Hales owners discussion

I have a similar room and similar placement. I am hampered by open hallways and not much of a back wall as the room opens up to the dining kitchen area, etc. I do have a vaulted ceiling which I think helps. Still trying slight variations. Current set up is MF X-ray, AP silver ic to Sim I5 and Cardes Cross to the Hales.

Our rooms sound *very* similar. The main one here is 19'x12' with an assymetric vaulted ceiling (13.5' at the peak) and a couple of other oddities to the contours (low ceiling area near front door, dropped beam at the dividing line between living and dining rooms, as well as down the ceiling peak).

The left speaker fires into the dining area which is 10'x9'. When facing the speakers the kitchen opens to the left near the back wall of the dining area. That's effectively a 21' depth. The right speaker fires at the doors to my office. With them closed that's a 12' depth. Open it's 21'. I've tried it both ways and the sound is better with the doors closed. There's a hallway directly to the right and behind the speaker on that side, too, that "T"s at about 6'. Not the optimum space, but surprisingly workable.

Modeling the space in CARA Room Acoustic simulation software indicated a generally good (not great) acoustic environment when set up as described. The sim did show a *pronounced* bass problem in the front left corner. In reality this has proven true and is the biggest draw back encountered so far. It is not readily apparent from the listening position except for the occassional "boom" when things really get overloaded. I know it's having an effect on the overall sound whether it's directly audible or not.

Unfortunately, pulling the speakers out from the front wall kills the bass response; the entire sound thins out and sounds lifeless. Tube traps are already planned and will hopefully improve things a bit.

I am just getting things sorted out, so expect more later if anything interesting comes up. Let me know, too, if you try something new that works out.

I have the Revelation Twos which, judging by the above posts, are easier to place. In every room I have had them in (10x11, 14x14 with an opening to one side, and a 12x15). In every room they seem to like to be about a foot off the back wall and with that equal lateral setup described in the manual. Although i had to go near field in the 10 x 11 room, I do not personally prefer near field with the Hales. I use a Classe 70 and Twinlink to drive them to good effect. They could always use more power, and the amp may be a bit colored, but the sound is very smooth, musical, natural and colossal. I have also heard the Classe CA300 with the Hales. The sound from that rig, which I think also included a Wadia cdp and a Levinson pre, was amazing. Eyes closed, you could not tell where the speaker were. With the Hales I would strongly advise room treatment and a spike upgrade. I use Audiopoints. I have noticed however that my spikes have been leaving ringed scratches around the circumference of where the spikes contact the cabinets and am curious if any one else has had the same problem. If you upgrade your spikes, go with something with as large of a diameter as the stock spikes. Mine have a diameter of ¾ inch and I was not happy when I took them off to move them last week. Hales rule and were the last company I wanted to see go down.

Good idea on the Audiopoints, but I'm considering putting mine on wheels. The cable guy was getting too close to them while doing an install, so I laid down two strips of cellophane tape to mark the position of the one in his way and lifted it to the side. He commented about being careful, but twice he had tossed something down next to them which made me cringe. Even agreed that he probably was watching out and moving them was for my own peace of mind. So what does he do? He peels the tape up, me saying "no, No, NO, NOOOOOO!" the whole time. Of course, he also kindly put it back... Only took 45 minutes to recover. Damn bout they're heavy.

On the subject of weight, has anyone tried mass loading their's? While heavy, they're not that solid on their feet. Or do the Audiopoints add to the stability? BTW, mine are later models and have four points instead of three like the early ones.

Being a bit smaller than the stock spikes, I do think the Audiopoints have made mine a little more stable. I think your wheel idea is very cool. I would love to be able to wheel mine around the room, especially if I owned the Threes. With the wheels, however, i would bet you will lose some detail and focus. I have mass loading and am not sure exactly what it entails. Because i move about twice a year and the fact that my spikes have scratched my speakers, I really don't see mass loading in my future. Let me know what you do and what happened when you did it. Good luck