Hello Again Everyone,
Interesting reading here, as I've been gone the past few days. It seems that I have let the Genie out of the bottle.
Dave Stephens is the one who, without knowing it, gave the clue last December that allowed me to get a perfect Master Set done. This so imbued me with confidence that I wrote up things as I did with the feeling that anyone can do this if I describe it perfectly.
But I see now that I have to "tweak" some things up.
First, I have a distinct advantage in that I have heard Master Set that was set by a real pro, and so I always knew where the journey should end up. And after numerous trials, I indeed knew when I "got it". This is a HUGE advantage over blindly going thru the Master Set steps and hoping for something magical to happen. The difference between "getting it" and being close is tricky. And if that wasn't enough, there is, or can be, great difficulty in hearing "that which is to be heard" while doing the Master Set steps.
So, I'll try to revisit a few things.
I like the binoculars adjustment comparison so I'll correlate to that.
Step 1, adjusting the two lenses to one head to get a single image.
This is the beginning step of having the speakers against the wall spead apart. You want the speakers as far apart as reasonable, maintain a solid centered mono image, and still have them 3 feet or more from a side wall. This all depends on room dimensions and such. While this hasn't come up in any discussion, I didn't really go over this in my writing. Keep the speakers out from the sidewall(s) at all costs. Listening to a mono recording here can help, if you have difficulty.
Step 2, adjusting the fixed lens.
This is setting the "anchor". One thing that I haven't gotten into is "The Dead Zone", that the anchor speaker is set in. This is the area where the sound all seems to come from the one speaker with both speakers playing. My descriptions just go to finding the beginning of this area, and then to the smoothest bass spot. But it might be a good idea to move the speaker out a few inches and find where the sound recouples with the speaker against the wall and moves to the center. This is the outer limit of "The Dead Zone". This area is only a few inches, 5 or 6 or so. The most crucial part of setting the anchor speaker is that it be in this dead zone where the anchor is decoupled from the wall and the speaker up close to it. I wish I knew the physics of the dead zone, rather than this one effect, but I tend to think that this may be a very crucial part in why MS works so well.
In the Dead Zone, there are supposed to be 5 or 6 bass nodes, and these are what you are trying to find in order to smooth out the bass as best as possible. I found it plenty hard to find just one spot, let alone search for more. I think that's for more "advanced" times. But it all happens in the Dead Zone. It's easy to find the limits, and hard to find the spot(s). Oh, and I must add here, that only when the anchor speaker is in the Dead Zone, can the other speaker be disconnected.
BTW, I've mentioned making very small movements. When you focus binoculars you are adjusting with a constant turning adjusting lever. You can't really do that with moving a speaker, and every movement doesn't produce a difference. But it is important to keep movement small, though that does add a bit of tedium to the process. I learned the hard way about making large movements, and have mentioned that.
Also, I might note that most conventional setup methods have the speakers out into the room farther than the Dead Zone. And one of my very first thoughts at seeing a Master Set setup was that the speakers, VA Mahlers which are quite large, were quite close to the wall, and very close to the WAF flower pot zone.
Step 3, adjusting the adjustable lens.
This is getting the second speaker out from the wall to it's final setting.
Dave was good to note that in most rooms this second speaker will be out from the wall fairly close to the distance that the anchor speaker is. It's only in the irregular rooms that I seem to have that there is really much difference. For the most part, people tend to have the speakers somewhat symetrically set in the room, giving things a "centered" look. Thus each speaker is going to be pressurizing a fairly similar amount of space, and it all may end up looking nearly indistinguishable from a previous set, although likely a bit closer in to the wall than before perhaps.
I think I have previously described the difficulties in finding the matching spot for this speaker. Listen ONLY to the bass line, as the vocal line will just follow along.
Further points:
I have described MS as being good because it eliminates the sweet spot, and makes the sound virtually the same throughout the room. Being able to equally pressurize the room so that the sound is virtually the same everywhere is one way to check if you have the matching speaker in the proper place. If the sound moves when you move, there is NOT equal sound pressure everywhere in the room.
I can understand that this may not be seen as just a novelty and not anything to get excited about to a number of folks. If you only listen by yourself most of the time, and sit in the same seat, and adjust for good sound in that one spot, other listening spots don't really matter. Yup, all true.
However, equal sound throughout the room is generally a good thing at a concert venue, and there is no reason for it not to be so in your personal concert venue listening room.
Also, I have described MS as being good because it removes the interspeaker distortions and phase cancellations, in other words, better sound. Ya well, anyone who's played with moving their speakers just so, already has "better sound". And as everyone knows, it's all a bit on the subjective side. Yup, all true.
All I can sum up with is that when Master Set has been done well, it's a very satisfying way to listen to music, and to me, the best way.
One more thing to add is that when you have a well done Master Set that eliminates the distortions between the speakers you are also able to listen louder, listen longer, and never have listener fatigue.
