3-Dimensional Soundstage

I am of the mind that "time alignment" is very important for the best 3D image.

I had been working on a replacement pair of speakers for my JBL L200/300s that would do justice to the female voice and developed the "Mermans" that use JBL 2241H (18"), JBL 2251J (9.5") and the ESS Great Heil. The crossovers use Audyn Q4 caps, heavy gauge air core chokes, and high wattage, Dale 1% resistors.

At first it was a matter of getting everything to play nice together. Then it was a matter of getting a smooth flat frequency response in the room, and I wasn’t getting it from the Heil.

So I made modifications to the Heil, and Carlos Santana’s amplifier jumped out into the room infront of the other instruments. It just happened! The RTA shows that the modification filled in a dip in the 3-8kHz range vasting increasing the "order of the crossover" and this is where the detail lies! Further modifications, and the soundstage and imaging are like anything I’ve ever heard at any price. And I have one-off, Altec Big Red Supers (triamped), LS3/5As, JBL L200/300s, and L112s), as well as have been to shows and showrooms (Magico, Focal, etc.) so I’ve heard some decent stuff. My source is an Oppo95 through a Yamaha RX-Z9 RECEIVER in "Pure Direct" mode. I use no eq or room correction, electronic or physical and the room is ~5,000 cubic feet. I can play clean to concert levels and believe that you need a certain amount of volume (i.e., loudness) to envelope you for proper imaging.

And, the other day one of the gents from AudioKarma came by for a listen. He has Altec 604 Hollywoods, ADS, and ???). On the first track (equipment not even warm), he said this was nothing like he’s experienced and he just heard a $100,000+ system with $40K monoblocks. He said he was going to have to re-assess everything.

BTW, I am in Orange County, CA, and anyone is welcome to come by and experience this for themself.

Yesterday I was listening to Billie Jean and even though this (Thriller) was one of the first CDs I got with my first CD player, I was suprised when yesterday I heard how 3D this actually is with the latest mods.

Michael sings to the center and his little vocal "fills" seem to have been done in a different sound booth and are typically about 1-2 feet to the side and in front of the main vocal line, but can pop up anywhere across the room.

Until you hear such soundstage/imaging, you just don't know what's possible. 

"More critically, the BACCH filter doesn’t introduce any coloration to the signal."

Not supported from the videos presented here.

Additionally, if the primary intent is to remove crosstalk, why do they recommend it for headphones where crosstalk is not an issue, and why shouldn’t one just buy the best headphones out there for far less $$$?

"For the alleged added "coloration" ... Read Dr. Choueiri explanation... There is no added coloration and this is why the BACCH filters innovate compared to other crosstalk cancellation dsp ...If the BACCH filters could add coloration they will not be an acoustic revolution but a more or less  useless tool just a toy ..."

But I can certainly hear a difference in mihorn videos, so there is added (rather subtracted) coloration on my monitor regardless of the good Dr's explanation.

Hey, I know of someone who insists he won a major election and figures that if he says it often enough, people will believe it even if not true, whether he believes it or not.