Do you guys subscribe to Cardas math for speaker distance from front wall?

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vinyl_guy

Laura,

At what stage pulling away from wall did Rod apply toe in to the anchor?

Rod set the toe in of the anchor as part of finding the right location from the front wall. He had me sit on the couch in a position that would approximate an audiophile sweet spot and he adjusted toe in until the point where I could just begin to see the entire inside wall of the speaker cabinet. He had Jake & I confirm an identical toe in postion for the right speaker. After he set the right speaker, he made very minor adjustments to the toe in of both speakers after listening to several peices of music and just before he adjusted the rake angle.

Laura

stvnharr

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Hello,
Nice to read Laura and Jake's writeups, following comments, and, as ever, the comments of the
Court Jesters.
Master Set is the best way to have speakers set up that I have come across, and I've done just about everything.  Despite some comments, there's really no magic involved here.  It's just that when the second speaker was introduced into the mix about 50 years or so ago, there wasn't much thought about where it should be placed with respect to the other speaker.  So, it was a free field of play where everyone was right and able to come up with whatever, and call it good.  And as with anything else, 40-50 years of reinforcement have set in place a great many perceptions as to what it going on with the two speakers.

Anyway, as I've often written, hearing is believing, and now a couple more people have heard, and have an understanding of what it's all about.

Steve

macrojack

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This is just a cult right now, with all of the cultish fervor and recruitment techniques that we have observed with the Moonies and the Scientologists. Be careful though, if you get a few more believers signed up and recruiting for you, you will have a full blown religion on your hands and you won't be able to talk about it on AC.

stvnharr

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This is just a cult right now, with all of the cultish fervor and recruitment techniques that we have observed with the Moonies and the Scientologists. Be careful though, if you get a few more believers signed up and recruiting for you, you will have a full blown religion on your hands and you won't be able to talk about it on AC.

Just curious, but why do you spend your time posting here, and it's not just in this Circle either, about something you find as irrelevant and nonsensical?  You're not really funny, hilarious, insightful, witty, or knowledgeable. 

macrojack

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Trying to lend a little sanity to counter your vanity and inanity. The forum is the place where we share opinions. Sometimes opinions differ. Some opinions are very difficult to reconcile. I personally think that the whole Master Set movement is nonsense. It is being sold like Amway.
Nothing has been verified. No matter how many people say they saw the UFO, I'm still going to have difficulty accepting their claims without a photo or something.
A better question might be, "What the hell fuels your evangelism?" Why are you so hairtrigger about nipping dissent in the bud?
Intelligent people can find good reason to be skeptical about your approach to force feeding your pet miracle into every conversation. Have you noticed that you're in a room treatment Circle?

Why do you get your dander up whenever someone says something other than "Amen!"?

vinyl_guy

Btw, Laura, I'm really glad that you got so much out of the experience. Your description of what took place in your room was easy to understand and totally believable. I especially liked the part about what the back wall does to embrace the sound. It mirrors my experience exactly, master set or no master set. 

I would like to expand just a little bit on this part :

Does your optometrist ever get the process whittled down to two lenses, and then you can't decide which one you prefer? "Yes I can see the difference between those two lenses, but I can't tell you which one I prefer." Sometimes they both look right to me, just slightly different.

Speaker placement is that way for me.

Quiet Earth,

Thanks for your comments about my post. I wanted to give folks a feel for the process and try to describe what I heard.

The lens thing you describe seems to happen everytime I go in for my two year check up. I end up going back and forth and as you state, they both look right, just slightly different. When I finally have to pick one, all I can do is trust my eyes at that point in time. My old speaker placement wasn't bad, I was enjoying my music then. It's just that the Master Set position is clearly better to my ears and apparently to Jake's and Rod's too. While going back is always an option, I have no reason to do so.

Laura

Daedalus Audio

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Trying to lend a little sanity to counter your vanity and inanity. The forum is the place where we share opinions. Sometimes opinions differ. Some opinions are very difficult to reconcile. I personally think that the whole Master Set movement is nonsense. It is being sold like Amway.
Nothing has been verified. No matter how many people say they saw the UFO, I'm still going to have difficulty accepting their claims without a photo or something.
A better question might be, "What the hell fuels your evangelism?" Why are you so hairtrigger about nipping dissent in the bud?
Intelligent people can find good reason to be skeptical about your approach to force feeding your pet miracle into every conversation. Have you noticed that you're in a room treatment Circle?

