1st Post Intro & Ramblings

Hate to tell you, but nothing there conflicts with anything I’ve said. So its a complete lack of logic. See, all we said was symmetry for imaging. Which is true. Focal even says "the loudspeakers should be positioned symmetrically". So its like you either don’t know what I said, or don’t know what Focal said- or both. For the record, I said nothing about any of these other things (toe, walls) that will make imaging even better. You leapt to that conclusion yourself.

Wow, indeed.

What? All of them? Can you name even one with instructions that conflict with this? No. You can't. You just thought it would be smart to act like you know something, when you don't.  

Listen, I know a lot of people still haven't figured this out. Its not news to me. Nor is it new that people continue to believe BS simply because a lot of other people believe the same BS. Its why we have the word sheeple. 

Figure it out. Until you do, enjoy your status, #28.

Timing will be "aligned" as long as the two speakers are equal distance to the ears. There really is no other alignment. Most of it is a balancing act between direct/reflected, and shadowing function of the head to the other ear. The first heavily impacted by speaker and room, the second by speaker, and angle.

This is correct. More people should know this. Save a huge amount of time. Unbelievable amount of time. One particularly clueless individual thinks there is just no way speakers can be set up in 10 minutes.  

Reality check. Those who follow my posts will know this. I'm at CES, yes the Consumer Electronics Show. Vendor pass, Talon Audio room. They are just not getting the sound they want. Full hour at least tweaking this way, tweaking that. Sounds good but the image just isn't "locked in". Was my first time there so trying to fly on the wall it until it gets to where they are out of ideas and ready for anything from anyone.

Do you have a tape measure? Yes. Do you have a string or something we can use for a straight line? Yes. So we stretch the string, put the speakers on that line, measure to the middle of the string, run another one at 90 degrees, double-check speakers are equidistant from that point. Done. Not even 10 minutes. Beautiful imaging. Everyone happy.

Done it many times, many different systems, many different rooms. It just ain't that hard folks.  

Yeah. Its no contest. What's really funny, for all the arguments around here (among audiophiles!) what things matter and what people can hear, in my experience its like your friend, they hear these things easily and obviously. Every single time.  Some stuff is hard to hear, sure. But in my experience everything I hear that seems big enough to matter, they hear it too. 

The other thing is the importance of setup. The co-workers system was set up in like half an hour. Speaker position was like 10 min. Most of which time was enjoying the results. Tape measure, framing square, tweak toe. Rock solid imaging. Done.  

A little knowledge goes a long way!

A friend at work came over one day she wanted a stereo for her husband for his birthday, what can we do? So I got her requirements and room info, got everything together, brought it all over and set it up so when he came home it was a total surprise.

Next thing you know the guy is calling me up all excited. In his business he goes to a lot of homes, guys with systems are always showing them off to impress, and this sounds better than ANY of them including ones he knows cost a small fortune... so how much did the wife spend???

$2500.

"Really? I thought at least $5k for sure." He can't believe it. But its true. A little knowledge goes a long way. And yeah, it is gratifying.

The most satisfying and really enjoyable systems I ever heard were the ones I built for friends and family where the total budget was $1200 to $2500. These were complete systems- power cords, interconnects, speaker cables, Cones under everything- just budgeted to their price point. One of them was set up in my listening room to burn in for a few weeks, and was so much fun to listen to that all during that time the main system wasn't even used. Had friends and co-workers over, all absolutely amazed at what $1200 could do. When you know what you're doing. 

This site could totally use some more budget-minded posters. Welcome.