Hello,
Last weekend I attended the 6th Annual RMAF in Denver. I made the rounds at the Show and spent a considerable amount of time at Soundings. Rod had open house in the evenings, and it was a nice place to have a show break on Saturday afternoon. The store was not affected by the power outage that shut down the show for awhile, though the lights did flicker.
It was good to finally hear a professional Master Set in a nice listening room. The speakers were the Vienna Acoustics Die Musik's that Rod had at the show last year. These speakers have quite a few adjusting screws to get the fine tuning down perfect. After all the show sound and getting somewhat tone deaf by noon, it was really nice to hear distortion free music and relax.
I picked up Rod's latest "blurb" on Master Set, and there are some things I'd like to share here on this thread.
Master Set is an extension of the work done by Sumiko that they developed into MASTERS, an acronym for Modal Acoustic Simplified Training Electronic Retail Specialist.
Master Set works with the understanding that we hear sound based on a pressure change on our eardrums and NOT the distance we are from the speakers. The idea is to place both speakers so that each one pressurizes each of your ears with the exact same volume at the exact same time. When this is done, you have a single source of sound to the ears and the elimination of the small phase distortions from the two speakers being set so that the sound from each pressurizes each ear at slightly different times and volumes.
I also learned that I have been using the WRONG set up disc for the past year. The version of Ballad of a Runaway Horse on the Famous Blue Raincoat reissue is not the correct version of the song to use for Master Set. You want the version from Rob Wasserman's DUETS. I have just this morning re-done my Master Set with the correct set up disc and can confirm that it is much easier to hear the needed sounds, especially in the bass line. And when you move the second speaker out to match the anchor, the voice line really centers up well.
There is only one new addition I found in the setup steps, and that is at the very first, while setting the anchor speaker just turn the other speaker, the one against the wall, about 45 degrees away.
Oh, just one more thing. I have often been asked about Master Set with dipoles, electrostats, and the like. So I specifically asked Rod if he had done a Master Set on any of these types of speakers. And his answer was the his Third Master Set was on a pair of Martin-Logan electrostats. So, yes, Master Set does work with speakers other than forward firing cone speakers in a box.
Enjoy Your Master Set
