I've been fussing with the setup and it's starting to work more like before. Helps to have content that really shows off wild imaging effects too. I must have got lucky the first time because I just eyeballed the panel placements and angles and got a strong effect. This time I've had to play more with the angles by trial and error to get that wrap around soundstage wow effect.
This afternoon I was trying ambiophonics with the Alien Romulus film. It sounds very immersive. I set classical/ movie in Ambiophonics 1.2 DSP. Have you tried it with movies?
So what about the direct bounce ceiling to head? Guess I always have sufficiently treated (read: cluttered) side walls and especially back wall behind me, helped by large cushions or sound absorber/insulation boards. Floor bounce rug-reduced; ample front wall space behind speakers unless especially treated. OB needs ~1.5m reflection to save/enhance below-60hz bass, but my cardioid minimalist LX pairings can fit anywhere in my many tight office niches. (Example: high-clarity deep soundstage from wall-hung LX SB65/2.5x10" vintage IREL transmission line, mounted flat against 4cm-thick sound panel.)
Once you made sure the very high frequency above 10khz can even reach your ears and be heard consistently, then the fine-tuning for coherence really starts/starts to show.
Simple experiment I mentioned in my depth-peception thread that you might try: Optimze the stereo soundstage, then (instantaneously) cut out one channel; the stage width collapses to the still-playing speaker, but (in my experiment) depth is undiminished, in fact marginally enhanced, thus "proving" depth-perception is monophonic.
Contnuing to experiment with this sound bouncing arrangement I'm finding that I can get spectacular wrap around stereophonic effects without treating the ceiling after all. I took the hoods off the tweeters, and removed the panels behind me and added them to the side wall deflector arrays. So I'm pretty much only treating the opposite side bounce now, with a large angled surface on each side wall to bounce the sound back across the room toward the speaker .
My room is not set up ideally for imaging. The speakers are in the corners and not very moveable from there. They pretty much have to stay there. I'm surely not getting some of the depth effects a system like yours is getting. But I am getting some pretty cool special effects wich seem best suited to music like Tomita makes which seem to use HRTF stereo effects to get wild stuff to happen. It's pretty much surround sound with 2 speakers on that type of stuff.
Listening on just one speaker sounds pretty good but no depth to speak of. I think there are still too many clues that I'm in small room, even though I get a sense of spaciousness from the recording. It all sounds like it's happening in here, not coming through the walls from beyond. This is quite enjoyable for what it is.
Nice. What more can one ask? Bigger may be better if you have the fortitude. I could say the same thing about my two systems and a couple guitars I own ;')
