M3 Turbo S (Or Any OB Speakers) Placement Questions

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James Edward

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M3 Turbo S (Or Any OB Speakers) Placement Questions
« on: 17 Jun 2020, 10:25 pm »
I'm finding the mids/lower mids 'congested' for lack of a better word. Since OB speakers don't conform to 'normal' postioning, I'm looking for placement guidelines. Sidewall distance, does the rear wall affect mids, etc.
They are in a domestic living room environment, so before I begin moving everything around, I'd like some guidelines. I sent a request to Spatial, but I guess it went into the circular file.
Thanks...

loki7177

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Re: M3 Turbo S (Or Any OB Speakers) Placement Questions
« Reply #1 on: 18 Jun 2020, 12:42 pm »

ric

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Re: M3 Turbo S (Or Any OB Speakers) Placement Questions
« Reply #2 on: 18 Jun 2020, 01:38 pm »
As you may know, I ended up replacing the 6.8uf, 68uf, and the resistor in my Turbo S' crossover with the (cheaper) Jupiter caps and Path Audio resistor. No more congestion. Placement may help, but you may want to consider upgrading. Good luck!

Jean-Paul

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Re: M3 Turbo S (Or Any OB Speakers) Placement Questions
« Reply #3 on: 22 Jun 2020, 02:34 am »
To be honest, I don't find my Spatial Audio M4 TurboS to sound anywhere near its potential until I have them at least SIX FEET (!) from the wall behind the speaker. In fact, I find eight feet is much better than six. I can't say I notice any lower-midrange congestion when placed like this, although I can feel the baffle vibrating quite noticeably. At eight feet, the imagery is easily the best I've heard from any speaker, and I also own some expensive competitors. At three feet, this imagery vanishes. Also, at eight feet, the resolution is also far and away the best I've heard; you can hear individual violins in a string section, for example, and amazing reproduction of ambience, reverb tails. My only gripe with the M4 is the aggressiveness they can have with bright recordings. The top can just about take your head off (figuratively speaking!) at times. I'd imagine the new generation of SA speakers attempts to remedy this. But forget about them anywhere remotely close to the wall behind.

ric

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Re: M3 Turbo S (Or Any OB Speakers) Placement Questions
« Reply #4 on: 22 Jun 2020, 01:33 pm »
On my upgraded M3TS I ended up using L-pads to take a dB or two of the tweeters. Did not notice any degradation in sound quality.

paolocaminiti

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Re: M3 Turbo S (Or Any OB Speakers) Placement Questions
« Reply #5 on: 23 Jun 2020, 06:58 pm »
For me putting concrete slates 40x40x2 cm under each speaker made a huge difference in cleaning up the sound and making everything more easy to follow, so I suppose midrange was affected the most, as well as taking some floor resonance out of the equation. But this would be very dependent on your floor I suppose.

Regarding the brightness, I had it until I took the step to replace amplifier cable and fuse with copper only ones. Also changing interconnects to dnm xlr worked a great deal. Final step in this direction was to add a schiit freya+, now with rca nos tubes the system is even too rolled off - just installed a pair of psvane cv181-mkII and the everything is sounding right, real muscles on the bass and non offending highs. 

Archguy

Re: M3 Turbo S (Or Any OB Speakers) Placement Questions
« Reply #6 on: 10 Sep 2020, 07:05 am »
To be honest, I don't find my Spatial Audio M4 TurboS to sound anywhere near its potential until I have them at least SIX FEET (!) from the wall behind the speaker. In fact, I find eight feet is much better than six. I can't say I notice any lower-midrange congestion when placed like this, although I can feel the baffle vibrating quite noticeably. At eight feet, the imagery is easily the best I've heard from any speaker, and I also own some expensive competitors. At three feet, this imagery vanishes. Also, at eight feet, the resolution is also far and away the best I've heard; you can hear individual violins in a string section, for example, and amazing reproduction of ambience, reverb tails.

Well, this is sobering.  I've always been fascinated by OBs and Spatials in particular but even though my main listening room is sizable I don't think it's going to be big enough.  Even six (not eight) feet out, and another six (or eight) to your listening spot, and then (ideally) another six or eight behind you to prevent unpleasant reflections, and you have eighteen feet for what may be the short room dimension. 

RolandButcher

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Re: M3 Turbo S (Or Any OB Speakers) Placement Questions
« Reply #7 on: 10 Sep 2020, 12:21 pm »
This is the primary challenge with OBs for me - having a listening room than can accommodate proper placement away from the wall.     

