speakers that are a little laid back in the mids


I'm just curious what full range speaker people have found where the mids, voices etc are not so up front. I have had my share of speakers and some I considered to be very good but over time seem to be on top of you. Not necessarily harsh however. My room is 13 x 16 and I have used tubes and ss.

dpm2340

Showing 2 responses by immatthewj

So how far were the fronts of the speakers from the wall?

@soix , do you subscribe to any rules of thumb on that subject, with untreated walls?

The reason I ask is that when I posted my ’B Stock Revels’ thread, some of the feed back I received included a link from @james633 , which was a link to a guide from Genelec related to positioning monitors, and it was suggesting the faces of the speakers being max 25" off the untreated all; I believe the rationale was due to interactions with the reflections coming off of that wall, but I’d have to look at the article again as this stuff is not second nature to me.

Anyway, I am not asking because I want to argue with your input, I am genuinely interested in your opinion on this matter.

And I have positioned them both ways, but I didn’t want to get into my impressions just yet.

 

 

Thanks, @soix , I appreciate constructive input from all legitimate sources.  The room I presently have my gear in (and I don't see moving to another room any time soon) is significantly smaller than yours, so I am trying to maximize speaker placement for near field listening.

I did have the face of the speakers probably around 3' from the wall, and what it did "right" (by my perceptions) was that the speakers did actually "disappear"  and although I am sure it was not accurate, what I particular noticed was the auditory illusion of the side walls "disappearing."  And with certain tracks on certain SACDs, I found the vertical sound stage to be incredible--right on top of me at times (as I typed, I am sure it was not accurate, but I enjoyed it).   (All that typed, I always listen in the dark with my glasses off and my eyes closed.)  What I didn't like is that  with certain CDs, is that it didn't take much volume for a trebley ringing sound over head that I could only mitigate by turning volume down or putting on a different CD.  I attribute that to the CD combined with the room.

I moved the speakers back to the front face being 24" from wall, per that guide from Genelec, and that did mitigate the ringing sound and the side walls and the speakers still disappeared, but front to back got smaller and I no longer got that "right over my head sound" on certain tracks of certain SACDs.

So thanks again for your input and I am going to go back to playing around with a few things, including speaker positioning.  I am kind of moody, and for what seems like an extended period, I haven't been in a listening mood, but I am about to start up again.