Speaker sounds better alone

[Makk]

Hey all,
I have LM3886 chip amplifier and Mar-Kel70 speakers. My music source is a laptop. I have built my Mar-Kel70's couple years ago and I have been satisfied. Now I started to veneer them only because I want them to be veneered istead of painted. I do one speaker firts and then second because I want to listen to the music and radio while I do the job. I'm not 100% sure but I think my "set" sound better now with other speaker unplugged Especially the bass seems to be more accurate and less boomy. I tried both channels of the amplifier and I can not hear difference. Has anybody any idea what would be going on? I thought music would sound worse with one speaker compared to two.

 

[Kjeldsen]

Have you checked polarity with both speakers playing. If polarity is wrong you will have thin bass between speakers and boomy bass if you walk to either side of the speakers.

The soundstage will also be very diffuse.

You should also check that all effects are off on your laptops soundcard

 

[IG81]

Check the polarity of the connections between amp and speakers, that could account for weirdness in the bass if one of the two was reversed. Other than that, rooms with odd configurations can be more susceptible to speaker placement, try another overall layout scheme if the previous solution fails, assuming this can apply here.

Outside of an actual problem, I find that a single fullrange driver in mono can sound quite wonderful.

IG

 

[Scottmoose]

Often better than two on a mono recording, that's for sure.

 

[Jay]

One channel sounds better than 2 channels? Poor power supply can do that.

 

[Melo theory]

It has to do with the head related transfer function. 1 speaker will always sound better because there is no phantom image. But then you give up wide spatial imaging.
I suggest you read into ambiophonics, ambisonics, matrix stereo and trinaural, that is if you haven't already.

 

[norman bates]

melo is right. I played around with ambiophonics and since then, I could not listen to a stereo pair of speakers, the voice was a large blob and hazy (and quieter) compared to a barrier.

But full range drivers can center image better than even 6db time aligned speakers probably due to less highs splashing off walls to confuse imaging (sound from right speaker hitting left wall then your ears).

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I've not gotten into the dsp end of ambio, but maybe someday......

Your bass is off ?
yea, probably 1 driver is out of phase.


Any resolution on this ?



Norman

 

[Makk]

I checked connections and spekers were not out of phase. I think it is maybe this room which makes it happen. I think I have finished my first veneering by tuesday and then I'm able to listen again. I've been thinking of buying cheap DAC and I've been looking NuForce AirDAC. Now I realized that because my system don't have preamp is it possible to plug that kind of DAC straight to amplifier or does it need to be "Headphone DAC?" AirDAC says RCA Output: 1.6 - 2.1Vrms.