directional speakers

@elliottbnewcombjr Thank you for the detailed response.  I have already adjusted the toe-in to try your "Adjusted Toe-in" method to enhance imaging. 

In your comments, however, it occurs to me that you do not make them in the context of a Bacch implementation, which I made quite clear in the OP is what I am doing.  Your recommendations may be valid generally, but I'm not so sure of their validity in a Bacch implementation.   Could you confirm that your recommendations hold within a Bacch implementation?  Have you familiarized yourself with the Theoretica literature so that you know what Bacch does?

Thanks in advance for your clarification.

treepmeyer

thanks for acknowledging my input.

I don't know anything about what you are doing, I just write for you and others I imagine who are following: to share what I have experienced, perhaps to get you to try that alternate toe-in for instance, try leaning your speakers back to aim the tweeters, and alter the floor and ceiling reflections, perhaps buy a sound pressure meter, test cd, a tube tester, i.e. give yourself tools to get the most out of what you have or might buy.

Especially speakers, always the biggest difference, and understand you have to find how they best fit 'that' space.

I try to be organized and clear enough when I write, perhaps comes off as 'you should', but it is really 'you might want to try this'.

treepmeyer

"I just bought a Bacch4Mac bundle and am thinking of upgrading speakers.  Theoretica recommends speakers that are more rather than less directional.".

Perhaps you could summarize the beneficial theory you are pursuing.

treepmeyer

I apologize, I now realize the importance of the specifics of your post. My responses are related to 2D and Front Imaging: not ‘3D from 2D’ which is Bacch4MAC’s objective.

I just looked it up and realized Bacch4MAC is what my friend wanted me to go to a demo of in Princeton (45 minutes from us). After a glance, I declined, thus I have never heard/experienced their solution in use.

@treepmeyer Directionality is an important concept when it comes to room interaction. The more omnidirectional a speaker is the greater is it's room interaction which always creates problems. Ideally the speaker would project sound only to the listening area and there would be no early reflections in the room. The types of speakers that manage this best are horns and line source dipoles. Dipoles always need the wall behind them covered in sound absorption tile. 

I do not like the term "tight" is regards to imaging. Imaging is either focused or blurred. To hear a system that is perfectly focused or rather focused at the state of the art is an eye opening experience Really well focused imaging will have two distinguishing characteristics, the sweet spot will be extremely obvious and balance will shift between recordings. Gain is never exactly equal between channels of a recording. It is adjusted by ear on systems that can easily be 1 dB in one direction or the other. For most systems balance has to shift over 1 dB to make an obvious difference in perceived balance. With a super focused system 0.2 dB will do it and there will be a tendency to adjust balance with many if not most recordings. Every system that I have ever heard that was this focused was highly directional with one exception and this fellow's listening room was covered in bean bags. I did not count, but there must have been 20 of them. To check balance listen with your eyes closed. Pick an instrument or voice you know is mixed to the center, spin yourself a little back and forth (it helps to have a listening chair that rotates) an stop with that instrument dead ahead. Open your eyes and look where you are facing. If to the left you need to increase gain in the right channel. If to the right increase gain in the left channel. With some recordings especially symphony orchestras you sense more energy coming from one side or the other. You adjust gain so it is equal. 

I prefer the line source dipole. Line sources project acoustic power better than point sources which is why you see them at stadium concerts. They also form a larger, front row image. Line source dipoles project sound in a figure 8 pattern that is exactly as tall as the loudspeaker. There are no reflections from the side walls, middle of the front wall, floor or ceiling. ESLs in particular are extremely directional. Dispersion is controlled by curving the speaker. As an example Sound Labs ESLs come in two curvatures, 45 and 90 degrees. The 90 degree units are for very large rooms. They sell way more 45 degree units. 

If you want a point source system Klipsch Cornwalls are an amazing speaker for the price. If you want to try a line source dipole look at the Magnepan range. If you are a rocker or prefer smaller amps go with the Klipsch's. If you prefer jazz and classical and have plenty of power go with the Maggies. The 3.7i with subwoofers can be the basis for an exceptional system.