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Imaging Problem: Blinding Flash of the Obvious

I've lived in my current house for two years now. I've always had problems with the imaging being consistently off-center to the right. I have tried speaker placement until the cows come home.

Tonight, I had a BFO (Blinding Flash of the Obvious): my ceiling is sloped from left (10' height at the left wall) to right (8' height at right wall). Duh!

So here's my problem. I live in military housing, so I can't level out the ceiling. I could use room treatments, but since I'll move next year or so I'd like not to spend large sums of money on room treatments that may or may not be helpful to me after the next 14 months or so.

I could *try* moving the whole setup (both 2-channel and HT) to the long wall, but 1) my wife may not like it; and 2) the long wall has our windows on it, so dust would blow on the components when I open the windows, not to mention the light problems for watching TV during the day.

Any ideas on how to fix this imaging problem cheaply?
aggielaw
ozz
17 posts
 
Greetings, i have used foam from wallmart or any other department store and wrapped material around it. You can leave it flat or rolled to your needs.
Also, have you tried setting your speakers up by finding the center point of your room dividing the width in half and placing your speakers that distance from your seating position at 45 deg. You should end up with your speakers in an arc. Everything should be relative to room size and this should take care of imaging
gregm
3,405 posts
 
A slight variation on Ozz. Try placing spkrs at an angle to their back wall, bringing the right one (where the ceiling is 8) further out. Reposition your sitting area accordingly (it'll move to the left and will be slightly angled, accordingly).
Bring the spkrs parallel to each other at the optimum distance b/ween them (i.e. where they couple best -- which you obviously know by now). Then start toeing in by degree (i.e. very little) until you get acceptable imaging w/out bringing the highs too forward -- or any other phase pbs.

Hopefully that would help. Of course, IF slightly repositioning the sitting area is acceptable! Suggest you clear the matter first with the General (i.e. what many of us call the wife):)
rhljazz
1,253 posts
 
Not likely your problem. My ceiling height is 8 ft on the left side and 11.5 ft on the right and I have a perfect center image. A bigger detriment would be if you have an opening on one side wall and not the other. If all connections are correct, I would suspect you have a channel level imbalance. Try swapping channels and speakers and see if it shifts to the other side.
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