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Advice on room placement of Paradigm 100 v3 ??

I switched from B&W N805's (fronts), CDM CSE (center), and Leisure Monitors (rears).

I got tired of trying to get my subwoofer to fill in the midbass and bass. The 805's were incredible...and disappeared--they did MANY things very very well, but lacked some things too.

I fear I may have made a terrible mistake. I now have Paradigm 100 v3's in the front, 570 in the center, and adp 470's in the rear. My home theater is now rocking (NAD T762 Receiver--We can talk about an Anthem upgrade another day).

But I use the Fronts for "double duty" for two channel music as well (and here is where the problem begins). I have Rogue M150's, VPI TNT IV, CAT Preamp.

Anyway, the problem.... I have the 100's about 4 feet off the rear wall, 3 feet off the side walls. They are about 10 feet apart. Traditionally, I have sat at the apex of an equalatteral (sp) triangle for imaging and locking the center in two channel music. I CAN NOT GET THESE 100's to focus :(

I have moved my litening position further, closer--I have moved the speakers further--closer...still not locking.

Is it just that these things will never focus?

Can anyone give me some suggestions (besides "quit whining")

Thanks in advance.

Erik
yesfan
sbank's avatar
sbank
3,379 posts
 
Try measuring your room performance with a Rat Shack meter and a test tone CD. You might have major bass modes that you never heard w/the 805s. Excess bass energy will mess up your focus.
Measure impact of moving your speakers. Change the crossover settings to the subwoofer via the NAD, and lower the subwoofer volume as needed. Tame your bass peaks, and focus will come back. If you're measuring better, and it still sounds bad, try some different speaker cables if you can borrow some. Cheers, Spencer
yesfan OP
10 posts
 
Thanks Spencer.
Which meter??.....what do I measure??
sbank's avatar
sbank
3,379 posts
 
Radio Shack Cat # 33-4050
http://www.radioshack.com/category.asp?catalog%5Fname=CTLG&category%5Fname=CTLG%5F007%5F002%5F014%5F000&Page=1&find=sound%20meter(keyword)&hp=search
or the more expensive digital version.

Get a Stereophile test cd2, or the better yet, the Rives test cd. Read the room acoustics basics on rives.com on how to measure the listening room(including the adjustment factor chart for the rat shack meter).
You basically play test tone cd, while reading volumes at the listening chair w/the meter. Each track has a different frequency recorded at the same volume. Chart your results on the graph you can print off rives.com.
What most rooms do is make the bass region way too loud at certain frequencies, vs. how it would be ideally. Speaker placement and room treatments address the problem. It's much easier than it sounds, and will probably shock you at how much your room affects your sound. Cheers,
Spencer
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