Why do you get your dander up whenever someone says something other than "Amen!"?

MJ, I don't know you or you posting history, but please can the sarcasm and offer your "differing opinion". Skepticism and dissent are good, let's hear it. Snarky comments don't qualify as intelligent, just childish.
The only person I know in this thread is Laura, and she is NOT one to be taken in by 'snake oil'. So again I ask you, offer us an intelligent and thoughtful opinion, I am interested.

lou

stvnharr

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Trying to lend a little sanity to counter your vanity and inanity. The forum is the place where we share opinions. Sometimes opinions differ. Some opinions are very difficult to reconcile. I personally think that the whole Master Set movement is nonsense. It is being sold like Amway.
Nothing has been verified. No matter how many people say they saw the UFO, I'm still going to have difficulty accepting their claims without a photo or something.
A better question might be, "What the hell fuels your evangelism?" Why are you so hairtrigger about nipping dissent in the bud?
Intelligent people can find good reason to be skeptical about your approach to force feeding your pet miracle into every conversation. Have you noticed that you're in a room treatment Circle?

Why do you get your dander up whenever someone says something other than "Amen!"?

MJ,
Okay, you've shared one opinion:
"On the other hand, I should explain my initial comment. If you have room correction, equalization and an electronic crossover, you can move the balance of your speakers' response all over the room. It is especially easy if you have something directional like horns.
Boundaries are then much less of a concern and you won't need so many band aids (room treatments)." from post #220.
Other than that, total sarcasm of just about everything.

And BTW, who's dander gets up at the very mention of Master Set?  You were right on top of the comments today after Laura and Jake's postings.
Why are you SO concerned?  Why does it bother YOU so much?
And if you are so concerned at the drift of the thread, why didn't you respond at the very first post, way back when, that the topic should not be in the Acoustics Circle?

If people other than me happen to like speakers set up with Master Set, why do you feel so threatened by this?

Lighten up a bit.

Steve
« Last Edit: 16 Feb 2010, 10:29 pm by stvnharr »

macrojack

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O.K. Looks like I wandered into the wrong party. Have fun.

Quiet Earth

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I have no misgivings with the master set concept. I'm standing here waving the master set banner in the spirit that I might refine the good results that I'm already getting in my home. I like the boundary reinforcement concept and I don't worry too much about things like the first reflection point or narrow baffles. I like to experiment and then live with the results for a while before I make up my mind. This is a fun hobby!  :thumb:

I have to say in all honesty though, that I don't like the part about master set where we have to accept there is only one guy on the planet that "gets it", and if we also want to be so "enlightened" then we must pony up $500 or 5 percent. This is where I really have to drop the ball. I don't want to suggest that a service call isn't worth a fee, but rather that I feel insulted by the notion that I'm not smart enough to "get it" myself. The idea that you can tease me with a few descriptive starters, but only one guy on the globe can finish the job is hardly in the spirit of a public forum for friendship and learning.

I have the time, the patients, and the desire to keep learning. This is my favorite hobby and I have been enjoying it for over thirty years. This is a place to share ideas, not peddle insecurity. The way that master set is explained (not by Laura, but by some of you) peddles insecurity. And it seems to do so for ulterior motive. That's just plain wrong.

Yes, I know.  The counterpoint to my uneducated and ill-willed statement has to be something like "Golly gee, it's too bad for poor unenlightened you. You have never heard the unobtainium-by-self result, (nor can you ever until we show you), so you can not comment on that which you know nothing about." Fair enough and par for the course.

