Hello,
I'm working on a powered 2.1 speaker that will be used in a dorm room, so most listening will be off axis.
With that in mind, my thinking is that mounting the L&R speakers with 'toe in' would yield a better stereo effect since the listener would become more on axis with the opposite channel and less on axis with the near channel as you get off center. The attached pic is kind of what I have in mind.
Is this correct or would it be better to mount them on a flat plane or with 'toe out'? Any help on this would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you,
Steve
I'm working on a powered 2.1 speaker that will be used in a dorm room, so most listening will be off axis.
With that in mind, my thinking is that mounting the L&R speakers with 'toe in' would yield a better stereo effect since the listener would become more on axis with the opposite channel and less on axis with the near channel as you get off center. The attached pic is kind of what I have in mind.
Is this correct or would it be better to mount them on a flat plane or with 'toe out'? Any help on this would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you,
Steve
Attachments
A lot would depend on how far off axis the listener might be. If more than120 deg then I would toe out. If less than 120 deg then toe in may work better. This assumes that the speaker drivers are somewhat directional.
Thank you very much drewmc.
Yes, they are rather directional and sound best when 10-30 deg off axis. Since 120 deg off axis would be nearly impossible (with it backed against a wall), I should be good to go.
Yes, they are rather directional and sound best when 10-30 deg off axis. Since 120 deg off axis would be nearly impossible (with it backed against a wall), I should be good to go.
Max Headroom - ok, then would a pillar design with the L&R stacked and say 15 deg off center opposite eachother be a better solution? Or should the L&R be side-by-side with toe-in or toe-out?
I'd be tempted to experiment. Possibly large toe out and use reflection off side walls to widen soundstage
Wonder how Harry F. Olson's 1963 idea would work in practice? - it would add needless cabinet volume, create some cavity effects (sounds like my friend the Karlson 😀)
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US3105113
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Kudos!
I made an almost similar "cabinet stereo" set (12V car stereo and two 4" fullranges) and was disappointed of sound quality in farfield. The reason is comb filtering of speakers some 20" apart. It makes midrange very unpleasant and stereo imaging is zero.
Rather, use the cabinet volume just for bass with a single 6.5 or 8" dedicated subwoofer driver. Then add perhaps two 2" fullranges in upper corners or preferrably just one 2-3" in the middle in mono.
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Consider this three speaker element concept:
http://elias.altervista.org/html/SingleSpeakerStereo.html
the stereo effect works quite nicely in a smallish room and since it has strong mono element to it i think it will work just fine outdoors as well.
I bought some vifa tc9 small fullrangers to do different kinds of speaker prototypes just for fun. One day made a mini karlsonator and then I noticed there is just enough room in the box to put the sidefiring drivers into the main cavity to test out the single enclosure stereo concept with it. Been listening to it every day as TV "soundbar" and for background music and it works just fine 🙂 I've got plans to make it to a boombox some day with additional bass driver with proper enclosure what ever that might be.
Before anyone gets excited there is a down side to the Elias' impedance matrix with boomboxes: class D amps won't work. DSP and three channels of power amps would do it though.
http://elias.altervista.org/html/SingleSpeakerStereo.html
the stereo effect works quite nicely in a smallish room and since it has strong mono element to it i think it will work just fine outdoors as well.
I bought some vifa tc9 small fullrangers to do different kinds of speaker prototypes just for fun. One day made a mini karlsonator and then I noticed there is just enough room in the box to put the sidefiring drivers into the main cavity to test out the single enclosure stereo concept with it. Been listening to it every day as TV "soundbar" and for background music and it works just fine 🙂 I've got plans to make it to a boombox some day with additional bass driver with proper enclosure what ever that might be.
Before anyone gets excited there is a down side to the Elias' impedance matrix with boomboxes: class D amps won't work. DSP and three channels of power amps would do it though.
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GDO – I’ve considered it, but the person who this is for already has a mono powered speaker and is looking for an all in one stereo option.
Juhazi – A couple of years ago, I built a soundbar for my television (see attachement) using Vifa TC9FD 3.5 inchers and it sounded horrible. The 48” long front baffle beamed incredibly and the stereo imaging was almost non-existant. The only way that it sounded somewhat decent was when I placed a wadded up fleece blanket or 4” thick home insulation over the middle to breakup what the front baffle was creating.
tmuikku – I too use Vifa TC9s as my primary TV watching setup, but backed up with a processed Tang Band W8-740p in a 15 liter sealed enclosure. Those Vifas are just so easy on the ears.
My current television audio setup is what gave me the encouragement to go forward with this boombox idea. The 3.5s reside behind cloth door covers in the console below the television. They are angled roughly 5 deg up, 10 deg toe in and only have about 36” between the driver cones. Unless you are against the back wall of the room, you can sit just about anywhere in the room and still get a full width soundstage and imaging.
My hope is that the curve created by the 5 angled panels will breakup any front baffle effect that the soundbar had. If not, I may insert a vertical partition in the center panel and mount the amp in it vertically. There would be sound absorption material between the speakers and the partition to minimize reflections.
I guess I will have to build a test box just to see if this design has any merit.
Juhazi – A couple of years ago, I built a soundbar for my television (see attachement) using Vifa TC9FD 3.5 inchers and it sounded horrible. The 48” long front baffle beamed incredibly and the stereo imaging was almost non-existant. The only way that it sounded somewhat decent was when I placed a wadded up fleece blanket or 4” thick home insulation over the middle to breakup what the front baffle was creating.
tmuikku – I too use Vifa TC9s as my primary TV watching setup, but backed up with a processed Tang Band W8-740p in a 15 liter sealed enclosure. Those Vifas are just so easy on the ears.
My current television audio setup is what gave me the encouragement to go forward with this boombox idea. The 3.5s reside behind cloth door covers in the console below the television. They are angled roughly 5 deg up, 10 deg toe in and only have about 36” between the driver cones. Unless you are against the back wall of the room, you can sit just about anywhere in the room and still get a full width soundstage and imaging.
My hope is that the curve created by the 5 angled panels will breakup any front baffle effect that the soundbar had. If not, I may insert a vertical partition in the center panel and mount the amp in it vertically. There would be sound absorption material between the speakers and the partition to minimize reflections.
I guess I will have to build a test box just to see if this design has any merit.
Attachments
You could trial an AV center speaker (W-T-W) cabinet standing vertically and fed a mono signal to see how that sound works out for you...IME for general BGM listening this can work out quite well.
Dan.
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