Yes, I'm still tinkering with the speaker / room placement and, now, speaker selection. Since the last post I've moved the system from long-wall to short-wall and, now, back to long-wall. It seems that the long-wall produces a more coherent mid-range while the bass issues are largely mitigated due to a growing set of bass traps including the cumulative effect of a lounge / bass traps reducing the rear wall reflection. My guess, though, is that once I get a dedicated chair (without a high back) then it might be back to the short-wall.
More recent effects have focused on optimising the near-field set-up. I was apprehensive about the need for this set-up but now see it as offering a different perspective on recordings. The set-up has involved a set of subtle changes to speaker height which have re-enforced the importance of having the tweeter exactly at listening height for this type of set-up. I've also played with a range of listening geometries with distance between speakers range from 75 to 125% of the distance from the speaker to chair. The "audio physic" set-up was beguiling but, ultimately, I've moved back to an equilateral triangle as it seems to work best across the widest set of musical styles.
Speaker selection is, now, on my mind as the current sealed MTM speakers sitting on-top of dual, isobaric, woofers being an imposing site in the near-field set-up. I have, then, borrowed some smaller ported MT speakers that use the same line of mid/tweeter drivers but which are much less imposing. The comparison was interesting. My existing MTM units provide a very large soundstage with tonnes of details and work well for good recordings whereas the MT units in comparison have a more natural soundstage and are more forgiving on poor recordings. I know that more listening is required but my current conclusion is that whilst the MTM worked well in the standard (10-12ft to speaker) set-up it might just be too much of a good thing in the near-field.
I'd be grateful to hear from folks with experience in near-field set-ups as to the speaker designs that work well. Some people talk of driver integration as being critical but I've not found at issue with the MTM units and note that quite a few professional monitors (e.g., Harbeth, Yamaha) use off-set bass, mid-range and tweeter units in a single large cabinet. My interest, right now, is more on the design criteria rather than specific speakers as I'm thinking that I'd build a unit that would work with my active cross-over as well as match my woofers.
Regards
Zydeco
