I sort-of have a dipole subs - SVS PC4000s - ports at the top, downfiring at the bottom. ;) -
I found these diffuser panels: they look fairly nice too
Which ones are the best for the situation (quads in a corner, subs behind them..
Dipole speakers, subwoofers and that rear wall
I own modern quad dipole speakers (2912s). I’ve heard many stories about speaker position, but never something that rang as fully logical to me. I can imagine 3 choices:
1/ dipole pretty much against the wall, maybe slight toe-in. The reflecting sound will come quickly after the straight sound and might cancel out the direct wave
2/ dipole far from corner (I hear quad recommends 1.5m). Reflections will amplify the sound?
Both statements feel like they’re incomplete. Surely the frequency, or frequencieS being played matter a lot if the reflected sound is in phase (amplifies) or in antiphase (attenuates) the direct sound. I can imagine perfecting positioning for one frequency and its modes, but not for 20-20,000 hz full spectrum.
3/ Close the rear of the dipole or have sound-absorbing material behind the speaker
The third one seems somewhat more logical, since I can’t imagine a sinewave that’s being attenuated by a reflected wave being accurately-sine-y unless the reflection is exactly in counterphase with the frequency played.
But on the other hand, if I have an actual instrument that is somewhat reminiscent of an actual dipole (e.g. a snare drum pointing upward) will have similar reflections on the rear wall.
I guess it "feels" true that you don’t want to stuff a musician in a corner too much but I’m not sure if this will negatively impact his sound?
As for the second part, a proper subwoofer moves quite a bit of air, can that air damage a dipole eletrostatic speaker?
Showing 4 responses by puntloos
@audition__audio - Ha, my challenge is that I’m fine with my quads stereo for music etc, no need for subwoofing - the situation that I’m thinking of is "loud" - movies at cinematic levls. 2912’s don’t go loud under say 100Hz, so I tend to cross over at that level. Ah, compromises, compromises. @onhwy61 - Ha, can you and audition_audio fight it out and tell me the conclusion? ;) At the end of the day I’ll probably just *try* it, but I’m not even sure what to listen for.. |
This is awesome discussion, thank you all. Just a few responses and keep it going ;). One thing I'll say about my Quad 2912's is that I have had many audiophile listening sessions with people bringing their own gear - sometimes outpricing them by miles, and in blind(ish) listening tests, people always positively picked out the quads. That doesn't *necessarily* mean they are better in the eyes of an engineer with a microphone and an analysis program (REW?) but somehow the result apparently is pleasing. I'd note though that my receiver has a bunch of 'fake surround' options that sometimes accidentally get turned on, and funnily enough they sound great, and if I then switch back to direct mode, it feels 'deflated'.. for a minute... and then I appreciate the non-warbly non-surroundy perfect stereo image of quads. Perhaps the same applies here. Perhaps the stereo image effects that dipoles excel at outweigh the downsides of the rear reflect?
My context is that I am building my own livingroom-and-home-cinema. Completely from scratch (newbuild house). Due to wife-acceptance-parameters I will likely have to keep my quads fairly close to the rear wall (ignoring toe-in, about a meter (3 ft)). Behind them I will put my SVS PC4000s (I have 2). Ha, I slightly worry that the soundwaves from subwoofers will hurt the mylar of the speakers.
Anyway, the weirdness for me is that if e.g. we have a single kick drum shot. Bang. If we have 10ms delay before the reflection comes through, does that then sound 'babang'? Is 'bbang' not preferable'? Either way most people seem to agree I should probably put damping material behind my speaker so I'll do that. |