New Cain & Cain IM Ben Fostex/double horn - help

It's a combination of your speaker location and your listening position in the BIG problem called, your ROOM. As you mentioned, when you are against the wall (at a boundry) the problem goes away. So if possible, consider re-arranging your room so your listening position is AT the rear wall.
If rearrangement is possible, also consider placing the speakers across the 24' wall. If that is doable, start with bringing each speaker 6' from the side wall to the center of the driver. That will give you 12' between the speakers.
Locate them mid-way into the room and your listening location against the rear wall. Be sure your ears are ABOVE the back of the chair/sofa you are using.
Start there and move your head forward and backward and notice the difference in the soundstage and imaging. When you find the point that sounds best, place your seat so that you are AT that point when you sit naturally.
Also, play with the toe-in on the speakers. A $20 laser level is good for proper alignment there.
Do this with the Dakron stuffing removed from the Cains.
You'll know it when you find the magic spot!
There's more you can do with cheap tweaks to the room, but this will be a good start to "work with what you've got".
Good luck and let's hear back from you with the results?

Here is an update. After reading yours post and talking to Terry at Cain & Cain this is what I have done.

1) Changed my seating position as well as speaker placement.
I am now 14 feet back from the speakers and the rear wall is 1 foot behind me with Echo Buster wall treatments on the wall. The speaker is 4.5 feet from the front wall and 3 feet from the side walls. 90% of the mid-bass/midrange colorations are gone - like magic. Combination of now being far back away from the speaker and pulling them into the room more did the trick.

2) Replaced big dollar silver/copper speaker cable with Paul Speltz anti-cable. This was the single best improvement folks. Opened up the sound and the boxy personality is gone.

3) replaced cheap PBJ IC with Tara Labs Air 1
4) replaced EH 6ns7 Wright amp tubes with RCA NOS's

I am nearing the sound of my dreams with a SET system. I have Fostex HP soud reflectors coming in today. They are made to be placed in the mouth of the upper and lower horns. Terry says this will eliminate the remaining mid-bass/midrange colorations and peaking. I am placing 2 of these 6 inch discs in each horn. I also have a Cardas Lightning digital cable coming to replace my silver/copper one. Terry says that copper is far better throughout my system with these speakers. So far everything he has said is right and thus I move on in faith!

I will let you know how these new tweaks turn out.

Thanks for all your help Agoners. I am learning that larger horn speakers can be difficult to set up. With patience they can sound so good.

My sound is big, warm, full of body and so beautiful. The music flow effortlessly and just engages the listener.I find the treble energy very good and really dont feel the need for a supertweeter. Speaker cable is very important to this aspect of the sound. The Paul Speltz anti=cable is a must for Fostex horns folks. They cost me $40 new! Ha! Beat the sound of $800 cables by a long mile.

Bill

Bill,
Have you also tried the gain switch on your preamp? I don't know if yours works the same as on the Wright preamp that we had. Switching the gain down on our Wright WLA12 preamp worked much better in our room. With the gain up, our horns sounded 'overblown'.

Glad to hear this is coming together for you.
Regards,
Howard

I'm also glad it is working out for you Bill. I love the Fostex sound. I'm a true convert from multi-driver speakers and planars to the fostex. Too me there's nothing like a crossoverless speaker..when it comes to naturalness and timing in the music. The neutrality of these speakers are great too. They allow you to hear even the smallest changes made in a system.

Sometime when your feeling adventurous..try severely towing your speakers in. Tow them in to where they cross infront of you, instead of behind you.You will be surprised at how good they sound like this. It tighten up my soundstage but the soundstage remained the same size..unlike multi driver speakers. It also made the speakers completely disappear.

I also discovered using copper through out the system had positive effects. I don't use expensive hybrid cabling anymore.It isn't necessary with speakers like these.

After all most of the time the speaker's internal cabling is stranded copper anyway.

Enjoy!

Boa2, Yes, I use the low gain setting also. The Fostex HP sound reflectors work great. I put two of them in each lower bass horn and 2 in the top horns also. No need for Dakron and these dont deaden the sound like Dakron.

I also am running an Origin Live Ultra Kit turntable with modified rega 250 arm and Grado reference cart now. Starting in on LP's! Liking the SET sound so much guys.

Horns have been tamed and they are also alive with sound!

Bill