Think your vinyl is sounding a bit off? Move your speakers!

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Wayner

Yes, I had another revelation. I thought the system was sounding a tad off, then I changed the toe-in angle to be a little less agressive. Oh my god, did things ever change. I just flattened out the angle a few degrees and we have a completely new sound. I do listen in "near field", but I'll bet others could play with speaker position, and may notice quite an improvement!

Wayner

Listens2tubes

Re: Think your vinyl is sounding a bit off? Move your speakers!
« Reply #1 on: 30 Aug 2009, 03:00 am »
For many years I had my speakers toed in to have the signal converge just behind the listening position. Then about a year ago I had a group of friends over and the speaker designer of the bunch toed them in more to converge just in front of my nose. A couple weeks ago I decided to straighten them with only a slight angle. The result is an even wider soundstage with no change in center imaging. Next I moved my chair back and forth to acheive better focus. 

JackD201

Re: Think your vinyl is sounding a bit off? Move your speakers!
« Reply #2 on: 30 Aug 2009, 07:05 am »
Speakers these days often have great off-axis response. As a result many do well with a lot less toe-in without sacrificing center fill. Toe-in however has become a habit of sorts. It's great that this thread was put up. Hopefully it will encourage more people to experiment with speaker placement. Heck, why not? Who can resist potentially better sound for free???!!!!

jrtrent

  • Jr. Member
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Re: Think your vinyl is sounding a bit off? Move your speakers!
« Reply #3 on: 30 Aug 2009, 02:22 pm »
Speaker position can be fun to play with.  Colonel Klipsch recommended speakers be placed in the corners along the long wall and toed in at 45 degrees.  He also recommended a mono center channel with separate volume control.  By varying the relative amplitude of the center channel, you can collapse the soundstage for an intimate jazz trio or open it up for a full orchestra.  I could get similar results by sliding my lightweight Vandersteen 1C's into different positions depending on the type of music I was playing or the frequency/soundstage effect I wanted for that particular recording.  Eventually, I found a compromise placement that sounded pretty good to me for just about anything I cared to listen to, and at that point decided to mount up the bases and spikes, which gave a nice increase to resolution and dynamics.  Of course, it's not so easy on the carpet to be continually piercing new holes in it all the time, so I pretty much leave it alone now.

TjMV3

Re: Think your vinyl is sounding a bit off? Move your speakers!
« Reply #4 on: 30 Aug 2009, 02:30 pm »
Fiddling with speaker placement (distance between speakers,  toe-in,  no toe-in,  only a miniscule toe-in and so forth) makes a huge difference.

Fddling with distance from backwall and sidewalls,  will also make some nice improvements.

Every one of our rooms are different.  All of our rooms have different demensions,  acoustics and angles.  So the results will always vary.

Another significant point to remember.  If at all possible in your own individual rooms and setups......Always make sure that the front baffle of your front speakers are placed ahead of any furniture or TV that may reside between them.  Even if by only a quarter inch or half inch (because of limited space)

And/or any furniture that may be placed to their immediate outside left and right sides. 

Or else you will get immediate reflections off of your TV,  gear cabinet or whatever piece of furniture resides there; which will screw up the sound presentation before the sound waves even make it to your ears.

And here's another little experiment I did.

I bought a bunch of these .......self-adhesive Waxman Grippers.....

http://www.lowes.com/lowes/lkn?action=productDetail&productId=54359-255-4739495N&lpage=none

I cut them into one or two inch pieces,  peeled the protective paper off the adhesive side and carefully placed the adhesive side together;  to make a thicker pad.

Then I placed one each under the front spikes (Front spikes only or front of floorstanders only) of my floorstanders (you can use a penny or dime under the spike and on top of the little gripper pad;  to prevent puncture).  Or if you have those brass spike coasters,  depending on the thickness;  you want to use just one gripper pad.  As opposed to sticking two together.

I found that by lifting the front of my Jamo speakers just a 1/4 inch or a little over a 1/4" ........the soundstage became even bigger than it already was.   Wider and more enveloping.

The bass response also seemed more powerful.

But,  lifting the front up to a 1/2" or more.........compressed the bass down and made it seem like the bass was be squeezed out of a little vent; while expanding the midrange even larger.  Didn't like that.

Different speakers,  diffferent rooms ...may offer different results.  But you'll immediately notice some differences.

Whether you perceive the changes as improvements;  is an individual preference as well reliant of your room and speakers.

I also found that by using these.....

http://www.lowes.com/lowes/lkn?action=productDetail&productId=54433-255-4750095N&lpage=none

.....under all four corners of bookshelf speakers that may reside on some shelf,  cabinet or speaker stands;  it really smoothed out the sound and cut down on the effects of footfalls or vibrations coming from the floor and furniture. 

Again,  I peeled the protective paper off the adhesive side and carefully placed the adhesive sides together;  to make one thicker pad.   I used whole pads (stuck together) on my bigger Jamo C803 bookshelf speakers.  And cut them down a little for a pair of smaller bookshelf speakers I have.


Basically,  I made four thick pads (one neatly placed under each of the four corners on my speakers).


It made a very nice improvement in all cases.

Other's may find that heavier bookshelf speakers require a three stack of these stuck together grippers.  Speakers weighing less,  maybe only one pad thickness will be required. 

I also use these under DVD Players,  a Turntable,  CD Players and Pre Amps.  They work well.  And it's a relatively inexpensive tweek to try. 


Oh,  and another thing.

Have a component with cheap footers?  Or maybe a component whose rubber footers are a bit worn out or dried out? Or maybe you want avoid scratching or marking a piece of furniture with the footers of your gear?

Try these 1 1/2" grippers....

http://www.lowes.com/lowes/lkn?action=productDetail&productId=54257-255-4738495N&lpage=none

They come eight to a pack and you can stack/adhesive two on top of each other for a nice thick cushion,  for your components.

They work very well.

Inexpensive and easy.

Wayner

Re: Think your vinyl is sounding a bit off? Move your speakers!
« Reply #5 on: 30 Aug 2009, 05:44 pm »
These speakers (Dynaco A25XLs modified) are in my studio, where I listen to all of my vinyl in near field. I just think I got use to a spot, but didn't realize more potential by moving them a bit.

Wayner