Matchstikman: I just checked things out playing the same recording set to the same volume level. The mains are spread appr 12.5' apart ( center to center ) and toe'd in a bit. While this is not ideal for two channel reproduction with these specific speakers, this is my HT system and i have things dialed in for optimum use with a large ( two eight's, dome mid, dome tweeter ) center channel. As such, i need to spread the mains out just a bit more than normal, which also results in a very wide soundstage with excellent center fill due to the center channel taking over on movies. Even with this wide of placement and the center turned off for standard "stereophonic reproduction", imaging and soundstage is quite acceptable. Since I was using the system in 2 channel mode via the mains only when i made the above comments, that is how i measured it.
Ambient noise level in the room is below 50 dB's, which is as low as i can measure. At my seated listening position and the meter just behind where my head would normally be, I am hitting peaks of 108 - 110 db's sitting 10' away from the speakers. The average level of the recording is easily 20 - 30 dB's ( and sometimes much lower ) than this. As such, there is a great deal of dynamic contrast as the tempo and volume changes during this specific performance. This is a very exciting Classical performance, even for a "rocker" like me : )
For those that are "playing along", i'm using a stock Realistic 33-2050 analogue SPL meter. It was set to the "C" weighting and fast response. I also have a highly modified version of the same meter that is much more linear in response ( and would have shown higher peaks ), but i used the stock RS meter so that others with such units might be able to do a more direct comparison. Sean
>
