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Small Discrepancies in Speaker Placement

So, of course, after a hard day’s work, I had nothing better to do than futz around with speaker placement. After some trial and error, I found that my speakers (JA Pulsars non-graphene) work best when pointed straight ahead with no toe-in. When placing them, I inadvertently put the left speaker about 1/2" closer to the side wall than the right speaker. They were previously exactly the same distance from each side wall. With this new, slightly unequal placement, the speakers completely disappear. This was confirmed by my wife who, without any prompting, told me that the music now seems to be coming from out of nowhere, whereas it was directional previously. I can’t explain this phenomenon ... does 1/2" really make that much of a difference? HEY, turn off your dirty minds. wink Any opinions would be welcome. Thanks.
rlb61
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lonemountain
439 posts
 

@rlb61- thank you for posting this.  Placement can be completely critical and small differences in horizontal or vertical placement can yield major differences in performance.  You have figured out exactly the way to do it -just change the placement around until you find the magic one.  

When  I visit recording studios this is exactly the same principle.  Stands (often ignored) can also make a huge difference. 

Brad

rlb61 OP
781 posts
 

@lonemountain ... as I said previously, it was a happy accident. I had been so indoctrinated with the concept that all measurements had to be exact. I never thought that an ostensible mistake would be a solution.

newbee
4,767 posts
 

Did you futz with the cables? The change in sound could well be ’out of phase’ caused by the reversal of one set of cables to your speakers. If you return them to the original placement does the sound change back to ’directional?

Another thing to check - put on a recording which has a solo voice. Does the image sit centered between the speakers, or has it spread out to the rooms corners with little voice left dead center? If so you have inadvertently reversed phase in one speaker. 

rlb61 OP
781 posts
 

@newbee ... nope, never touched the cables and everything is in phase with a strong center image.

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lonemountain
439 posts
 

@rlb61

Acoustics is a black art!  I've run in to many other situations similar to this one.  

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