacity of thier playback systems. However, practically no
one, even among those lucky 15%, knows anything about the “dead points
of live sound”. When an acoustic system is placed into those “dead
points” than all improvements that comes with placing the loudspeakers
into the “optimum zone” really jump over the roof. The “performance
yield”, when loudspeakers hit the “dead points”, is much higher then
when the loudspeakers are juts placed inside the “optimum zone”. To
describe what the “dead points of live sound” I would say that inside of
the “optimum zone” there is one smaller zone. The dimensions of this
smaller zone are within the scale of 1/16” –1/32” and therefore this
zone might be called - a single point in space, or the “dead point of
live sound” (or the DPoLS further on)
This effect was found purely accidental within context of one
installation. Then the DPoLS was found within others installations,
which suggests that this effect is a typical. In all occasions the gain
of sound’s quality took place very aggressively and the gain of quality
disappeared when the loudspeakers were removed out from the DPoLS. This
suggests that the DPoLS might be discovered if one is intentionally
searching for it. The probability that the DPoLS will be hit
accidentally is practically equal to nothing. There are no publications
or methodologies on the subject. Therefore, below are listed some
subjective characteristics that an acoustic system do when the
loudspeakers are placed into the DPoLS:
1) When the loudspeakers are placed into the DPoLS then all
characteristics of sound improving very strongly: imaging, space
localization, transient, dynamic range, space presentation, tonal
contrast and many other. Even the tonal imperfections of reproduction
become way less notable and less prominent. What is characteristic that
the improving takes abruptly, very expeditiously and swiftly.
2) The strongest improvement takes place in the subjective domain,
reflecting the emotion and spiritual content of recording. The DPoLS
highlights the energy of performance; boosts the ethical load of the
musical content, highlight the intonations and the timbre connections of
the musical phrases. Starting with a certain level of capacity of the
rest reproduction chain it is possible to talk about not “reproduction”
but about the reinstating and resurrection of the “original energy of
live”.
3) A conversion from a regula-audio sound to the “alive sound” takes
place very rapidly when the speakers enter the DPoLS. This conversion is
greatly catalyzed by an ability of a playback to handle LF.
4) DPoLS exist for mono and stereo installations. In case of stereo
the DPoLS is a correlation of both DPoLS for each channel. The DPoLS
spots for the individual left and right channel might not have the same
location when the system operates in stereo mode.
5) The relation between the towing-in and excursion the loudspeaker
into the room, when the loudspeaker is located in DPoLS, is very high.
In DPoLS this relation is way higher when in a satiation when the
loudspeakers are juts positioned on the “optimum zone” of a given
listening room.
6) The correction of “quietly of Sound” by moving loudspeaker within
DPoLS is imposable. Any deviation from the DPoLS is worsening sound.
Since the loudspeaker is in the DPoLS then the room/system operate in
its absolute maximum capacity.
7) When the loudspeakers are in the DPoLS then the “sweat spot”
increase very dramatically and in many cases it might spread across the
entire room. If the output from one loudspeaker would be even blocked
then it be less significantly impact sound compare to the impact if the
loudspeaker were not in the DPoLS.
8) The sensitively of loudspeakers from the minute arrangements made
in playback system become very high. The loudspeakers begin to act as a
very strong magnifying glass that highlights everything. However, this
emphasize, if it emphasizes the negative properties do not necessary
have a negative impact to the listening experience. I would say that
that if you system slightly off the mark after the “highlight” then the
subjective affect of this emphasize would be very different then if the
loudspeakers would be not in the DPoLS.
9) When the loudspeakers are installed into the DPoLS (disregarding
the cost and typology of the loudspeakers) then listener is far sooner
get “hypnotized” by sound. The playback become to sound “significant”,
“important”, demonstrating the “playback pomposity” and some
pretentious. The process of listening perceived by a listener at the
very different level and it is practically imposable to do the “casual
listening”. The carelessness and the inattentiveness of listening become
practically imposable. Sound become not juts a “Sound in the room” but
an absolute dominating and demanding force in the room
10) The sensitively of the loudspeakers installed into the DPoLS to
the effect of Absolute Phase become incredibly strong. Flipping the
Absolute Phase in the DPoLS does not just change the structure of bass
removes the fog from the lower midrange and settle down the HF but kind
of turn the entire room upside down. To discover the DPoLS is imposable
if the system is not set in the correct acoustical and electrical
Absolute Phase.
Upon the said it is possible to make following conclusion: a major
obstacle in building a high performing playback installation is
unawareness of audio people about the DPoLS. The audio and listening
benefits that might be received from placing the acoustic systems in the
DPoLS are huge, order of magnitude exceeding any changes of
loudspeakers of components. A lack of any structured methodologies and
guideness that would enable the audio people to discover the DPoLS is a
very severe impediment in order the knowledge about the “dead points of
live sound” became a common practice among the audiophiles