Surely master set does not have to be this way. Please, make it not so.

jimdgoulding

The speakers are very close to the rear and side walls.  Reflection (used to be shining a light in a mirror was in indication of waveform behavior from side walls) and/or pressurization has a cause and effect relationship to what we hear.  I’m all for getting more of the latter so long as I don’t get too much of the former. And moving your speakers out incrementally from the wall behind makes perfect sense to integrating things.  But, when speakers are too close to boundaries it will be additive and, I dare say, measurable.  It will elevate the lowest frequencies up.  This will add weight and fullness and sensation.  The bass drum whack that pressurized the room (of course, it did, predictably I think). . but did it pressurize the hall in which the recording was made the same way?   I listen to a lot of onsite recordings.  Having my speakers out further from the walls allows freedom to instruments to appear/sound more separated out and palpably dimensional in space and the venue or space expand out beyond my speakers and sometimes room boundaries (in a truthful kind of way, it seems to me, and is important to me).  Where my speakers sit I don’t sacrifice tone or impact or sensation, either.  More about that in a minute.  Were I to place my speakers as Laura has in my room, I know what would happen.  I would gain some things (described), but would fidelity to the source be one of them?  Here's where I get skeptical.  It might be helpful to know that this isn’t my first set of speakers or listening room.

Geddes wrote that sitting in the near field you listen more into a recording, you are more you there.  Listening in the far field and the musicians are more here, in the room (which is why I have my chair on rails- I’m kidding).  To onsite recordings, I typically will listen nearer the plane of my speaks and will adjust the volume to give me what I believe is the most realism.  On studio recordings I listen mostly loud and scoot back a ways and this will add some density to images and as the space or ambience is generally artificially created anyway I don’t concern myself much with this.  Don’t think I would have as much flexibility or neutrality with my speakers placed as Laura’s.   The effect of my room would dominate too much.  I look to include my room in a supporting role and integrate it with live and/or onsite classical and jazz recordings. 

I think MS is creating its own sensational sound and ya’ll just like it better.  Don’t we somehow gravitate to new in this hobby?  And all the techno speak helps make it more palatable to our intellect and differentiates its progenitor.  It looks like how we would have placed our speakers when we were novices except that little jig thing (think that’s the difference?). 

Regrettably, I can't find those excellent pictures of ModWright's listening room here on AC (wish I could) because that looks palatable to my intellect, what's left of it.  And to my longtime sensibilities.  But I know ya'll are havin fun.  Cheers.

Laura- Empirical evidence?  In our hobby?
 
« Last Edit: 15 Feb 2010, 06:21 am by jimdgoulding »

Rob Babcock

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Everyone, please settle down.  We sometimes don't agree, but there's no need to ridicule anyone.  Keep it civil.

jimdgoulding

Everyone, please settle down.  We sometimes don't agree, but there's no need to ridicule anyone.  Keep it civil.
Robby-  Oh my, if that was caused by me, or if any of my fellows here think I mean ridicule, then I apologize.  I don't mean that at all.  I'm just being creative and stimulating of more thought.  Tryin anyways.
« Last Edit: 15 Feb 2010, 04:54 am by jimdgoulding »

Dave G

Quote from: jimgoulding
I can't find those excellent pictures of ModWright's listening room here on AC

Here they are!

Dave

jimdgoulding

Dave-  Thank you, bro.  I generally sit closer.  Bout where that blue coffee cup is, give or take. 

Daedalus Audio

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just stating the obvious but some speaker systems react differently with the room than others. from what I glean so far the MS concept is not so much imposing set rules on a room/system as it is matching the system to the room.  btw,  my speakers have always been noted for 'throwing' sound, ie: the best seat is further than usual from the speakers, also they can do well in some rooms closer to the walls than one would expect. the bottom line though is the integration in the room, the two rooms mentioned here are perfect examples. both Laura and Dan's rooms are large, both sound great and yet have very different speaker placements that work. one size doesn't fit all.

 again to me the real point is integration of the system and room. this years RMAF was a prefect example of the effect of a room, we had two rooms with almost identical gear. one was a large room with the large Daedalus speaker the other a small room with the small version speaker. they sounded very , very different, yet when you place these models in the same room they are very close in sound. the room made them almost sound like speakers form two companies! I wish I'd had the MS guys there helping!

