Sound is better when I stand up?

 

holmz Ahhhh. Haven’t joined Audiogon and bukake in quite some time. Thanks for the reminder.

I cannot think of a better term for loads of advice thrown out in a seemingly random fashion, mostly to make the person offering advice to feel good, rather than helping the person who asked the question.

So - the culprit was my wingback! The two wings and its low seating profile managed to smear the sound. On the advice from @elliottbnewcombjr I temporarily replaced the wingback with a straightback that also seated higher and it made all the difference -- sounstage opened up; instrumentation much more 3D than before.

Which sucks as my wingback is really comfortable! I put four sections of 2x4 beneath each leg to get equal with the tweeters, but that helped only so much.

Still, this will be a cheaper solution than almost any audio addition I can think of!

I would love to see a visual map of the soundwaves and how the wingback blocked or did something else to them.

It is probably 3-4” inches from the back of the headrest to the ears, so the reflection will be 180 degrees out for a 1’ wavelength (~1000 Hz), and there will be risings modes up and down at the harmonics. That is about 0.5 milliseconds of delay.

It is called a comb filter.

A fluffy towel on the headrest should help a bit. But a shorter chair back is better.

It's the tall chair back and wings continuing behind your head - and ears.

Choose a chair that doesn't extend higher than your shoulders so your ears are directly exposed to all room boundaries.

And don't worry about that 8'3" equilateral triangle others are harping on about.  Your present distance of 10' from the speakers is fine if you like the sound and image there.  You could try moving a little closer and see if you prefer.  I sit a bit further away than the distance between the speakers and I prefer the sound staging there.

The Ref angled baffle as others mentioned points the drivers upward.  This is by design for phase and response.    When standing your ears are more on axis and you hear more midrange and treble and less floor reflected bass.  

Not every speaker sounds its best with the .83 ratio.  Before doing anything  else I suggest experimenting with speaker positioning.  Tape mark your current positions then move them closer to you and further from the wall, as much as reasonably possible.  Keep them at the same width apart and experiment with toe angle to adjust for imaging and smoothest response.  If the sound is too thin you can move them closer together and re adjust toe angle.  

I actually prefer the sound of a wider stance for the speakers as learned when I had audio note speakers, makes for a bigger sound stage and more open spacious sound.  my speakers are 26 inches more apart than the .83 ratio would like but the sound is better. 

Again, pull them away from the wall, keep them wide and adjust toe angle for best response and imaging, ranging from aiming to a point 3 feet in front of you and progressively outward until it sounds best. 

I think you will be pleased without spending a penny.  

Great advice so far. Chair not higher than shoulders. Tweeter at ear level. I think your distance ratio is prob ok. I’ve read tweeter to tweeter is 1 and tweeter to ear should be 1.2. This ratio works for me. Good luck!

Ron 

@Samao

i had Ref 3A GV’s for years. Tosh Goka always advocated fine tuning of the front baffle with the adjustable feet. Can’t tell if you have stands provide that ability.