I'll be honest in that I don't know enough about room acoustics to completely diss it, but it does seem akin to homeopathy...
Bill, it's not about room acoustics.
It is about the two speakers positions relative to each other. Remember, that is all the guy did in the stereophile article you linked.
It is about the two speakers positions relative to each other. Remember, that is all the guy did in the stereophile article you linked.
I think the whole Wilson speaker placement thing was about giving the dealers something to do, or adding some mystique to the whole thing.
If the placement is that sensitive, I’d venture it was a suboptimal design. Look at the dozens of speaker brand on/off axis plots in Stereophile- mostly you have a decent window laterally and vertically to enjoy the sound.
If you spend a few tens of grand on a speaker system and it gets installed to within an inch of requirements, what happens if you move your head 4 inches either way?
If the placement is that sensitive, I’d venture it was a suboptimal design. Look at the dozens of speaker brand on/off axis plots in Stereophile- mostly you have a decent window laterally and vertically to enjoy the sound.
If you spend a few tens of grand on a speaker system and it gets installed to within an inch of requirements, what happens if you move your head 4 inches either way?
There is also the similar "master set speaker placement" which seems primarily to be about smoothing out bass response.
The optimized speaker speaker placement methods, Wilson, Stirling Trayle's original Sumiko method, and Master Set are all pretty much the same thing.
It's all about placing the speakers in an area of least effect from room boundaries, optimizing the bass and perfect summation of the two speakers so as to be a single sound source.
Wilson has been doing the setups since the mid 1990's. Stirling developed his method in the 90's and began the Sumiko seminars for dealers then. Master Set evolved from one particular Sumiko dealer about 20 years ago.
People who have speakers set in any of these ways have no complaints and never move their speakers, myself included.
The net result of these methods is an increased area for listening position so that one does not have to have the impossible immovable head position when listening to music.
It's all about placing the speakers in an area of least effect from room boundaries, optimizing the bass and perfect summation of the two speakers so as to be a single sound source.
Wilson has been doing the setups since the mid 1990's. Stirling developed his method in the 90's and began the Sumiko seminars for dealers then. Master Set evolved from one particular Sumiko dealer about 20 years ago.
People who have speakers set in any of these ways have no complaints and never move their speakers, myself included.
The net result of these methods is an increased area for listening position so that one does not have to have the impossible immovable head position when listening to music.
Remember, the Wilson guy fiddled around for an hour to find the magic 1/4 inch.
Nobody said it was a huge difference, but it was a difference nonetheless.
Do you think he would have bothered to do that if was all unnecessary?
Nobody said it was a huge difference, but it was a difference nonetheless.
Do you think he would have bothered to do that if was all unnecessary?
Skeptical people may believe that any "improvement" after the 1/4 inch adjustment, was 5% perceptual and 95% expectation bias. If an expert performed an hour long adjustment, then the sound MUST have improved.
I can't say for sure 1/4" makes a large difference but I did have a large loudspeaker array that moving it 1" made a huge difference. That single inch while hanging it in place lifted it nicely off my foot! To me that was a huge difference. (Did have to fire the guy who dropped it there. That also was a huge relief!)
In the spirit of recent posts, I have to wonder if this question should be taken rhetorically.
The idea implied by this, that "your head must be within 1/4 inch of this position to get maximum reproduction/enjoyment," seems quite rigid and would take away from enjoyment rather than adding to it.
But if it's truly that critical (as in there are people willing to pay for it), put the speakers on some x-y tables so their distances can be adjusted as the "main listener" moves his or her head a few inches.
Instead of replying to me, perhaps you should ask the people at Wilson Audio. The review was of their speaker. They sent the guy out to make sure the speaker was set up properly.
Nothing at all to give a pride of ownership I was just intrigued if there was anything in it from those experienced in the art.
After my third scotch my head is flopping to one side. No amount of speaker position optimization will fix that.
I suspect it's mostly about bass, which makes sense when you're stuck with two full range speaker, the rest is a compromise. A common factor seems to be "loading the room evenly"