I'm glad that people are exploring placement in rooms and sharing the knowledge. as for it being elite, I don't get that impression, everyone apears to be open and sharing what they know , some people have practiced and trained themselves to set up rooms and I see no reason they shouldn't be compensated for their time and expertise. that they are freely sharing their knowledge is admirable, and those of us who feel we can learn and experiment should do so.
thanks, lou

JakeJ

I have no misgivings with the master set concept. I'm standing here waving the master set banner in the spirit that I might refine the good results that I'm already getting in my home. I like the boundary reinforcement concept and I don't worry too much about things like the first reflection point or narrow baffles. I like to experiment and then live with the results for a while before I make up my mind. This is a fun hobby!  :thumb:

I have to say in all honesty though, that I don't like the part about master set where we have to accept there is only one guy on the planet that "gets it", and if we also want to be so "enlightened" then we must pony up $500 or 5 percent. This is where I really have to drop the ball. I don't want to suggest that a service call isn't worth a fee, but rather that I feel insulted by the notion that I'm not smart enough to "get it" myself. The idea that you can tease me with a few descriptive starters, but only one guy on the globe can finish the job is hardly in the spirit of a public forum for friendship and learning.

I have the time, the patients, and the desire to keep learning. This is my favorite hobby and I have been enjoying it for over thirty years. This is a place to share ideas, not peddle insecurity. The way that master set is explained (not by Laura, but by some of you) peddles insecurity. And it seems to do so for ulterior motive. That's just plain wrong.

Yes, I know.  The counterpoint to my uneducated and ill-willed statement has to be something like "Golly gee, it's too bad for poor unenlightened you. You have never heard the unobtainium-by-self result, (nor can you ever until we show you), so you can not comment on that which you know nothing about." Fair enough and par for the course.

Surely master set does not have to be this way. Please, make it not so.

QE,

I absolutely believe anyone can learn to do Master Set.  My reason for attending Laura's placement by Rod was specifically to see it done because there has yet to be posted a step-by-step instruction set for learning it.  To give further background to Rod's experience he told us he started with a four day intensive learning class and then it still took him several tries and some support phone calls to "get it".  He has been doing Master Sets for 15 years and has been successful everytime.  He hasn't had to refund a fee once.

It is my primary goal to learn this for myself but not to go into business doing it.

The speakers are very close to the rear and side walls.  Reflection (used to be shining a light in a mirror was in indication of waveform behavior from side walls) and/or pressurization has a cause and effect relationship to what we hear.  I’m all for getting more of the latter so long as I don’t get too much of the former. And moving your speakers out incrementally from the wall behind makes perfect sense to integrating things.  But, when speakers are too close to boundaries it will be additive and, I dare say, measurable.  It will elevate the lowest frequencies up.  This will add weight and fullness and sensation.  The bass drum whack that pressurized the room (of course, it did, predictably I think). . but did it pressurize the hall in which the recording was made the same way?   I listen to a lot of onsite recordings.  Having my speakers out further from the walls allows freedom to instruments to appear/sound more separated out and palpably dimensional in space and the venue or space expand out beyond my speakers and sometimes room boundaries (in a truthful kind of way, it seems to me, and is important to me).  Where my speakers sit I don’t sacrifice tone or impact or sensation, either.  More about that in a minute.  Were I to place my speakers as Laura has in my room, I know what would happen.  I would gain some things (described), but would fidelity to the source be one of them?  Here's where I get skeptical.  It might be helpful to know that this isn’t my first set of speakers or listening room.

Geddes wrote that sitting in the near field you listen more into a recording, you are more you there.  Listening in the far field and the musicians are more here, in the room (which is why I have my chair on rails- I’m kidding).  To onsite recordings, I typically will listen nearer the plane of my speaks and will adjust the volume to give me what I believe is the most realism.  On studio recordings I listen mostly loud and scoot back a ways and this will add some density to images and as the space or ambience is generally artificially created anyway I don’t concern myself much with this.  Don’t think I would have as much flexibility or neutrality with my speakers placed as Laura’s.   The effect of my room would dominate too much.  I look to include my room in a supporting role and integrate it with live and/or onsite classical and jazz recordings. 

I think MS is creating its own sensational sound and ya’ll just like it better.  Don’t we somehow gravitate to new in this hobby?  And all the techno speak helps make it more palatable to our intellect and differentiates its progenitor.  It looks like how we would have placed our speakers when we were novices except that little jig thing (think that’s the difference?). 

Regrettably, I can't find those excellent pictures of ModWright's listening room here on AC (wish I could) because that looks palatable to my intellect, what's left of it.  And to my longtime sensibilities.  But I know ya'll are havin fun.  Cheers.

Laura- Empirical evidence?  In our hobby?

