Here's something interesting for you guys:
I sent the following email to Jim Smith, the author of the book (which I recently bought and highly recommend) called Getting Better Sound. I asked:
Here's his reply:
Food for thought, no?
I sent the following email to Jim Smith, the author of the book (which I recently bought and highly recommend) called Getting Better Sound. I asked:
I have a question for you.
My heart kind of sank when I read the section of your book dealing with "wide dispersion speakers." I have a pair of Ohm Walsh 100 S3's. As I'm sure you know, the Ohms have a modified "Walsh" driver with the inverted cone, damped in the back to reduce rear-wall reflections, and supplelemted with a supertweeter mounted so as to fire at a 45 degree angle into the center of the room. They really disappear into a very expansive soundstage.
Given this design and your comments on wide dispersion, I'm wondering how much of your speaker set up advice still applies.
Thanks in advance!
Here's his reply:
Re the Ohms, German Physiks, MBLs, etc, they all can produce a very involving sound, in part because of their uncanny soundstaging, not in spite of it.
Speakers of that class are the only ones that I know of that go beyond tone and dynamics to deliver a compelling involvement from the soundstaging. Aside from the speakers I listed, IMO, the last loudspeakers to deliver to truly deliver that experience were the Beveridges in the 70s and early 80s.
Except for some placement issues (such as separation), virtually everything else in the manual is applicable. I do think it takes some canny voicing to get the best of these, but it can be worth it.
Although their phantom imaging off-axis is more interesting, they still have the least colored response precisely in the middle seat. Even they can't repeal those laws of physics. :)
Best,
Jim Smith
Food for thought, no?