Rushca01

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Re: M3 Turbo S (Or Any OB Speakers) Placement Questions
« Reply #8 on: 10 Sep 2020, 01:10 pm »
It’s interesting the OB speakers are supposed to “take the room out of the equation” but placing them this far from the wall just makes it nearly impractical unless you have a dedicated space.  I would have to move mine out every time to listen to them.

ric

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Re: M3 Turbo S (Or Any OB Speakers) Placement Questions
« Reply #9 on: 10 Sep 2020, 01:17 pm »
Don't forget, as Clayton said, (paraphrasing) practically all speakers sound best 3' or so, out from side and back walls. This is fairly normal for any floorstander. Mine are about 3' out both directions, so were my Dunlavy's, just goes with the territory.

Jean-Paul

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Re: M3 Turbo S (Or Any OB Speakers) Placement Questions
« Reply #10 on: 11 Sep 2020, 02:28 am »
Well, I seem to be rather extreme in my view about correct speaker placement. Most users seem to be happy at distances much closer to the wall but I wonder if they've actually tried them at the eight feet from the wall that I advocate. When I place my M4 Turbo S at three feet they lose most of the qualities I find makes them stand out from the crowd. They lose much of the astonishing imagery they have at eight feet; in addition,  they sound really peaky by comparison. My Apogee Stage dipoles also sound horrible at three feet so it may be an artifact of my particular room. If you want to hear what your speaker is capable of, nearfield listening is mandatory. At 12 feet you're introducing all sorts of room-derived anomalies into the fundamental sound of the speaker.

gnatster

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Re: M3 Turbo S (Or Any OB Speakers) Placement Questions
« Reply #11 on: 11 Sep 2020, 04:34 pm »
Eight feet from the front wall would place my M3T’s flush against the back wall. Some of us have to work in smaller spaces. 33” from the front wall has worked well for me in my space.

Jean-Paul

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Re: M3 Turbo S (Or Any OB Speakers) Placement Questions
« Reply #12 on: 14 Sep 2020, 02:12 am »
Which is why large listening rooms are much more capable of demonstrating just what your speakers can do. Small rooms are a major compromise.

opnly bafld

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Re: M3 Turbo S (Or Any OB Speakers) Placement Questions
« Reply #13 on: 14 Sep 2020, 02:32 am »
5 1/2 ft or more is best with dipole speakers.

mrotino332

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Re: M3 Turbo S (Or Any OB Speakers) Placement Questions
« Reply #14 on: 14 Sep 2020, 12:41 pm »
I have my X5s 4 1/2 feet from my front wall and I've found that it is the sweetspot for my room which is 23 feet long but only 12 feet wide.  I've tried them up to 8 feet out from the front wall and heard no perceivable difference in sound or bass response so I've kept them at 4 1/2 feet.  The X5's also have an adjustable bass amp so I guess if you had to place them closer to the front wall you could adjust the bass amp to your liking which unfortunately cannot be done with the passive models.  I know Dan Sachs in his review of the X5s had them less than three feet from the front wall and absolutely loved the sound of the speakers so it seems the distance depends on the room and listener preference.

opnly bafld

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Re: M3 Turbo S (Or Any OB Speakers) Placement Questions
« Reply #15 on: 14 Sep 2020, 01:15 pm »
Distance from the wall has to do with reflected sound, if the wall is heavily treated you can place them closer, but you lose one of the things I like most about OB/dipole.
Late arrival reflections that IMO/E makes for a more lively sound.

mrotino332

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Re: M3 Turbo S (Or Any OB Speakers) Placement Questions
« Reply #16 on: 14 Sep 2020, 03:50 pm »
I will experiment again with placement and try them at six feet as I had done that early on when I received the speakers.  I do have the front wall heavily treated with diffusion with bass traps in the front corners so maybe that is why I didn't hear any difference.  But since I have room length (my basement) I will experiment again sometime soon.

Archguy

Re: M3 Turbo S (Or Any OB Speakers) Placement Questions
« Reply #17 on: 29 Sep 2020, 03:26 am »
Mr Holt Hill over at AK also has his dipoles out eight feet.  I'm thinking a number of you guys live in airplane hangars.  Which I'd love to do, frankly, though climate control might be an issue. 



The QUAD panels look so nifty.  Trouble is, nearly every pair I see for sale is on its way to the  service center or just returned.  Sorry for waylaying the thread a bit.