I think you've hit the nail on the head, Jim.  The Cardas method, whether near-field or not, is one speaker/room acoustic presentation and Master Set is a different speaker/room acoustic presentation.  Neither is "right" or "wrong", just markedly different.  I have heard systems that successfully removed the room from the equation and presented a wonderfully 3D presentation with instruments appearing to come from locations that defied common sense and the speakers disappeared.  I have never been successful in my home with it so I thought I'd try an approach that includes the room in the equation primarily due to so many people that have added room treatment and stated that the room is part of the system.  This exactly what Master Set espouses but as Rod explained room treatment is not always the answer or even necessary in some cases.

It sure would be interesting to see a drawing of a top-down view of Dan's room as it looks like the speakers are closer to the corners in relation to the size of the room than I have typically experienced.

And last, isn't empirical evidence that which is observed directly?

just stating the obvious but some speaker systems react differently with the room than others. from what I glean so far the MS concept is not so much imposing set rules on a room/system as it is matching the system to the room.  btw,  my speakers have always been noted for 'throwing' sound, ie: the best seat is further than usual from the speakers, also they can do well in some rooms closer to the walls than one would expect. the bottom line though is the integration in the room, the two rooms mentioned here are perfect examples. both Laura and Dan's rooms are large, both sound great and yet have very different speaker placements that work. one size doesn't fit all.

again to me the real point is integration of the system and room. this years RMAF was a prefect example of the effect of a room, we had two rooms with almost identical gear. one was a large room with the large Daedalus speaker the other a small room with the small version speaker. they sounded very , very different, yet when you place these models in the same room they are very close in sound. the room made them almost sound like speakers form two companies! I wish I'd had the MS guys there helping!

I'm glad that people are exploring placement in rooms and sharing the knowledge. as for it being elite, I don't get that impression, everyone apears to be open and sharing what they know , some people have practiced and trained themselves to set up rooms and I see no reason they shouldn't be compensated for their time and expertise. that they are freely sharing their knowledge is admirable, and those of us who feel we can learn and experiment should do so.

thanks, lou

Bingo!  Very well stated.

Quiet Earth

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as for it being elite, I don't get that impression

 :scratch: I need to get my eyes checked.  :scratch:

 I'll go sit in the corner with MJ.  :surrender:

max190

Laura,
Did your depth of field and sounds that appear to the outside of your spkrs change for the better after MS?

jimdgoulding

Hey Jake-  Hi.  I, too, think the room is a component of the system as well as speaker placement if that wasn't clear.  This will determine the amount of room gain and quality of imaging we get.  I'm not pure Cardas* but nearer that than MS as I understand it and for reasons you have experienced and described so aptly.  I want images to populate the front end of my room wherever they want to and to have a life of their own and be incandescent.  And they do.

In the second picture of Dan's room it appears to me that the speakers are out a good ways from the front wall.  Looks to me that the listening position is about mid way into the room.  My guess is that he is getting good loading from the front end of his room.  Loading that's kind to frequency response and imaging.  I'd likely put the speakers a little nearer together thinking that they would disappear even more and allow a stage to develop freer of speaker position and freer of walls.  And I would sit nearer but mindful of the fact that it is a tall speaker with multiple drivers.  I like a wall of sound but I also like a hall of sound depending on the recording.  Just want to give a recording as much freedom as I can.  I use the room, too, with this in mind.

Right on, empirical is what you observe but begats the question to me as compared to what?  I've been in a lot of venues and sat at different distances from the stage.  The memory of this is my reference point.  High fidelity to me means truth to the source.  And that would include the setting for on location recordings.  Our rooms and speaker placement are a source themselves and I just want mine to be in service to the event.  So, I use speaker placement and room loading pretty discreetly.   

You and Laura should get a hold of a copy of Rachmaninoff's Symphonic Dances with The Dallas Symphony.  The CD is dryer and more staid than the vinyl version in my system, so I would recommend the latter.  I believe this is available on a pressing made in Europe.  Toni Rambold would know.  The reason I am recommending this will be obvious to you on first listen (turn it up!).  I think the dynamics will be served very nicely by Laura's MS placement.  There is not much depth of field on this recording so it should all be upside.

* my speaks are nearer the front wall than Laura had hers and my room is a bunch smaller.  Laura's room is so large things may have sounded a little threadbare where she had them.  But, I'm sure they don't now and I expect that is a compelling virtue of her new placement.