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Pin point imaging isn't for everyone

A subject my posts touch on often is whether pin point imaging is desirable, or natural. While thinking about wide-baffle speakers in another thread I came across this quote, courtesy of Troels Graveson’s DIY speaker site. He quotes famous speaker designer Roy Allison:

I had emphasized dispersion in order to re-create as best as I could the performance-hall ambiance. I don’t want to put up with a sweet spot, and I’d rather have a less dramatically precise imaging with a close simulation of what you hear in a concert hall in terms of envelopment. For that, you need reverberant energy broadcast at very wide angles from the loudspeaker, so the bulk of energy has to do multiple reflections before reaching your ear. I think pin-point imaging has to do with synthetically generated music, not acoustic music - except perhaps for a solo instrument or a solo voice, where you might want fairly sharp localization. For envelopment, you need widespread energy generation.


You can read Troel’s entire post here:

http://www.troelsgravesen.dk/Acapella_WB.htm

This goes, kind of, with my points before, that you can tweak the frequency response of a speaker, and sometimes cables, to get better imaging, but you are going significantly far from neutral to do so. Older Wilson’s were famous, and had a convenient dip around 2.4 kHz.
erik_squires
mijostyn's avatar
mijostyn
8,570 posts
 
Go figure. They are absorption. These are the ones I use. Dirt cheap.
https://www.parts-express.com/sonic-barrier-fwp122-studio-acoustic-foam-wedge-panel-12-x-12-x-2-black-12-pack--260-547
Remember I have Acoustat 2+2s 8 feet tall and twenty inches wide. I put a single vertical row of seven tiles alternating the pattern. They are placed at the deflection point on the wall. The easiest way that I know of to find it is stand right up against the back of the speaker right in the middle. Have someone move a mirror back and forth horizontally across the wall slowly and have them stop when the reflection is centered on the listening position. Mark that point on the wall. That is the deflection point and your tile pattern should be centered there. Height and width are up to you and depends on your speaker's dispersion. 
I first tried double sided carpet tape to stick the tiles on the wall. The tape would not stick to the foam. Next I put a drop of viscous cyanoacrylate glue in each corner and right in the middle, sprayed the wall with accelerator and slapped the tile to the wall. Worked great! I had marked out the wall with pencil and a 4 foot level so I knew where each tile would go. If you ever want to take the tile down the residue will sand right off.

Mike
mijostyn's avatar
mijostyn
8,570 posts
 
Oh, you are most welcome:)

Mike
erik_squires OP
16,924 posts
 
Hi Everyone,
Lots of very interesting reading going on here and in the related thread. I really want to thank everyone for listening, participating and letting me know your own personal experiences, especially when they aren't like mine!

Also to Tom for reminding me of my own advice!!

I've learned a lot, and it will take me a while to digest it all. :)

I still think Neo6 is pretty cool, as is a center channel in HT, but I also don't think they are make/break items for systems. I keep trying to convince myself to go back to HT and listening to my 2 channel I can't baby, I just can't.


Thanks again, and look forward to even more contributions from all of you.

Best,

Erik
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